Best Composting Bins and Tumbler Reviews (Updated)
For those with a green thumb, there is always a necessity to have a nearby storage so that they can immediately plant their seedlings or saps. Composts are rich humus that help in plant growth and also assist the soil to regain its nutrients.
Gardening soil made at home are healthier as compared to the factory made soil. They can actually be made at home with scraps from your dining table and old things that you can easily recycle.
But how do you store them properly without them causing problems for your home and the neighbors? This website will give you a solution to those problems as well as other helpful gardening tips.
Our 2019 Best Compost Bin Pick
Nowadays, you can purchase the best compost bins from the market that help you store your compost without having to worry about the bacteria and the smell it produces. These bins can help in the decomposition of the compost you are making and prevent rats from getting to your compost.
They also come in tumbler format apart from the bin format. But which one should you buy? Here are the things you should consider when trying to find the best tumbling composter.
Top 7 Best Composters & Tumblers Comparison Table 2019
| Photo | Description | Price |
|---|---|---|
1. Garden Tower 2 - The Composting 50 Plant Organic Container Garden  | $$$ | |
2. Miracle-Gro Dual Chamber Compost Tumbler  | $$ |
|
3. Lifetime 60028 65-Gallon Compost Tumbler  | $$ |
|
4. Enviro World 82 Gallon Compost Bin  | $$ | |
5. The Most Beautiful Composter in the World  | $$ | |
6. Worm Factory 360 WF360B Worm Composter, Black  | $ |
|
7. Yimby Tumbler Composter, Color Black  | $ |
| Product |
|---|
1. Garden Tower 2 - The Composting 50 Plant Organic Container Garden- The rotating garden tower 2 is a composter that grows 50 plants in 4 square feet - Turns waste kitchen scraps to fertilizer organic waste to organic food |
2. Miracle-Gro Dual Chamber Compost Tumbler- Keep the nutrients coming - For beginners & PRO gardeners |
3. Lifetime 60028 65-Gallon Compost Tumbler- Heavy-duty balanced lightweight construction - Extra large removable lid allows for easy loading and latches shut to keep rodents out and compost in |
4. Enviro World 82 Gallon Compost Bin- Large 11 cubic feet capacity - Strategically located ventilation to maximize the composting process |
5. The Most Beautiful Composter in the World, Made in the USA, Food Safe, BPA and Rust Free, No Assembly Required- Produces solid and liquid compost - Solid like a tank. Made of food safe, BPA and rust free, UV and antioxidant protected materials |
6. Worm Factory 360 WF360B Worm Composter, Black- The redesigned lid converts to a handy stand for trays while harvesting the compost - Built in "worm tea" collector tray and spigot for easy draining |
7. Yimby Tumbler Composter, Color Black- Fantastic for beginners! The large openings and removable door make it easy to add scraps/clippings - Two separate sides allow the first side to finish while leaving the second side available to add fresh scraps/clippings |
8 Factors To Consider Before You Buy A Composter Or Tumbler
The Different Types of Composters
Nowadays, there are a lot of products available in various shapes, sizes and capacity. There are even composting bins that are meant for specific conditions or specific types of compost. Here are some of the available containers for composts and their pros and cons:
It’s not been labeled the most beautiful for nothing. With The Envirocycle Composter Composteamaker, you’ll start looking at even the waste at your home as something beautiful.
Actually, waste can be really beautiful once you learn to appreciate how it easily it can be converted into compost to work wonders on your garden soil.
Features
The plethora of features this composter comes with will leave you amazed indeed.
- High on safety: This tumbling bin is constructed of UV protected materials which don’t contain BPA and are top quality in all other aspects too. That makes this composter absolutely safe for use, without the risk of any harm to your kids.
- Superior quality: It has paper liners which ensure faster `cooking’ of the waste than the biodegradable plastic bags which most composters use. You can easily enhance the quality further with use of starters or accessories such as measuring tools for monitoring pH or humidity etc.
- Spacious and convenient: The all-in-one The Envirocycle may be compact in size but is quite spacious, with a large opening that facilitates disposal of kitchen food waste or organic waste from the yard in a convenient manner.
Advantages
- Durable and long-lasting: Since it’s made of solid quality materials, The Composteamaker is durable and built to last long.
- Easy to spin: The tumbler requires hardly any effort to spin, and needs to be turned around just three times every three days, followed by a tumbling-spinning-rotating action after 4-8 weeks.
- Secure function: You won’t find the waste being spewed all over the place while using the bin; its latched door makes it extremely easy to put in the waste and then take out the soil (both solid and liquid) when ready. For the liquid (tea) waste, there’s an option to collect it directly or just throw it out of the bin like the solids.
Considerations
Though it comes equipped with some excellent features, The Envirocycle is likely to cause problems if you decide to compost toilet paper or waste in it.
Some users have complained of the door latch being of poor quality, causing the door to open and the waste/compost to fall out when packed to full capacity.
Bottomline
With a responsive customer service, the minor flaws of The Envirocycle Composter Composteamaker don’t really count and you’ll find it an excellent piece of equipment for composting your waste quite efficiently.
What’s more, with its attractive design, it won’t be an eyesore in your garden, patio or even your apartment balcony.
Wish you could the best compost bin that you could keep filling up on one side while the other one keeps composting all that waste you’ve been wanting to recycle? The Yimby Tumbler Composter is designed to make your wish come true.
Features
This tumbler comes packed with an array of efficient features that can convert your waste to rich soil-enhancing material with minimal effort.
- High functional efficiency: What makes this composter one of the best is its ability to churn compost out of all your waste with a high level of functional efficiency, thanks to its two chambers – one side for filling and the other for treatment of waste.
- Sturdy construction: Made of recycled plastic bin with steel frame and tin legs, the Yimby is strong and durable, and built to last.
- Adjustable air vents: Depending on the type of waste material and the climatic conditions in which the tumbler is being used, you can easily adjust its air vents to ensure that there’s the right amount of air flowing into the composter.
Advantages
- User-friendly: From ease of assembly to its sliding bin cover, which can be easily closed or opened, this is an extremely user-friendly gadget. Just turn the built-in hand holds in the composter every couple of days to get the perfect fertilizer for your soil.
- Ideal weight: The Yimby (with 37-gallon capacity) is neither too heavy to cause you discomfort nor so light that it can be blown around by a strong gust of wind.
- Time-saving: One key advantage of this tumbler is the speed with which it makes compost. For an average quantity of waste, it takes no more than a couple of weeks to deliver the quality compost you need to nourish the soil of your home garden.
Considerations
While the Yimby does sound like a good buy to make fine soil out of your home waste, you may like to consider a few things before taking the final plunge. For one, you need to be careful about adding sufficient quantity of dry brown stuff to ensure that the compost is not soggy. And you do need to be sure about the door being tightly shut since it doesn’t have a lock to keep the rain and moisture out.
Bottom Line
The few negatives notwithstanding, the Yimby Tumbler Composter does seem to be a good value for money gadget, ideal for a small home garden. This good and time-saving, efficient little compost bin doesn’t require much care or maintenance, and is super easy to use.
Don’t get misled by the Jr. tag into thinking that this does only half the job of a regular composter. The only reason for this description of this compost bin; with 7-cubic foot capacity this composter is a junior version of the same model in a bigger size.
Features
Now if you’re worried about what features the manufacturers have compromised on to make this junior version, let’s put your fears at rest. This one actually has more advanced features than the original 12 cubic foot version.
- Blends safety with convenience: With the Good Ideas Wizard Jr. to help you utilize your home waste effectively, you can be assured of a high level of safety, backed by convenience. The twist-off lid (12”) not only keeps the compost protected from external conditions, pests, insects etc, but is also easy to remove. It also acts as an extra turning point to augment the turning facility, which is otherwise managed by the recessed handles, which are equipped with excellent grip.
- Wheeled base: The composter has a wheeled base to enable easy movement from one part of your garden to another. Incidentally, you can also separate the base for facilitating free-flow movement of the bin.
- Well-aerated: The Compost Wizard Jr. is crafted to provide the compost in it with the right amount of air needed to ensure superior quality. It has aeration holes at the ends, with the option of drilling more holes if needed, especially if you’re living in an area where air currents are generally low.
Advantages
- Child and pet safe: The design of this composter is ideal to ensure that it’s safe for your children as well as pets. So you won’t need to worry about your little ones getting access to either the waste or the compost in this gadget.
- Quality material: When it comes to quality of the material used, the Wizard Jr. has an edge over most composters in this category. The resin material used is 100% recycled BPA free post industrial polyethylene, to ensure durability and to keep out the sun’s heat.
Considerations
Well, so far so good, but what about the problems? Yes, there are a few issues with this bin just as there are with other composters.
Evidently, it’s tough to keep the compost moist especially in dry climate, because the ventilation holes on the sides are too low to allow more than half an inch or so of water to drip out. Then there’s the lid of the bin; users have complained that the food scraps tend to stick on to the lid, making it somewhat difficult to turn and also impacting the compost quality.
Bottom Line
All in all, however, it makes it one of the top composters which can churn compost in about two weeks and requires turning only once a week or so. It’s a great machine from the safety perspective and completely safe to use around a house that has children or pets playing around in the garden most of the time.
Good Ideas is known to build gadgets that are nothing less than `next generation’. The Good Ideas CW-2X is another such piece of equipment from the company, bringing the next generation of composting to your doorstep, quite literally.
Features
The Good Ideas CW-2X Compost Wizard Dueling Tumbler comes with an amazing range of useful features.
- Twin-chamber composting: This tumbler’s total capacity is 50 gallons, split equally between its two chambers, which enables simultaneous composting of two batches.
- Safe & secure: The tumbler is totally safe for pets and children, with 8” twist lids to keep the chambers secure.
- Easy to use and maintain: This outstanding attribute makes this fully assembled tumbler a breeze to use, and also to keep in excellent working order with the minimum of effort.
Advantages
- Good capacity: The 7 cubic foot tumbler has a compost tea collecting base (with wheels) which can hold up to 5 gallons.
- Solid durability: This is ensured with the 100% BPA-free recycled material that goes into the manufacturing of the tumbler.
Considerations
Evidently, the CW-2X is not very good at composting tree leaves or banana peels. So if you’ve got a lot of that around your house, you may need to think again before spending your hard-earned money on this tumbler.
Bottom Line
On the whole, if you love your planet and want to preserve it for future generations, this is a small but awesome way of contributing your bit. This tumbler easy to use and easier still to maintain, making it an ideal choice for those who want to recycle their waste efficiently but without expending too much energy on the job.
So you want to go green with a vengeance? Well, the Lifetime 60028 65-Gallon Compost Tumbler, with its large capacity, will help you do just that. And it’ll allow you to manage your waste in the most convenient manner without any hassle.
Features
Let’s check out some of the key features of the Lifetime 60028 for you.
- Heavy-duty functionality: The Lifetime 60028 is designed to facilitate heavy-duty composting without adding to the weight of the gadget. The lightweight construction of this 65 gallon capacity tumbler provides a perfect foil to its heavy-duty functionality.
- Innovative design: The design of the tumbler is quite ingenuous, and allows for easy turning and balanced rotation on axis.
- Large removable lid: You can easily load the waste into this 8.5 cubic foot capacity tumbler, thanks to its extra large lid which is removable but has a convenient latch to shut out the rodents and pests.
Advantages
- Solid frame: The frame of this composter is made of powder coated steel, enabling protection even in harsh weather.
- Heat-absorbing: The heavy-duty black panels of this tumbler help effectively absorb and retain the heat for perfect decomposition of organic waste.
Considerations
Though it works well, this tumbler is, unfortunately, somewhat difficult to assemble, requiring your own tools. You may also need to do some drilling before you can use it.
Also, it’s not really water-tight, so you may find it dripping a little, especially if there’s too much citric stuff to be composted.
Bottom Line
The Lifetime 60028 65-Gallon Compost Tumbler is a good choice for those with a lot of composting required to be done on a regular basis. It has a large capacity with a big footprint to take in a whole lot of waste material for recycling.
Our Top 3 Recommendations
#1 Our Pick - Best Overall Value
Envirocycle Composter
- Most beautiful composter
- Made in USA from quality materials
- Easiest and fastest setup time
- Top rated customer service
4.6 out of 5
#3 - Runner Up
Yimby Tumbler Composter
- Adjustable air vents
- Recycled plastic bin w/ steel frame
- Easy assembly w/ instructions
- 37 gallon capacity
- Under $100
4.1 out of 5
Compost Tumblers vs. Compost Bins
Composting is becoming popular with many gardeners and homeowners who wish to make their very own compost for their gardens. With the influx of users hoping to make their own compost, there is a range of composters available today. However, some of them may not have what it takes to help you sustain your gardens with fresh compost.
There are only two main types of composters available today: tumblers and bins. And they are very effective in helping you produce composts. However, there are critical differences that must be understood between these two types of composters because this will be important.
Generally, both compost bins and compost tumblers can be loaded from the top. However, compost bins are made of thin plastic which disables aeration and mobility. You can empty its contents from the lower compartment. And it does not have a bottom part, leaving it open. Compost tumblers are made of heavy-duty material and you can put in air and mix your compost by spinning it.
They can also carry out smaller volumes of compost and you can empty it from the top. Its bottom is completely sealed so you can indeed mix it easily by turning.
Comparing the Two Types of Composters
Here is a detailed review of compost tumblers and compost bins based on these general aspects:
Capacity
In terms of capacity, compost bins can hold 7 to 20 cubic feet of compost depending on their model, while tumblers can only hold up to 4 to 15 cubic feet of compost. This small capacity is due to the difficulty in spinning the tumbler when it becomes heavy.
However, there are models of tumblers that have larger cubic feet capacity but the mounting position is done horizontally in them rather than the conventional vertical position of normal compost tumblers.
Durability
When it comes to durability, compost tumblers are quite durable because of their heavy-duty construction material, enabling them to carry out heavy composts. However, it is best that one inspects the supporting legs of the compost tumbler before purchasing it because these legs should be capable of staying strong for years. Handles must also be sturdy for easy tumbler spinning.
Compost bins are only made of thin plastic because they only serve as a storage container rather than a mobile composter that can be moved throughout the garden. Since it is made of plastic, the bin may become brittle once it is subjected to harsh weather conditions.
Turning Compost
It is also very difficult to do composting with compost bins because you cannot easily turn your pile inside the bin with a shovel or a pitchfork. Since you cannot turn it easily, composting time could reach up to 2-3 months in total with the compost not properly turned.
In comparison, tumblers can make composts in batches within 6 to 8 weeks without problems. You can easily turn the compost through the tumbler, but it can be difficult sometimes with a larger model because of its weight. It is also very easy to empty since you can just dump the compost right out. With bins, this is difficult because you have to shovel it out of the bin.
Bugs & Smells
In terms of pests and odor, both bins and tumblers are good in keeping them out. Compost bins can even stop raccoons and dogs. However, they cannot stop rodents from burrowing under the bin because of open bottoms. Compost tumblers are pest and odor proof because they are fully sealed. The smell would only leak if you open the lids, but it is not really that unpleasant smell.
Costs
Finally, the cost varies considerably for both tumblers and bins. Compost tumblers are actually more expensive than compost bins due to the materials used to make them and the parts they have.
In general, they are 30% more expensive than compost bins. Tumblers are also long- lasting because of their material and parts. In comparison, compost bins are only made of thin plastic, however, there are some expensive bins made of high quality materials.
Conclusion
If you are indeed considering a composter, think about their moving parts and dependability. Even if they are expensive, as long as they can last you for years, they are worth every penny.