Is it possible to find any more or less smart home accessory on which the Xiaomi brand is not stuck? In recent months we have seen everything and more and this is also thanks to the fact that Xiaomi, in addition to dealing personally with brands such as Yeelight and others, acts as an incubator for many East Asian companies and promotes and distributes them through the large and -Chinese commerce: see for example the smart faucet, the smart soap dispenser etc.
There is however a distinctive feature that unites the various products and it is a minimal and dry where the white color and the rounded rectangles are the masters that are not lacking even in the smart ABS bin / bin / dustbin that we show you in this test. From now on, however, we will simply call it “Xiaomi Smart Trash”.
How it's done
The basket is made of ABS and has a volume of 15.5 liters and the smart part is hidden in the back: we find a power socket and a switch that at first sight seems unusual in a basket: in reality powers a motor that has two functions: it opens the upper door for instant waste insertion, opens the upper block in a “maintenance” mode and cuts the bag with subsequent sealing. In addition, in the lower part there is a fan that serves in some way to extract bad smells that could be generated inside the basket especially if you use it for wet with fish or other perishable foods.
The power supply depends on an external transformer of small dimensions that will be connected only for the recharging phase of the 2000mhA internal battery. It is also exploited by the infrared sensor located in the upper part that detects the movement of the hand and opens the door.
The most particular element of the bin, however, is given by the bag supplied which is of a very particular type: it is a practice a long tubular element with a square section that is accumulated in the upper part of the basket within a space that goes around the hole.
The bag has a first installation, when it is full it closes and is sealed and the system extracts the next “tubular” part by extracting it from top to bottom.
The package with the polystyrene that protects the ABS basket 
In the package the manual (in Chinese) and the power supply 
Perfect shapes with the original manufacturer's mark and the IR sensor that will open the door 
The back with the anti-tip foot. 
The detail of the switch and the power socket 
The power supply to be connected with the classic adapter 
Side view with the bin fed 
Here it is closed and ready to work 
just pass your hand over and open 
revealing the bag to the internal 
The light helps to identify the hole even at night 
It can also be opened by pressing on a small sensitive depression on the front 
The tubular bag is inserted into this support protected by a frame 
If we open the container 
we find the bag “accumulated” inside 
Do not try to extract it yourself you would not be able to put it back inside 
Here is the bag extracted 
Here we have removed everything and it shows and the bottom 
The open lid shows the internal cutting and welding system 
Here we still have the bag extracted ready to be closed 
By pressing at length on the “virtual” button on the front we activate closing, welding and cutting 
An “cleaver” element will close the bag on one side 
and the perpendicular one from the other 
and here is the upper part of the bag sealed and cut, if you have the original tubular bag you can start from scratch 
Here we used a wet bag 
And here a well more solid traditional bag 
Works great but forget about closing, welding and cutting , the material is too thick.
The bag material is typical of non-recyclable garbage and is therefore suitable for non-moist material that would be difficult to classify or throw in plastic or paper and therefore its use depends on a little from the environment in which you will use the basket.
The main problem is however that in the long term it is difficult to find “tubular” bags and above all that the best use would be that with wet material for several reasons: the use of the sensor rewards the fact of not having to touch the lid and being able to spill the waste with both hands occupied (typical use in the kitchen when you have to empty dishes and pots), the ability to close the bag is useful for eliminating bad smells and transporting the bag in maximum safety.
The proof
Given these premises and after having exhausted the supply of the original bag we tried to use some st andard that the local waste collection company made available to us: here we were unlucky because the dimensions are too small and it is difficult to block the bag in the upper ring.
More luck we had with non-standard wet bags longer than 60 cm: in this case the lightness of the material and the possibility of closing it at the top allowed us to use the bin in all its functions (collection-closing-sealing- cut).
If instead you want to use large standard bags (those for non-recyclable garbage), easier to find you will lose the opportunity to seal the bag because the thickness of the material it is superior to the welding capacity of the system also because the material that accumulates opposes more resistance to creases than the very light “tubular” supplied.
So how to use it once you have it you are brought home in love with its design and de its smart capabilities? If you are lucky enough to travel to China you can buy the original spare parts probably at a relatively low price (see at the bottom the price to order it in Europe), if you want to use it for wet material you will have to look for very long special bags that are difficult to find (we we found in a local supermarket and not online) if you want to use it in the bathroom for mixed material (toilet paper rolls, cotton buds and more) you have to decide how to manage the waste whether to separate it or not and in most cases give up the sealing function , always having the foresight to use a bag oversized in length to be able to hook it in the upper part.
Conclusions
Xiaomi's smart bin undoubtedly has a great design it is very convenient so as not to get your hands dirty in any way, it has a long-lasting and easy-to-recharge battery (two hours of charging for an average month of use in our test) but is heavily affected by the availability and cost of consumables to do so function as per “project”. If you adapt to using standard bags of extra length you can take advantage of the “touchless” interface and the courtesy lighting but you will hardly be able to close the bag as with the original bag.
Are design and originality worth a considerable expense? It is an answer that we leave to the readers.
Pro
Versus
Retail price
The basket costs about 87 Euros On Gearbest – start from this page to check the current price and availability.
