Anyone have an indoor electric composter?

My biz partner has one. He likes it. My only recommendation regarding it is that it's a little noisy. It produces a constant background noise. It's not terrible, but it's there. If you can tuck it into a pantry or closet that would damp it fine, I think. I'm around it every day and I haven't noticed any smells. They haven't put any meat in it, but they do put egg shells in there.

 

Yes, I have one. It's great! Mine was a little noisy when it was new, but it quickly quieted down as promised in the instruction manual. No smell at all, and I add all the meats you can imagine. You really need to go by their directions to help balance the "greens" and "browns" and then you should have no trouble. I got their newer model (PRO version) which seems to be a big improvement over their earlier models.

 

The neighbour's indoor/outdoor composter wanders over all the time and sniffs around. We're hoping to get our own, soon.

We keep a pail with a lid in the kitchen for scraps, and take it out every couple of days. A regular trip through the dishwasher keeps it clean, and I half fill it with shredded paper before adding the compost.

 

It does beg the question why you would need an appliance that burns energy to do what nature does all on it's own. Our OUTDOOR compost works great, and if you keep the mix right gets very hot, ~140f and breaks stuff down very quickly. Aside from the advantage of being able to put meat into it I don't see that it really makes sense. We do eggshells and have had no vermin problem,,,Except lately we have had rats around the chicken house!

Icarus

 

some of us live in apartments. i cant compost outside but would consider it on my apartment balcony.

 

Good point!

Icarus

 

Another issue can be cold. Our compost freezes solid in the winter. Frankly, I thought my mate was a nutter for spending the money he did on the bloody thing. We just use a slop bucket and a black plastic bin that we keep out in the garden. Thedutchtouch has a good point though. Do you have a communal garden plot then that you can put the compost in?

 

Something that works for me is half-filling the indoor pail with shredded paper before I add the scraps. Then when it goes out to the big bin, it's already mixed.

 

Regarding outdoor compost at the beginning of winter (in chicago), we've found that adding 'accelerant' has helped kickstart even dry leaves into decomposing. Steam came out this morning when I turned the top of the pile. (hooray!)

Our 'accelerant' comes courtesy of the cat litter box, where we use wheat- or corn-based clumping litter. It's only the pee part that goes to the compost pile. The other part gets flushed down the toilet. Urine is high in nitrogen, and it's free, too. Our cats are finally earning their keep.

 

One place we should all be using indoor composting is in our toilets. A little electric current evaporates away the...uh...fluid, leaving a surprisingly small amount of dry material. We use an incredible amount of water, and to flush our waste where? Into our water supply. Not too smart.

 

Hyo,

OTOH, waste water treatment facilities could be the power plants of the future. Even now, some of them are converting methane to power. It saves them money and they could actually be net producers of electricity.

 

Sure, some power can be generated from waste, and that's good, but it's mostly the waste of water and the pollution I'm concerned about. Water is a scarce and expensive commodity in some places, and literally flushing it down the toilet doesn't make a great deal of sense. Building and maintaining vast sewage systems is also expensive, and if we were starting a new city from the ground up, I hunch it would be cheaper to install composting toilets in every bathroom than it would be to build sewer systems.

 

We have the "pet-friendly" version and are rather discouraged with it. We originally purchased it for use with cat droppings but the smell was overwhelming! We now use it as a standard composter and keep it on the side of the front porch where it is still a delicate balance to keep the smells reasonable. The resulting compost is rich but the machine smells and is loud. I could not imagine maintaining it indoors.

We did find though that verma-composting using an expandable worm tower worked very well and had virtually no smells as we have been able to maintain this system indoors. Unfortunately though this system is more limiting in that fish skins and protein wastes can not broken down.

 

Oh, defo mate. I won't try to argue that point.

Sail magazine had an interesting article on the pros and cons (mostly pros) of marine composting toilets. It was an interesting read.

 

Hello. Has anyone tried substitutes for the pellets? The only one mentioned in manual is loose sawdust. I'm looking to use something already handy, perhaps leaves, paper, etc.

Just hooked ours up a couple of weeks ago and it smelled so bad it got moved outside. We don't add meat or dairy. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

 

We get sawdust from the local Menards (hardware/lumber supply). They give it out for free.
For others considering this, the balance of green and brown (sawdust or such) material is necessary to keep the odor down. But it is fairly easy to maintain.
We find the speed at which it works and the ease works very well for us, as we are lazy people