I purchased a Nine Stars DZT-50-9 Touchless Trash Can about 3 months ago. The automatic lid was working fine until this morning. The lid was opening very slowly, as though the batteries were dead. After replacing the batteries, the lid would no longer open. When I waved my hand across the sensor, the lights would flash as they usually do and the motor would give out a little noise, but the lid remained closed. Even with the motor turned off, I could not lift the lid manually. The gears seemed to be jammed.
I spent a bit of time troubleshooting this issue with no success. The Nine Stars guide was pointless and several user reviews on Amazon mentioned a similar issue. Nine Stars warranty process appeared tedious and got some pretty bad reviews, so I decided that taking the lid apart myself and possibly buying a new one would be a better use of my time.
Spoiler alert: It’s fixable!
Three Step fix:
1) Remove the batteries and all the screws on the underside of the trashcan lid. There are two screws in the battery compartment.
Underside of trash can lid
2) Gently lift up the black rim. It should lift easily and be careful of the wires inside, they are poorly routed and only held on by some cheap tape.
Underside of trashcan lid removed.
3) You should see a toothed wheel on the left side of the gearbox. I think this is a reference/counting wheel to track the lid’s position. Mine seemed to be stuck and needed a little push.
Drive motor and toothed wheel
After giving the toothed wheel a little push, I set the black rim back in place and was able to manually move the lid again. With the lid apart, I noticed there was a plug in the backside:
Backside of trashcan lid. Removing plug.
With the plug removed, you can access this toothed wheel without taking the the lid apart. This means next time this happens, I can simple reach a screwdriver in and push the little toothed wheel.
Access to toothed gear from rear of trashcan lid