simplehuman 45L Rectangular Step Can review
The liner pocket is genuinely the best solution to bag fit anyone sells. The catch is that it only works if you keep buying simplehuman's liners.
By Ryder M. · Last reviewed September 27, 2026
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What it is and who it suits
A 45-liter stainless or plastic-bodied step can with a steel pedal rated at 150,000 steps, a damped lid, and a slot inside the body that stores and dispenses the next liner. It suits anyone whose specific complaints about their current can are the bag and the noise.
It is the best-selling premium kitchen can in the US and the one every competitor is positioned against, which is why we have also compared it directly against Brabantia, Kohler, EKO and Joseph Joseph. It ranks first in our kitchen roundup, and this page is the longer version of why — including the parts that should give you pause.
| # | Product | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  simplehuman 45L Rectangular Step Can with Liner PocketThe kitchen can that solves bag fit properly, with a pedal rated for 150,000 steps and a liner pocket that ends the hunt for the box under the sink. | Best overall |
The specification
| Capacity | 45 liters / 11.9 US gallons |
| Liner code | Code Q |
| Pedal rating | 150,000 steps (manufacturer figure) |
| Lid | Damped soft-close (Lid Shox) |
| Body | Brushed stainless steel, or dent-proof plastic |
| Inner bucket | None — liner pocket instead |
| Odor control | Optional Odorsorb pod clips under the lid |
One figure there is genuinely unusual: no inner bucket. Most cans hold the bag in a removable plastic liner bucket, which costs you volume and gives you another thing to wash. simplehuman dispenses with it and holds the bag by the rim, which is why a 45-liter simplehuman feels bigger inside than a 50-liter can with a bucket.
The mechanism in use
The pedal is steel on a steel linkage and it is the reason the published cycle figure is plausible. In use the thing you notice is not the pedal, though, it is the damper: the lid rises at a normal speed and comes down over about a second and a half with no noise at all. If you have lived with a can that cracks shut, that is the difference you will notice on day one and every day after.
The liner pocket is a slot inside the body that holds a roll of liners. Pull the full bag out and the next one comes with it, already positioned. It sounds like a trivial convenience and it is not — the reason bags get left out of cans is that the box is under the sink behind the cleaning products, and this removes that step entirely.
Bag fit, which is the actual selling point
simplehuman publishes a code letter for every can it makes and sells liners cut to that code. A Code Q liner in a Code Q can sits flush at the rim with no overhang and does not slide down the inside. That is not a small thing: bag overhang is the single most-complained-about feature of the entire product category and nobody else has solved it as cleanly. Why the problem exists at all · what fits what.
Where it falls short
The liners are a permanent running cost, and they are the product. A Code Q liner costs several times what a supermarket 13-gallon bag costs. You can run the can on generic bags — it physically works — but then you have paid a premium for a liner pocket and a code system you are not using, and the bag will overhang like any other. Do the arithmetic on a year of liners before you buy, not after.
Brushed stainless shows every fingerprint, particularly the oily shadow that builds around the pedal and the lid edge. If the can sits somewhere visible, the plastic-bodied version or a fingerprint-resistant finish is the better choice, and nobody will point that out in a showroom.
No inner bucket is a genuine trade, not a pure win. More usable volume, yes. But when a bag leaks — and eventually one does — the mess is on the inside of the can itself rather than in a bucket you can lift out and hose down. Cleaning it properly is a slightly bigger job than on a bucket can.
And the obvious one: the price. This is several times the cost of a perfectly functional can. What you are buying is a damped lid, a steel linkage and a liner system. If none of those three is a problem you currently have, this is not the can to buy, and we would rather say so. The cost-per-year question in full.
Two alternatives worth considering
The Kohler K-20940 is the closest thing to this can that runs on standard supermarket bags — same damped stay-open lid, metal pedal, fingerprint-resistant finish, no liner subscription. The Brabantia Bo 36 L goes the other way: no pedal linkage at all and a ten-year guarantee, at the cost of not being hands-free.
Best value stainless
Kohler 13-Gallon Stainless Steel Step Trash Can (K-20940)
The premium-feeling stainless can that does not lock you into proprietary liners — it is built around the standard 13-gallon bag.
Best warranty
Brabantia Bo Touch Bin, 36 L
A touch-open bin with a ten-year guarantee and a removable inner bucket, built to sit flat against a wall.
If capacity rather than fit is your issue, the 55-liter rectangular version is the same can with ten more liters, and the 60-liter semi-round has a flat back for sitting flush to a wall.
Common questions
Do I have to use simplehuman liners?
No. A standard 13-gallon bag fits and works. But the code-sized liner and the liner pocket are the main reasons to buy this can, so running it on generic bags means paying for features you are not using.
What liner code does the 45L rectangular step can take?
Code Q, which covers 50-65 liter cans. The code letter is molded inside the can — check it rather than going by the gallon figure, because the codes are not intuitive.
Is the pedal rating of 150,000 steps realistic?
It is simplehuman's own figure, not an independent test result. At twenty opens a day it works out to roughly twenty years, which no can reaches in practice. Treat it as evidence the brand expects the part to last, not as a guarantee.
Stainless or plastic body?
Plastic if the can is in a busy spot or somewhere visible: it will not dent and it does not hold fingerprints. Stainless if you prefer the look and the can lives somewhere it will not be kicked.
Does it come with odor control?
Not built in. simplehuman sells an Odorsorb pod that clips under the lid for around 45 days, and their Odorsorb liners have carbon in the film. Both are consumables. How carbon odor control actually works.
Sources
Every specification on this page traces to one of these, checked at the time of writing. Where a manufacturer does not publish a figure, the page says so rather than estimating it.
Read next
- The best kitchen trash cans of 2026Seven cans ranked on pedal durability, lid noise and bag fit — not on finish.
- The best step trash cansSix pedal cans ranked on published cycle ratings and lid damping.
- Is simplehuman worth it?The cost-per-year structure, including the liner cost nobody counts.
- Simplehuman vs KohlerStandard supermarket bags against a coded liner ecosystem. That is the whole call.
- Why your trash bag doesn't fitThe mechanism behind the overhang, and five fixes ordered by cost.
- How we pickWhat we research, what we do not test, and how picks are ranked.
The author
Ryder M.
Owner and editor of Lid & Liner, published by Magoo Media Group. He started the site after getting tired of the same problem everyone has: every “best trash can” article covers ten products and none of them tells you whether a 13-gallon bag actually fits a 13-gallon can. Lid & Liner covers one category and tries to cover it completely.
Last reviewed September 27, 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it and note the correction.