The best touchless trash cans for bathrooms

For most bathrooms, a small damped pedal can beats a sensor one: quieter, immune to humidity, no batteries, and there is no hygiene argument for touchless in a room where you wash your hands on the way out anyway. The simplehuman 4.5L Round Step Can is the pick.

#	Product	Best for	Price
01	simplehuman 4.5L Round Step CanA proper step can shrunk to bathroom size, with the same damped lid rather than the sprung flap most small bins use.	Best small bathroom can	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
02	iTouchless 13 Gallon Oval Plastic Sensor CanThe plastic-bodied version of the same sensor can — lighter, cheaper, and immune to the two things that make steel cans look old.	Best lightweight touchless	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
03	Umbra Skinny Trash Can, 2 GallonSix and a half inches wide, which is the number that matters when the only space is between the toilet and the wall.	Best narrow small can	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
04	iTouchless 13 Gallon SensorCan with AbsorbX Odor FilterThe touchless can that ships with a carbon filter in the lid and takes ordinary 13-gallon bags, at a fraction of the premium price.	Best touchless value	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
05	simplehuman 15L Mini RecyclerA two-compartment bin small enough for a studio kitchen, an office, or a bathroom that needs paper separated out.	Best small dual bin	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money

That is a genuinely awkward thing for a roundup about touchless bathroom cans to conclude, and we are saying it anyway. If you specifically want a sensor in a bathroom — a shared family bathroom, or one used by someone with mobility issues — the iTouchless plastic can is the sensible choice, and the reasoning is below.

Bathroom criteria are different from kitchen ones and the differences all push the same way.

• Noise. Bathrooms share walls with bedrooms and get used at night. A damped lid matters more here than anywhere in the house.
• Footprint over capacity. The constraint is the gap between the toilet and the wall, which is often six or seven inches. Volume is almost never the limit.
• Humidity tolerance. A room that hits high humidity twice a day is a hostile place for a battery compartment and an infrared sensor.
• Cleanability. Bathroom bins get wet inside and out. Smooth interiors and rounded corners; no seams to trap residue.
• Whether touchless helps at all. In a kitchen you touch the lid with contaminated hands. In a bathroom you wash your hands immediately afterwards regardless, so the hygiene case is much weaker.

Our methodology in full. Specifications are from manufacturer pages; we have not tested these in a humidity chamber and would not claim to have.

Bathroom bin labeling is the worst in the category — the same bin is sold as 2 gallons, 7.5 liters and 8 quarts depending on the listing. Measure the slot, then work backwards.

The last row is worth stating because the sensor cans that actually exist are mostly 13-gallon kitchen cans, and putting one in a bathroom means a can that is far taller than anything else in the room. If you want a sensor in a small bathroom you are choosing between a kitchen-sized can and no can. Full bathroom sizing reference.

The pattern is familiar: a sensor can works fine in a bathroom for a few months, then starts opening at nothing and eventually stops. Two mechanisms are at work and one is fixable.

Condensation on the sensor window scatters infrared and causes false triggers. That is cleanable — dry the window with a soft cloth, and if the bathroom has an extractor fan, use it. Corrosion on the battery contacts is the one that ends the can, and it is much harder to reverse once the contacts have gone green. Check them every time you change cells and clean them with a dry cloth while they are still bright.

Either way, work through the full diagnostic before replacing the can — a surprising share of dead sensor cans are just dirty or on flat batteries. If you replace it, a damped pedal can has no electronics to corrode, which is the underlying reason we recommend one here.