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Traditional composting can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 12 months. Why wait that long when an electric kitchen composter can turn your food scraps into soil in just a few hours? Technology is so amazing that we no longer have to rely on food to turn to compost through compost piles, tumblers, or worm bins. We can have access to recycled soil as often as we run our dishwasher!
Interested in an electric kitchen composter, but don’t know which one to buy? We’ve outlined the pros and cons for all the most popular electric kitchen composters on the market. We also go into detail on how electric composters work and whether an electric composter is a good eco-friendly option for you.
We Researched Electric Composters so You Don't have to
Our readers have helped research the most popular electric kitchen composters on the market. You should be warned though, just because something is popular, doesn’t mean it’s good. That’s why we’ve done the research to help you figure out which electric composter is a good buy, and which ones you should avoid.
Since electric composting is a relatively new thing, not all of the composters on the market are good buys. This article goes into detail to help you weed out the details and pick the best electric kitchen composter.
We’ve pored over the data, consumer reports, and customer reviews to help you figure out the best kitchen composter for your needs. Currently there are many electric composters to choose from. Here are the details on the most popular electric compost bins.
Top Electric Kitchen Composters
Features:
- Takes 3 hours
- Processes 2-3 pounds at a time
- Accepts all food including meat, fish, eggs, dairy, and bones
- No enzymes or additives needed
- Removable dishwasher safe bucket
- Odorless
- 1 year warranty through Vitamix
When to buy:
This is a great deal when you can find it under $300
Features:
- Takes 4 hours
- Older version of the Food Cycler Platinum (newer version is cheaper)
- Processes 2-3 pounds at a time
- No enzymes or additives needed
- Odorless
- Eligible for Amazon Prime
When to buy:
This one is usually around $700, however, the newer version is half the price and works faster. This is one to price watch in case it drops as the market gets saturated.
Features:
- Takes roughly 2 weeks
- Processes 5 pounds of pet and food waste a day
- Indoor or outdoor use
- Also processes kitty litter and yard waste
- Eligible for Amazon Prime
When to buy:
This is a great deal when you can find it under $350
Features:
- Takes 3 hours
- Processes 2-3 pounds at a time
- No enzymes or additives needed
- Eligible for Amazon Prime
When to buy:
This is a great deal when you can find it under $500. This seems to be a knock off of the original food cycler. Price watch it to see if it goes down in price as the new Food Cycler sells.
Best All around Electric Composter
Fastest and Best bang for your buck
Hands down, the winner of best all around electric composter goes to the Food Cycler Platinum Indoor Food Recycler a.k.a. Food Cycler FC30. Not only is this composter the most budget friendly, it’s the fastest, and also processes meats, dairy and bones. It is energy efficient, using less energy than a microwave while also fitting comfortably on a countertop. This particular composter has the most reviews out of all the countertop electric composters with a majority of them being positive reviews making this item the best electric composter on the market.
Watch the Food Cycler in Action
Best Electric Composter for Pet Waste
Bio ComPet Home Composters
Why throw your pet waste away when it can be turned into nutrient rich soil for your plants? This particular electric composters processes up to 5 pounds of pet and/ or kitchen waste a day. It’s perfectly safe to keep plugged in outside, but can easily be used indoors for kitchen waste alone. It takes two weeks to turn waste into soil. The Bio ComPet home composter is compatible with biodegradable pet waste bags.
Editor's Pick for The Best Electric Composter
It’s probably no surprise to read that the editor’s pick for the best electric composter is the Food Cycler Platinum, also known as the Food Cycler FC30.
It’s budget friendly at $300 compared to the other options that range to $700, while also being the most technologically advanced.
On top of that, the reader reviews tell a positive story. With over 100 reviews, this product has more reviews than any of the other electric composters making it way more reliable than the competition. To make it even better, this product is now owned by Vitamix, a company that always sells reliable products.
Indoor composting costs
There is the initial cost of buying the product (ranges from $299-700). Then the cost of changing the carbon filters and buying enzymes if needed.
There is also the added electrical cost to run the machine. Expect to add about 5 kwh (kilowatt hours) per month to your energy bill, or about 50 cents a month.
Pros and Cons of an Electric Composter
As with most things, there are benefits of an electric composter as well as cons. Here is a list to help you decide if an automatic indoor composter is for you:
Pros:
- A great indoor alternative for climates that are too cold to compost outdoors
- Small and sleek
- Relatively inexpensive- starting at $299
- Perfect for urban areas where composting outdoors isn’t an options
Cons:
- Some models are odorous
- Added energy usage
- Hidden costs for filters and general maintenance
- Noisy
How Does an Electric Composter Work?
- Hopper – a holding area for added wastes before sent to champers below
- Motorized mixing wand – turns mixture continuously
- Heater – Accelerates the speed of the composting as well as acting like a dehydrator
- Air pump – brings in oxygen flow to feed the microorganisms in soil
- Carbon filter – absorbs odors from waste
- Cure tray – collects the finished composts
- Drip tray – collects any excess liquid (that can also be used as nutrient rich water for plants)
Food waste is dropped into the machine then moved to an internal chamber where it is heater, mixed, and aerated. The finished products is deposited into the cure tray and ready to use as fertilizer.
Each model is different. Some consist of nothing more than a large dehydrator and mixer, while others use enzymes to speed up the decomposition process.
Depending on the type of model you use it can take anywhere from a few hours to several days or weeks to make the finished fertilizer.
We will always prefer old fashioned compost
Yes, an electric compost bin has it’s benefits. Still, we are big fans of composting the old fashioned way.
If you want to learn more about traditional composting methods, check out these posts:
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