This Lomi composter reduces my garbage (which means fewer garbage bags and fewer trash collection days), plus it saves wear and tear on my garbage disposal. I know it's expensive but you need to go to the website and see ALL the items that can be composted. You will be amazed at what you can put in this thing. And four hours later"¦.BOOM, you have compost.

Ends up I have more waste than I originally thought. This has been great for turning it all into usable compost. Depending on my "mixture" it takes about 4-5 1/2hrs to complete a batch. I tend to run one about every other day. Some of my family members are now giving me their scraps. It is a bit loud while doing it's "baking" but I've gotten used to it. To clean out the completed compost you will want to use a rubber or wooden utensil...nothing metal...as you don't want to scratch off any of the non-stick surface inside the canister. Lid is easy to get on & off...if its not, then you don't have the canister properly inserted.

This has been great for my garden and I'm glad to know I'm not tossing so much into the garbage. Items you can add: cheese, meat (no bones), banana peels (wouldn't put the stems in), fruit, plant trimmings, veggies, grains (bread, chips, crackers...), noodles.... Adding "paper" products is a bit misleading, it needs to be from one of Lomi's approved list. Great product! I'm trying to encourage my family & friends to get one.

I am trying very hard to decrease my carbon footprint and to recycle as much as possible. I live in a large suburban house and do a lot of cooking have a big garden, etc.
I have some problems with recycling and composting because much of the organic matter attracts bugs and rats, and it takes a long time to compost. Regular leaves clippings and garden leavings compost outside. The everyday stuff from my kitchen is quite a lot with onions skins, ends of peppers etc. I find. I have enough to fill the loomi about every other day. I have been running this machine continuously since I bought it. It has given me no trouble. Everything has been reduced to a small amount of a brown loam like consistency. I have thrown it in mixt with my garden and i've had no problems. This is not true composting however because of the heat in the dehydration that takes place, so there are no bacteria. I have reduced the amount of home garbage by at least one 13 gallon bag per week or more. The machine is a little noisy so I have it in the utility room

The media could not be loaded. I appreciate the relative simplicity of the product "” it's somewhat smaller than a fish tank and makes a bit more noise than one when operating. This is a considerable footprint "” taking up about 2x the space as the compose bin I thought it would replace. Instead, given some of the restrictions on what you can compost, I now how TWO compost dispensers "” the LOMI and my previous compost pail, for all the things the LOMI can't/won't ingest.

I suppose I had a naive or overly optimistic idea about what this product is or what it would do for my life, or maybe I just watched the sciencey video and thought, "Oh hey, now that I have a garden, I can create a closed loop for the food I eat and the food I grow!" How very East Bay of me.

My household of four does a fair amount of cooking and have consistently composted and recycled. When I read LOMI's estimate of the frequency of running the device, I thought it must be a joke.

"We recommend running Lomi every 2-3 days if there is waste inside to prevent unwanted odours."

If you want to produce compost that's going to nourish your garden, it needs to run for 24 hours. In a household of four, that's just not feasible. We easily fill out LOMI up daily, and there's no way we're buying a second one to keep up. It also makes this whirring/humming noise while in operation, and it's so large that you can't shove it under the counter or otherwise muffle the noise. It needs to be 6" away from the wall too, so it basically takes up a bunch of room and is a buzzkill if you have any guests over. I mean, I guess you can gloat about your world-saving bonafides but that line of conversation will only be interesting for 3 minutes, not 24 hours.

There are three modes the LOMI operates in "” Useful Compost (24hr), Plastic Composts (??), and Excess Energy Usage Nullying the Purpose of the Product Compost Mode (4hr). The LED UI is hard to read, and the long-press mode chooser operation is counterintuitive. I've used the 4hr mode a couple times and it basically cooks your compost using an unknown amount of energy (sadly my house isn't solar powered yet) and apparently zapping most of the useful nutrients that the 24hr slow cook mode preserves. You also need to add these seltzer pills that I guess help with the breakdown process "” and so it's like, am I actually reducing my waste by using this thing (guilt abounds).

On the plus side, I will say that it's like a pretty cool science experiment moment the first time you turn a bunch of random food scraps into a dry, non-odorous pile of dirt. They should probably incorporate this trick into the next Mortal Kombat as a Finish Him move. Seriously, it's that neat. But if it takes 24hrs to complete, that might make the game really boring and then you'll wonder why you bothered in the first place.

So, I'm mixed on this thing. Technology is cool and all "” but sometimes really isn't necessary when you have a perfectly functional bucket.

I find I'm using this more and more. What I'm doing with my scraps might be the difference between my use and that of other users. I don't put them in the machine right away. I stick them in a plate by my window so that the morning sun will dry the food out before its placed in the lomi. I started doing that after I opened the lid and saw that not everything had turned to dirt. Now it does. If you don't have the lid completely closed, you might notice a smell when you're using it. Be sure that the lid is tightly closed on all sides. Not closed on one and lifted ever so slightly on the other side. The other day I was cleaning my lomi, and there's a part that's removable (the part that spits out the dirt) that you can take apart and the dishwasher really cleans it up nicely. So I'd taken it part and put the two pieces of that particular part in the dishwasher. Unfortunately, during that cycle, the sealing gasket (which I'd forgotten to remove) came off so when I opened the dishwasher there were three pieces instead of two. I tried unsuccessfully to try getting it back together, and then called amazon to see if I could get a replacement part for that little gasket. Lomi didn't give them an option to replace that part, so they initiated a return and were going to send me a new one. After we got off the phone, I tried again to replace it and this time it worked! I've used it successfully twice since then. I have some gaskets on order now to take care of the issue if it ever arises again. ($5.99 for 6 gasket seals). So I cancelled the return. Thanks Amazon, you've been great thruout. Didn't want to have to return it!!!

Footnote: I initiated another return and thankfully I was able to cancel that one as well. The reason for the initiation? When plugged in, the Lomi wouldn't start after I pushed the button. The button wouldn't even turn it on. The customer service never made any suggestions other than to return it. When I started to take it apart to put it in a box, I found that the cord that plugs into the wall, also plugs into the lomi. I'd forgotten about that. It had worked itself out of the lomi when I turned the lomi a little bit. After I plugged it back into the lomi, it worked! Again, saving the hassle of the return. The reason for my posting that bit of information is so that if your lomi doesn't work, you check both ends of the cord to see they're both plugged in.