Composting Bins Reviews - Best Compost Bin for Composting Leaves & Kitchen Waste

Composting Bins Reviews

Top Selling & Best Composting Bin Reviews on Amazon

Composting Bins Reviews are great to find out if the garden and household composters you are considering are duds or winners!  Value for money or overpriced!

Hundreds of reviews scrutinized and digested into easy to read summaries on each of the top rated and best selling popular garden composters.  There is a final summary recommending the best 2 composters, depending on your composting needs.  Enjoy the article and hopefully you find the best composting bin for you!

Envirocycle Original Composter Black

Composting Bin Features Details & Reviews with Pros and Cons

Pros

• People love the composter comes assembled for immediate use
  

• Easy to use and rotate on base, a child can turn it, no need to turn with fork

• Good height so it's easy to reach, access and load

• Large enough to hold lots of compost for some, others suggest 2 units

• Composting is effective & fast - keeps contents enclosed, aerated, pest & odor free

• Compact and easily moved (rolled) to a new location if desired

• Produces liquid "composting tea" - many use in garden and stop buying commercial fertilizers

Cons

• Tricky to unload the compost, need a pitch fork or shovel

• Latch hook is tight,  requires two hands for prying open, so slower

• Not as smooth to spin if a lot of  weight put in it, but is still easy to spin

• May need 2 composting bins for capacity, same comment for most brands

Summary

The consensus is that the Envirocycle Original Composter is effective, compact, easy to use, move and odorless. Easy turning and loading is a big plus on this composting bin,  Many seem to enjoy the results, both the compost teas and dark organic compost for the garden.

The main downside is that most people recommend having two composting bins  so you can alternate filling them.  Tight latch & tricky unloading are minor complaints noted.

ComposTumbler 08001 Back Porch 5-Cubic-Foot Heavy-Duty Poly Compost Bin

Composting Bin Features Details & Reviews with Pros and Cons

Pros

• 1/3 say easy assembly, less than 15 minutes

• Composts fast even into the winter 

• Composting bin sits off the ground, easier to turn and pests stay out

• Very mobile, wheeled stand very useful

• Easy to open, fill, use and turn

• Neat, compact and space-efficient (fits next to the garbage cans)

• Economical

Cons

• Assembly difficult - extra tools needed, 2 hour+ build times and possible to build incorrectly

• Some stages of assembly easier with two people - tapping in end-cap and holding bolts while tightening

• Poorly packaged or constructed - holes not drilled, missing, incompatible, or broken hardware and pieces 

• Plastic tears and hardware doesn't hold up to use if barrel heavy and full, "very light use appliance"

• Air screens need to be regularly cleaned to drain the composter

• Door is attached with plastic hardware which can break off

• Door won't stay open for filling, irritating, some place straps to hold to closed

Summary

For light-use smaller households that require a mobile unit to take around the garden this is a good option.  Maybe better for seniors once assembled.  The ease of filling, moving and turning will be a main attraction.

The ComposTumbler is best not used with lots of heavy compost. The unit doesn't seem heavy duty, with many reports of broken pieces, door hinges and knobs, bent metal hardware and torn plastic.

Soilsaver Classic Composter

Composting Bin Features Details & Reviews with Pros and Cons

• Very easy to assemble

• Uses strong non-rusting recycled nylon screws & bolts

• Attractive, unobtrusive, easily disguised

• Easy to open and close for use.

• Lid fits well and stays locked - keeps vermin out of composting bin

• Fast hot composting (about 5-6 weeks), odorless product

• Fairly good cold (no turning) composting

• Winter composting is possible just takes longer

• Inexpensive especially if purchased from Sam's

• Stable with big capacity, makes composting leaves easy, is compact and tall

• Sturdy - Plastic and latches hold up well if not over-filled, some customers happy after 5-10 years

 

Cons

• If full or not level will not stay square, so lid doesn't fit or latch properly

• Doors difficult to open or pop out when full as the composting material settles

• Difficult to turn or aerate the pile, some remove the material then refill, others just buy 2 or 3 more units

• Too tall for easily mixing the compost and get hundreds of fruit flies in your face when opening the lid

• Plastic hardware can break on installation, turning compost and filling, so composting bin bulges and lid won't stay on

Summary

The Soilsaver Classic Composter is best for people with the space and time to let the organic scraps compost slowly as turning is near to impossible without removing the composting materials from the bin.  Many reviewers had 3 or 4 of these in their yards.

It is well suited to a small household that produces very little waste and fills the composting bin slowly, not getting much ahead of the cold composting.  It seems the faster it is filled and overloaded with composting leaves, grass clippings and garden debris, the less the structure holds up to the weight. 

The Soilsaver is one of the less expensive composters and if it can be found on sale may be well worth having.  It composts a large volume of matter for a low initial cost, but it needs time unless you are prepared to do physical labor.  For those with back or mobility problems, this composting bin may not be the best choice.

Good Ideas 12-Cubic-Foot Compost Wizard

Composting Bin Features Details & Reviews with Pros and Cons

• 36" x 28" x 31", 40 pounds, 12 cu ft
• make compost in weeks
• black color attracts heat from sun for fast composting
• recessed handles on drum provide easy turning action
• handles act as agitators to mix compost
• 72 openings on ends allow air flow
• door fitted with 2 way air vent
• low profile so high lifting to fill it
• drum can be removed from base and rolled for filling or dispensing
• 1 year manufacturer defect warranty

Pros

• No assembly needed, just drop barrel on mount on ground.

• Easily turned for light kitchen and leaf composting

• Only needs a partial turn to work, rock back and forth to get momentum

• Attractive composter in the back yard

• Solid materials - no color fade, no tears, no dry rot.

• Stable, well built and sturdy in wind

• Keeps pests out 

• Black container heats and composts even on cool days

• Fast composting (possible in two weeks) if regularly turned

• Large and holds a lot of composting material.

 

Cons

• Lid can be difficult to position properly for closing

• Putting more than a couple of cubic feet in it (less than half full) makes it too heavy to turn, then need a pitchfork to turn it

• Needs better handles or grip as there is no grip or leverage

• Compost remains wet making compost heavy and smelly

• Nothing inside to help to mix the composting materials

• Hard to remove compost, have to use a shovel until you can roll the opening to the ground to tip the rest out

Summary

The Good Ideas 12-Cubic-Foot Compost Wizard is best for people with the space and time to let the organic scraps compost slowly as turning is difficult when bin is over half full. 

The Good Ideas Compost Wizard is well-made solid and sturdy with very few breakable parts.  For poeple with back problems, this composting bin may not be the best choice due to the weight and difficulty rotating it. 

Tumbleweed 200003 58-Gallon Rotating Compost Bin, Green

Composting Bin Features Details & Reviews with Pros and Cons

Product Features

Pros

• Easy to assemble

• Tumbleweed has two openings with easy open screw off lids for easy access

• Easy to tumble, push to mix instead of using a shovel

• Composting unit is compact, neat and tidy, large capacity

• Sturdy, lightweight and durable and absorbs heat well

• Fast effective composting with little odor, works even in the shade

• No pest issues as Tumbleweed is off the ground

• Holds up well with years of use

• Simple design so no small parts to break 

 

Cons

• Heavy and difficult to turn if material is wet, no handles

• Compost gets wet and heavy after a rain - vents in top let water in

• Doesn't always mix well, sometimes material needs to be broken up by hand

• Needs to sit on flat ground so you don't loosen hardware

• Tumbleweed stops composting when cold contents freeze - insufficient bulk

• No good if frozen - material freezes to bottom of the barrel or if bin spins off stand it can shatter

• Warranty doesn't cover use in sub-zero temperatures

• All instructions refer to this as a composter for grass clippings - not marketed that way misleading

• Has arrived with a cracked bin and missing hardware

• General feeling item is overpriced

 

Summary

The Tumbleweed 200003 58-Gallon Rotating Green Compost Bin is best for people with good upper body strength and a long reach as turning is difficult when bin is over half full. For smaller and or weaker gardeners, this composting bin may not be the best choice.

The Tumbleweed is unsuitable to use in cold climates where prolonged freezing temperatures may freeze the compost and damage the composting bin.  The warranty does not cover use in sub-zero temperatures.

The Tumbleweed is sturdy enough for light use, it seems to last years for some and less than a year for others.  Some say it is overpriced though some Tumbleweed owners note it is still one of the less expensive rotating composting bins.

Conclusions

Choosing the Best Composting Bin after Reading the Reviews

It is important to remember not every composting bin will suit every situation.  Reading composting bins reviews, you get a feel for which is the best composting bin for you.  There are certain composter characteristics that make a composter the best.

Most of the composters seem to produce compost well.  The durability, ease-of-access, ease of turning, mobility and price are the biggest factors separating the great composting bins from the OK ones.

 

Envirocycle Original Composter

Best All-Round Composting Bin

All of the composters reviewed are perfectly good in light-use situations.  For those with a large quantity of compostables and lots of space for composting leaves, grass clippings and garden waste, the most inexpensive composter is the Soilsaver Classic Composter.  Expect to buy 2 to 4 of them as composting is slower due to the difficulty turning the composting materials.  The large bulk close to the ground means these are likely the best for composting in winter, the compost pile will keep it's heat, slowly decomposing in the colder months.

The best overall easily-turned composter according to the reviews appears to be the Envirocycle Original Composter as it is pest-proof, stable, well built and designed with no breakable parts.  Part of having less smaller parts is related to the composting bin being conveniently assembled on arrival.  Also, no troubles with having compost teas or coffee grounds leaked out or aeration grills requiring cleaning.

Interestingly, for every product there were comments about requiring at least 2 composters, one to fill with new scraps while the other produces compost.  I really hope all this information helps with your new composting endeavors!

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