SONGMICS 18-Gallon Kitchen Trash Can

This is a review of the 18-gallon Stainless Steel Garbage Can. The trash can itself arrived undamaged unlike reports from other reviews. Based on the box it shipped in and the shipping materials inside to keep it stable, I do not see how this version (the 18-gal) could get damaged. Maybe the 13-gallon trash can (which is where most of the reviews seem to be focused) has a different shipping solution. Regardless: my 18-gallon trash can arrived in fantastic shape. The lid and the pedal to open the lid work very well. The lid does close reasonably slowly and silently which is also appreciated, and it does have the carbon filter insert to help minimize odors from the trash escaping into the kitchen. It took me a bit to figure out the trash bag holding gasket (which is separate from/surrounds the lid). If you have used the pedal to lift the lid proper, the holding gasket can also be lifted, but it has some resistance and doesn't stay opened very easily. If you instead let the lid close completely and THEN lift the holding gasket, it comes up easily and stays open until closed. The holding gasket does a good job of keeping the trash bag in place and prevent it from slipping into the trash can (see notes on the trash bag below). All of these are good things and overall a positive review for the trash can itself. The one down side to this trash can: the trash bags. The item does ship with 15 trash bags, which I thought was odd at first. It's not like there aren't trash bags anywhere in any store ever here in the U.S. What I learned is that these 15 trash bags are a proprietary size. These are not the size that you would find at a Costco or Walmart or any other common store where you might purchase trash bags. While the stated CAPACITY of these bags is 18 gallons, these 15 trash bags are long and relatively narrow bags, whereas the more common 18-gallon bags you would see at Costco are more sized for trash compactors, so they are shorter and wider. When you put the Costco Kirkland-brand 18-gallon Compactor and Kitchen trash bag into this trash can, it does not rest on the bottom of the can. That means the moment you put something heavy in the trash can (like an empty soup can), the bag will fall inside the trash can and you may have to struggle with garbage to find the edges and pull it up and out when it comes time to empty the trash can. This leaves you with two choices: buy the correctly-sized proprietary bags, or use larger bags (like the Kirkland 33-gallon extra large flex-tech black trash bag) instead. They will be larger than the can needs, but you will never have to worry about fishing the bag out of the bottom of the can. You can find the proprietary-sized SONGMICS Liner Code 068A trash bags for roughly $34.00 for 80 bags (four rolls of 20 bags each). That is a typical cost of $0.42 (42.5 cents) per bag. Compare that to the Kirkland 33-gallon box of trash bags which is $24.00 for 90 bags, which is a typical cost of $0.27 (27 cents) per bag. Make your own decision on which bag is more to your liking. The reason for the 2-star review and not a 5-star or a 1-star: The trash can itself is engineered really well and arrived in great condition (5 stars), but there is ZERO good reason to engineer a trash can around a proprietary trash bag size (1 star). This is like charging almost nothing for the razor but extreme overcharging for the blades -- except in this case, they put a high price on both the trash can AND the trash bags (2 stars). I don't believe in supporting this kind of business model, and had I realized this ahead of time, I would have purchased a different trash can that would have supported a more normal trash bag size. I will keep the can and use the larger 33-gallon trash bags.