Sink into this comfy, top-rated sofa we've found at Walmart. Pick it up yourself, or next-day shipping is available in some areas. | Read Review
Credit:
Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
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Credit:
Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.
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The Toter Blackstone is on the pricey side for a garbage can, but it can fit plenty of bags in its large and well-balanced body. Read More
The Rubbermaid Brute is a standard can, with no wheels, and a separate lid. That said, it's extremely durable and designed to stay that way. Read More
The United Solutions can is wheeled, making it easy to transport. Its lid seals in odors, which keeps pests away, but its body isn't extremely tough. Read More
Although the Behrens steel can is easy to clean, and it can take an impressive amount of punishment, the lid sticks, and the handles are painful. Read More
Rubbermaid's Ace Hardware 32-gallon can is affordable, especially for an Ace rewards member. It's not super durable, but it gets the job done. Read More
You’ve probably never thought about your trash cans much, especially your outdoor trash can. That’s until a raccoon or a rat decides your outdoor garbage receptacle is an all-you-can-eat buffet by getting in your bin and tearing the trash bag to shreds. After an incident like that, your garbage can quickly become the worst thing ever invented. Then comes the headache that is shopping for a new one because the hardware store won’t let you bring your own varmint to see the toughness of each model.
Reviewed is here to help. We spent several weeks prodding, stuffing, and dropping from the second floor some of the top-selling 32-gallon outdoor trash cans to find which ones are worth your money. After tallying up the results, the Toter Blackstone (available at Amazon) proved itself resilient, easy to use, and easy to secure, allowing it to claim the top spot but others were close behind.
The Toter Blackstone outdoor trash can is the best overall trash can we tested.
The Rubbermaid Brute is the best basic outdoor trash can we tested.
Easy to clean
Durable
Hard to move
Hard to open
We tried to get a diverse group of trash cans to test to find the absolute best outdoor trash can.
Hi, I'm Jon Chan, the Senior Lab Technician at Reviewed. Along with my colleague Kyle Hamilton, we tested all the garbage cans in this roundup. Over the years I’ve worked here, I’ve tested everything from pocket knives to pressure washers. When it came to trash barrels, I wanted something that could withstand suburban, urban, and rural situations.
We tossed selected trash cans from high up to test their resilience.
The testing broke down in the three sections: durability, security, and ease of use.
Durability testing involved a lot of dragging the outdoor trash cans over rough asphalt, tossing them off a three-foot-high loading dock, swinging a ten-pound plate at them, and generally just beating on them. We then assessed each model to check for signs of abnormal wear, any points of failure like cracks or broken wheels, and lids that no longer fit. For several of the models we tested, we even tossed them off 17-foot-tall fire escape for a distance of 18.5 feet!
We used a mixture of wet sand, cardboard, paper, and metal weights to simulate garbage.
Security testing included checking how well each model resisted tipping over, how animal resistant they were, and how well they held in odors. The tipping test involved swinging a weight at both the top and bottom of the trash can and also a few good elbow strikes for good measure. The animal resistance test involved binding my hands in duct tape and then attempting to open the trash cans by any means, including knocking them over and belly flopping on them, because you never know how big your neighborhood critters are. Finally, we did a sniff test. We placed smashed 20 beads from inside an air freshener inside selected cans then placed them in an isolated area. We then asked volunteers to give the area a whiff.
Third, on our list was the ease-of-use testing. We created our own trash loads consisting of wet sand placed in ziplock bags, crumpled up printer paper, ripped up cardboard, and bolts of cloth into three kitchen trash bags. We also placed metal weights on the bottom of each trash barrel. In total the entire load tipped the scales at 70 pounds. We also noted how easy it was to place the bags in. The next test was to gauge how the amount of effort it took to lift each model, which is important if you have to empty your trash into a dumpster.
As silly as it looked, we tried to test how animal resistant each trash can was by wrapping our hands up.
Your refuse can attract everything from mice to bears, and everything in between. However, for our testing purposes, we considered no animals larger than a raccoon. Bear-proofing your garbage requires either a specialized and expensive trash can, a shed, or the use of spotlights. There are also straps you can get that can help secure your lids but they're not that great. The most important part about keeping critters out of your garbage is to secure the lid and keep smelly refuse in air-tight bags.
Some municipalities have guidelines for what garbage cans are allowed and in some circumstances provide them. Your landlord or real estate agent should have the details about the local rules.
When the average family of four produces around 80 pounds of refuse a week why wouldn't you want a trash barrel with wheels? Simplicity is a good answer. If a wheel or axle on a wheeled trash can breaks, it's kaput, they typically don't have the handles or smooth bottoms to carry or drag them anywhere. An outdoor garbage can with no wheels also tends to be cheaper. So it's a good idea if you're getting one for storage.
Jonathan Chan currently serves as the Lab Manager at Reviewed. If you clean with it, it's likely that Jon oversees its testing. Since joining the Reviewed in 2012, Jon has helped launch the company's efforts in reviewing laptops, vacuums, and outdoor gear. He thinks he's a pretty big deal. In the pursuit of data, he's plunged his hands into freezing cold water, consented to be literally dragged through the mud, and watched paint dry. Jon demands you have a nice day.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.
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