I'm not familiar with the button kind aside from seeing it discussed here, so I can't speak to its usefulness or do any kind of comparison.

I do have the foot pedal though and I love it. I'm not much of a DIYer but I was able to install it myself. Learning about that pedal on this forum by the way, is what clinched the in-the-cab trash for me. I must have hands free trash.

The pedal should not be used with soft close because the soft close is trying to pull the drawer shut, and the mechanics of the pedal fight to get & keep the drawer open so they would be fighting each other, and I guess you'd have to force the drawer to close every time instead of just pushing it till it catches.

The pedal is made for frameless cabs, although someone here has adapted it for framed. It attaches to the underside of the floor of the trash cab, in the toe kick area. I don't actually step on it, I just kick it or press it forward with my toe/foot. When you install the pedal, you can determine exactly how far the cabinet opens when you use the pedal. Mine is a double bin (front is trash, back is recycle) and I have it opening to just over half way so that the recycle bin is only exposed about an inch or so and the trash bin is fully exposed.

As with Lowspark, I have only read the discussions here concerning the hip bump openers. It's much less expensive than the foot pedals (~$5 vs $35).

+++++++++++

Lowspark, I hadn't thought about the soft close mechanism interfering with the foot pedal. We're almost done and I plan to DIY the foot pedal using MeToo2's instructions. (Although, I will have to modify it somewhat since my trash cans are in drawers and not suspended from rails as I had thought they were going to be!)

Our trash pullout has soft close. Do you know offhand if there's a way to disable the soft close function?

buehl,
I'm about 99.9% sure that you can disable or some how uninstall the soft close function. I don't know how but I'll bet your cab installer does. Or someone else here on the forum.

What instructions? Does anyone have the link?

Thing I wonder about with the press-to-open bins: when closed, does the door sit flush with the rest of the cabs?

Where do You get the foot pedal?

Is it the foot pedal comfortable to push with bare feet?

There are some pictures and instructions from MeToo2 in the Home Galleries. Here are the links to those pictures:

From the "Pull Out Trash" thread started by ColdTropics on Fri, Jul 20, 07 at 2:43

Posted by metoo2 (My Page) on Wed, Aug 15, 07 at 19:27

Front View when cabinet is shut:
http://photos.gardenweb.com/home/galleries/2007/08/pull_out_trash_foot_pedal_fron.html?cat=kitchens

View of foot pedal when cabinet is open. Keep in mind this view will be hidden when trash cans are in the cabinet:
http://photos.gardenweb.com/home/galleries/2007/08/pull_out_trash_foot_pedal_door.html?cat=kitchens

Metal plate mounted on bottom back of door. This is the plate that is 3.5" tall--to deal with a face framed cabinet:
http://photos.gardenweb.com/home/galleries/2007/08/pull_out_trash_foot_pedal_meta.html?cat=kitchens

Finally, looking at the bottom of the cabinet. Glued a scrap of wood to the back of the face frame.
http://photos.gardenweb.com/home/galleries/2007/08/pull_out_trash_foot_pedal_unde.html?cat=kitchens

Posted by metoo2 (My Page) on Wed, Aug 15, 07 at 20:01

muscat: The rails are always attached to the door-regardless of whether your trash cans hang from a rail, or your trash cans sit on a base. In your picture, the cans sit on a base.

I believe that my modifications will also work with your situation (cans sitting on a base). However, you will need to make one minor modification that I did not do. That modification has to do with the elastic cords that come with the pedal.

Elastic cords (ie, bungee cords) pull the door open when the pedal is kicked. You would have to alter where the front of the cords are mounted inside the cabinet. Very easy to do.

Earlier posts on this thread refer to a version of the Hele pedal for trash cans which sit on a base. I have not seen this product. I suspect they use the identical pedal, but altered the instructions relative to the location where to mount the elastic cords.

Posted by lowspark (My Page) on Fri, Jul 20, 07 at 11:02

I'm not sure what the door mount kit is, but you have to have a pull out trash in order for the foot pedal to work.

In other words, your trash bins should be hanging from a rail attached to the door OR sitting on a shelf attached to the door. The door should pull open like a drawer (not swing open like a normal cab) and as it pulls open the trash bins come out with it.

Note that Häfele makes two different pedals, one for the bins hanging from rails and one for the bins sitting on the shelf. I'm not clear on which one you've linked to above. Also note that these foot pedals are designed for frameless cabs. I don't know if they can or have been used on framed cabs and would be interested to hear about that if anyone has.

Here are the links I have to the two kinds of Häfele pedals:

Pedal for trash can which hangs from rails

Pedal for trash can which sits on base

Note: In both cases, the foot pedals are toward the bottom of the page

Buehl, we took off the soft close from our pullout so we could use the pedal. Ours is revashelf, and we simply unscrewed the soft close pistons. The only drawback was that we didn't realize that those had to come off until the pullout was already installed...and you have to take those out before installation so you can get to the screws. So we had to take it out, remove the pistons and reinstall.

Is it the foot pedal comfortable to push with bare feet?

Yes. I almost never wear shoes in my house...

Is this the only brand that everyone uses?

It's the only brand I've ever heard of. Is there another manufacturer that makes this?