Customer Reviews

Composter/Composter Tea Maker Spins and Tumbles

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought the Envirocycle Composter a few weeks ago after extensive web research. I wanted a self-rotating composter as my major concern was the possiblity of rodents, flys and other pests. I simply did not want to hand-turn a compost pile.

The Envirocycle Composter is not as durable as I would have expected. I think the plastic is on the thin side, and I'm convinced the door latch will break some day. The product does come with a decent warranty, which you can register online at www.envirocyclesystems.com. You can also read more about the product at that website. The cylinder drum and door are covered for five years; the base is covered for two years; and the wheels, axles, and caps for one year.

Right now, my Envirocycle is about 1/4 full with an equal mix of brown yard waste and green kitchen waste. I have it sitting outside on a concrete slab in a dog pen (to deter curious racoons). It is still winter here in St. Louis. So far, I do not notice any odor and I have not had any tampering from neighborhood animals. I don't think I'm anywhere near having compost. I am amazed to see how much kitchen waste we generate now that it is not going into the garbage. I feel good about keeping it out of a landfill.

I do have a handy trick for gathering kitchen waste. Rather than use a countertop container, I keep an ordinary plastic container in the freezer. This keeps odors down and eliminates the need to purchase a special container with charcoal filters. Freezing actually aids the decomposition process. If you want to batch compost, you can accumulate a large quantity of kitchen waste in a deep freezer.

I'll update this review periodically to fill readers in on the progress of the composting process.

I probably would agree most with the review by "FNU MNU ..." I have had this model / brand for at least two years and have had no significant problems with it. I use composting products with it as I did in other parts of the country previous to now. I have never had an "odor" problem with it as described by another reviewer. You have to rotate it and not just leave it sit there and follow guidelines for optimal moisture content. That may be the reason for some complaints I read. If you do have a problem with clumping, I find that just opening the lid and poking about a bit with a metal rod or garden tool with handle soon resolves the issue. I find that cleaning the base helps and you can use mineral oil (non-toxic - see FDA if you don't believe me) in small quantity on the metal portions of the rollers to facilitate rotating. Regarding the complaint that it takes two to turn it, that may be due to over filling and too much water content. I find that by following the guidelines for use and a little preventative maintenance makes for a product that is productive for the price compared to others. I also make use of the "fertilizer tea (liquid)" that drains into the bottom. Just unscrew the cap and tilt slightly into an old plastic bottle (I use small drink plastic bottles). I periodically make bushes, etc. happy with this free "fertilizer tea" that is a product of composting. If you don't want to tilt the bottom which requires removing the drum from the base, you can always use some plastic tubing to siphon the "tea" into the bottles. You just stick the tubing into the opening and with the help of a used plastic basting syringe(ask the wife for an old one so that it doesn't find its way back into the kitchen but stays in the shed with your garden tools [you still should rinse it and the tubing with the garden hose between uses] you create a vacuum in the tubing which will start the fluid to drain into the tubing. The collection will work best and most quickly with the bottles below the level of the siphon tube (but, it will work as the vacuum created will siphon if the bottles are not too high above the level of the base -- see principles of siphoning). The fore going has been my experience with an Envirocycle Compost Maker (but mine is forest green and not black).

In a prior home we had a larger compost bin which had problems with bugs and rodents getting into the compost, and run-off from the compost sliming the patio.

The Envirocycle solves those problems with its enclosed design, which has no access for rodents, and limited access for bugs. The fluid trap below is perfect for catching the liquid which drains from the compost.

This is a very solid product which will last for a long time. The rollers are very solid, designed to support a considerable load of compost. The door, which is removable, is also very solid and should handle the expected banging.

We have a smaller house and the compost bin is more visible. The Envirocycle looks much better. Most people will have no idea that it is a composter.

Update: May 2011 - Still going strong.

I bought the Envirocycle Composter a few weeks ago after extensive web research. I wanted a self-rotating composter as my major concern was the possiblity of rodents, flys and other pests. I simply did not want to hand-turn a compost pile.

The Envirocycle Composter is not as durable as I would have expected. I think the plastic is on the thin side, and I'm convinced the door latch will break some day. [...] . You can also read more about the product at that website. The cylinder drum and door are covered for five years; the base is covered for two years; and the wheels, axles, and caps for one year.

Right now, my Envirocycle is about 1/4 full with an equal mix of brown yard waste and green kitchen waste. I have it sitting outside on a concrete slab in a dog pen (to deter curious racoons). It is still winter here in St. Louis. So far, I do not notice any odor and I have not had any tampering from neighborhood animals. I don't think I'm anywhere near having compost. I am amazed to see how much kitchen waste we generate now that it is not going into the garbage. I feel good about keeping it out of a landfill.

I do have a handy trick for gathering kitchen waste. Rather than use a countertop container, I keep an ordinary plastic container in the freezer. This keeps odors down and eliminates the need to purchase a special container with charcoal filters. Freezing actually aids the decomposition process. If you want to batch compost, you can accumulate a large quantity of kitchen waste in a deep freezer.

I'll update this review periodically to fill readers in on the progress of the composting process.

Update #1: After about 3 months of use and headed into 80 degree weather, the Envirocycle (from about six feet away) smells like the monkey house at the zoo and has a few fruit flies inside. I've got a 50/50 mix of green and brown and hope the odor is due to a week of sitting without rotation while we were on vacation. I can tell that decomposition is occurring. I've ceased adding new materials (am compiling more scrap in the deep freeze) because I really want some compost for the herb garden.

This is a terrific product for home use. I have tried composting before with little success, by using the traditional stack and fill composters. This composter comes fully assembled, is easy to use, and it is very durable. I generated beautiful compost over the summer in 3 to 5 weeks (avocado peels took a second "cooking," but everything else worked great). I keep it on the back porch and it has no smell, it's reasonably attractive, and handy to the kitchen door. You might consider a kitchen "crock" to store your daily kitchen scraps, then empty into the composter each morning or evening.

It's handy to have two of these, then you can have one digesting while you are filling the other. I now own three of these to get me through the winter. I love this product!

This is a perfectly functional composter. My only problem with the unit is that after you fill it about half-full it becomes nearly impossible to turn without two burly guys to help you; The base is not easy to roll the unit on.

This was an easy composter to use. Tumbling is so much better than using a pitch fork. The size was nice too, not too big. We kept ours outside in the subtropics of Okinawa and the topics of Guam. Of course they attracted insects, flies, roaches, lizards, you name it. I have three complaints about it. Getting the compost out was difficult. Several times I thought I would break the door off its hinge because it is attached by just a small plastic hinge. Getting the worm tea out was hard too. The outlet valve is recessed, so you can never get all the liquid inside out completely, there is always some liquid pooled on the sides of the valve. If they'd just build it with the screw top sticking out, that wouldn't be a problem. What kind of an engineer didn't think of that on his/her own? You wouldn't think you need to get all the liquid out until you move and you can't pack it up because its dirty. The last problem was the drain holes from the composter into the tea storage bin. This design leaks. Don't put it in your house unless you place it on a catch basin that you intend to clean daily. I wrote the company with my critique and got no reply. Perhaps the post office lost it?

As usual I agonized and over researched to make this decision. I hit a home run. Box was a bit flimsy and product seemed a bit light in the box, so I was concerned. But no need to worry. The whole process couldn't be easier because all you do is roll. This is not the composter to choose if you are looking to make massive amounts of compost. On the other hand, if I needed to make more compost, I would buy a few of these rather than try to turn over a bigger pile. I have a really bad back and this is no strain on me at all.
I looked at the one that Costco is pushing hard and the big difference ( aside from that one being more expensive) was that roll it on the ground- I don't want to deal with that, plus how do you get it back up on the stand. This one just sits happily on its own stand and rolls. Buy it.

I normally don't endorse buying yet another plastic thing to pollute the planet and if I'm not mistaken this compost tumbler is even made partially with the toxic Bisphenol-A mix. But owning one of these has done more to green my corner of the world than all the recycling I can do in a month. I've had mine now about 4 years as of April 30 2011.

As to the complaints about getting it off the cradle to empty, try bracing the base with your freet and just giving the barrel a twist. Once it's in the cradle sideways it rolls right off no problems at all.

I haven't had much luck with red wigglers in this particular unit, especially the black one, since it works by cooking the compost with heat generated by the dark coloring and rotting greens. That just hasn't proved to be a good environment for composting worms which require a maximum temp somewhere in the 80s before they start dying off. I managed to cook over a thousand worms before I learned my lesson on this one. Don't do it. Keep your worm farm separate.

The Envirocycle compost tumbler holds about 7 or 8 weeks of lawn clippings for my yard, a standard suburbanite 1/4 acre lot. Add a few shovelfuls of good dirt to get the bacteria growing, and all the household waste from the kitchen it can hold and I'm usually turning out useable compost in 3 or 4 weeks. 10 Weeks or more if you're trying to get it down to black dirt before dumping it out. Remember to keep a good balance of Green to Brown (wets to dries / grass clippings versus sawdust, or leaves versus chopped up twigs). Too wet, add more brown. Too dry, pour a few cups of rain water over it and it will spark the dry tumbler right up with nice, hot bacteria. It should be about as wet as a really well wrung mop; wet, but nothing dripping even if you squeeze it.

I've seen the word "compost tea" used in conjunction with this unit, because it's got the cap on the base that lets you dump the liquid out. Important! THAT IS NOT COMPOST TEA. That is COMPOST LEACHATE. The roses seem to like it when diluted. But do not start spraying this stuff all over your plants. It can be anaerobic and can kill everything. Compost TEA is made by taking compost and/or manure, tying it into a burlap bag and dropping it in some rain water, and using a bubbler to oxygenate the liquid and compost together for three days in the sun. They're not the same thing. Read up before you just start dumping juice on the garden!

We bought our Envirocycle last spring (2009) and used it through our growing season. It was great for taking in all the material I had left when I processed the food from our 3 large raised beds. We placed it in a sunny place near the garden and followed the instructions for the balance needed in green and brown material and in not filling the composter more than half full. We had composted material in 4-5 weeks and were able to easily dump it into an on-ground space near the garden until we needed it - we could roll it to any location. The material continued to break down on site. I am in my late sixties and certainly not excessively strong but I found that I could turn the barrel even when it was at its max load. There was no smell and even the animals (deer, raccoons, bear) did not bother with the composted material we put on the ground. Some things don't compost as thoroughly as one would hope in such a short time (egg shells, for instance) and if you are in an area without steady and strong sun, the timing to complete a load may be longer. Living in the northwest, we don't always have a hot, full sun. But all in all, we are greatly pleased to have this sturdy helper in our garden area. We have stored the compost tea which we will dilute and use in our garden areas in the coming season. At various sale prices available, it is a welcome green solution for the home garden. I also reduced my garbage pick-up by two-thirds with this recycling.