Compostio C30 Automatic Composter, Black

Odorless? Are you kidding me?! This composter works very well as advertised and turns food into compost surprisingly fast, but it stinks. I had to relegate it to the bathroom, and even there, the smell was too unbearable and I got rid of it after a few weeks.

I bought this unit ~1 year ago when the company name was NatureMill. The product is the same.First, I want to be clear: I would buy this product again. It is one-of-a-kind and has no peers. And as someone who fears composting outside for the lack of flexibility for meat/dairy, and for potential odors in our small neighborhood, this seemed ideal.Second: composting is not a cost-effective concept. You will indeed spend more money than make, but that's NOT the point. I did this for the emotional benefit-I haven't put a trash bag to the curb in over 3 months. Let me repeat that--no trash to the curb in 3 months. Woah. Since purchase, my only outlays are a box of baking soda a month ($0.50) and sawdust pellet bag once every 3 months ($10).Third: This product has a VERY STEEP learning curve, and is challenging to use. If you're a beginner, like me, the composter will kick your butt. Put in too many water-rich vegetables and not enough saw dust pellets? Expect a basin full of acid-y water that gets all over the floor when you pull out the catch basin too fast (ask me how I know...). Gross. When the unit is closed, it's completely smell free, which is a miracle. But when it's opened and the balance is off (very easy to do for an amateur like me) the smell can be horrific. I've smelled everything from rotting oranges to vomit to everything in between. It took me over 4 months to get to a point where I had a clear understanding of how to operate this product properly and reduce my errors.Part of that learning curve comes from a varied diet. Cabbage one week, broccoli and salmon the next. How can you predict how the food will do in there? It takes time.Fourth: Answers to some questions I had that nobody answered at the time:1) Does it smell when it's working? Nope, only when you open the door. The smell can be extremely pungant when opened, and is steamy like a boiling pot of water...the smell spreads quickly. I keep my unit in the garage in the summer because of this.2) Does it do well in the outdoors? No because of the electronics...it can be in an unheated, dry room, but when the temps drop below 45F, the compost begins to stiffen and the tiller struggles. Food also takes longer to break down when it's cold. It gets very cold in michigan, and when it's 10F or below, the compost freezes. The system can't overcome that---it was designed to work at room temperatures. Excessively warm temperatures are a plus, however, as the hotter the compost gets, the faster it processes. I take mine into the house in the winter, and banish it to the garage in the summer. :)3) How noisy is it? There are three noise sources - the air pump, the tiller motor, and the transfer flaps. When the tiller motor is turning, it's like a cheap microwave running. That's how loud it is...you can talk over it, but your voice has to elevate slightly. But when the tiller hits the transfer flaps (a normal process), it makes a loud banging noise, like someone dropping something on a tile floor. The air pump sounds like a fish tank air pump--a low, quiet hum. You can hear it, but it's not super obtrusive. On the HIGH setting, the pump runs 24/7. On medium, it's intermittent. On low, it's mostly off. Tilling frequency is as frequent as every 4 hours for 20 minutes at a time (high setting) or less for the other settings.4) Does it use a lot of electricity? Nope. I haven't seen an uptick in my energy bill at all, and I leave the unit on high.5) How much food does it hold? Realistically, a lot. I'd say food the size of 4 wonder bread loaves. Now, food breaks down quickly and compacts fast, so you can slowly feed food into it over a few days if you have too much. A family that only produces small scraps and isn't super wasteful would do fine with the small unit. But, if you find that you're chucking whole casseroles each week, you'll want to upgrade to the larger size...but maybe you shouldn't throw out that much food, right? :)6) How quickly does food process? I've seen food broken down to soil in a week on the HIGH setting. It's impressive, especially considering that you dump food in on Sunday, and by Friday/Saturday it's soil. With no effort on your part.7) How much soil comes out of a full load? About 6-8 cups. Enough to fill a small potter plant. But, that's filling the unit entirely to the tippy top. You'll often get far less than that. I always take my soil and dump it in the lawn.If you're thinking about buying this product, just remember that it can smell, and that you need to be patient with the learning curve. This isn't normal composting, and even normal composting has a learning curve too. But, once you get over that hump, you'll feel really great that you no longer send a bag or more of trash to the curb each week...you can send none.

Looks good so far. Got the first batch out today ( two weeks). The compost quality looks good, quite similar in texture to the picture in the users manual. I like it. Hope it keeps working this way. Following all the tips provided in the manual.

I also bought this back when the name was Naturemill. This was my second composter from this company. The first one died after about 4 years, my second one broke in about 8 months. The second one worked well for the first few months then the two halves of the styrofoam casing started spreading apart, and the turning bar popped out of the case, and it's just my wife and I so it's not like this thing was being overloaded. Luckily I was still under warranty so I sent it in ($48 shipping cost via UPS), and they fixed it. The same thing happened about a month later (see picture). I contacted the company and they said ship it in again. I didn't want to pay the $40 again, so I used a styrofoam adhesive to keep it together. 6 months after that the electronics failed on me and it sits in a dead heap now (no where near where I put the adhesive, I thought of that too). I really like the concept and the convenience of being able to compost indoors, but for $300-400 for this device is a total rip-off. The old model wasn't perfect but I recommended it to every one. The new model is cheaply made and somehow the price increased. I was hoping it would be as good as my first one when I bought it, but I totally regret it and now I just think of all the other cool things I could have bought for $300Bottom line, if you have $300 to burn you can "rent" this thing for a year, but I would suggest you use any other option you can

This is our second composter from the same outfit. The last one lasted around 6 years, it still worked effectively but the transfer cycle was a little bit of trouble. Compostio redesigned the transfer method, on their newest model, so far, it works flawlessly.

I purchased my composter last year when the brand was still NatureMill; now Compostio. I began to have problems with the composter, so I contacted customer service, even sending them a video to make sure the issue was clear. First, they refused to even begin to answer my question without a serial number and other information. Unfortunately, mine was a model in which the serial number was only printed on the instruction manual, not the machine. After a month or so, I finally located the manual and provided information. Now, of course, they are saying that my product is out of warranty and I would have to pay $60 to send it to them to repair. So, I got less than 18 months of use out of an incredibly expensive machine, and now am being asked to pay another exorbitant amount for its repair. Do you have any idea how much compost I could get from my local garden center for the cost of this thing plus $60? And now I have a big useless hunk of junk and nothing to do with it other than send it to the landfill. Save your money and compost your kitchen scraps the old fashioned way.