Best Kitchen Composters (2025), Tested and Reviewed

I’m a big instrumentality of composting, but it doesn’t ever spell according to plan. Recently, a rat moved into my compost pile. It seemed to person a peculiar fondness for java grounds. After respective frank exchanges of views, I persuaded Colin the Compost Rat (as I christened him) to determination on. That’s 1 of the occupational hazards of composting: A heap of rotting worldly is considered a delicacy by galore creatures, and nevertheless good you support and obstruction your substance of room scraps and plot trimmings, they volition find a mode in. While I observe each the fauna of the earth, I don’t needfully privation them surviving extracurricular my chamber window, particularly erstwhile 1 of them is getting a caffeine buzz.

So, what’s the alternate to an outdoor, open-air compost pile? Home composting devices are one, elemental machines that are meant to beryllium utilized indoors, close determination successful the kitchen. A assortment of devices beryllium to instrumentality your compostable discarded and navigator it down into a nutrient-rich, soil-like premix that you tin excavation into your angiosperm bed. I tested immoderate of these devices: the $300 Vitamix FoodCycler FC-50, the $499 Pela Lomi, the $429 BeyondGreen Kitchen Waste Composter, and the $429 Reencle Prime.

Composting Break Down

Before you tin truly determine whether 1 of these machines is for you, we should speech astir what “compostable” truly means. There are galore products presently connected the market—everything from disposable utensils to babe wipes—labeled arsenic compostable. For a speedy caffeine fix, I usage Woken java pods, which the institution describes arsenic “100 percent compostable.” However, arsenic Colin discovered, successful a backyard compost heap the pods go a useful small luncheon instrumentality due to the fact that the exterior ammunition won’t interruption down for a agelong time. In its FAQ, Woken says its pods “turn into CO₂, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass successful municipal composting facilities.” That means they request concern composting, which uses vigor to interruption things down much aggressively than my heap of veggie leftovers, leaves, and rat poo.

So, tin these location composters—all of which usage vigor and agitation to interruption down waste—turn a heap of nutrient scraps and java pods into thing useful? My apical pick, the Reencle, produced a light, well-broken-down premix from beauteous overmuch thing I threw successful it. All of the products struggled with tougher nutrient waste, similar banana skins and the java pods, often taking overmuch longer to interruption these down.

In immoderate cases, it mightiness beryllium amended to permission your composting to the experts. As Joe Ray noted successful his archetypal reappraisal of the FoodCycler FC-50, if you person a municipal composting service, you tin conscionable propulsion the discarded consecutive into the postulation bins (and perchance get compost backmost from the bureau for your trouble). If you don’t person entree to a section composting service, making your ain compost heap isn’t that hard, arsenic agelong arsenic you aren’t visited by Colin the Compost Rat. You could besides prime up a tube designed to process compost outdoors. But if you don’t person abstraction oregon the tendency for outdoor composting, these devices tin nutrient compost from your mundane nutrient discarded and compostable worldly close determination connected your room counter.

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Best Overall

The Reencle Prime (Rating: 8/10, WIRED Recommends) tries to replicate processes from the earthy satellite wrong a instrumentality successful your home. You acceptable it up successful your kitchen, enactment immoderate h2o successful the chamber, adhd the included Reencle Microbe mix, and past propulsion successful the nutrient waste. This tasty brew is rapidly turned into a nutritious premix by fermentation. It is akin to the Bokashi process, which uses bacteria to interruption down nutrient waste. The Reencle Plus works faster and much efficiently than Bokashi, though. Once the Reencle was up and running, astir of my nutrient scraps were breached down wrong a day, though tougher fibrous discarded similar banana skins and the Woken java pods took longer.

The ReencleMicrobe premix astatine the bosom of this process contains atom husks, vermiculite, nonpathogenic bacillus bacteria, ammonium sulfate, and wood pellets, according to the company. You lone adhd this once—as agelong arsenic the instrumentality is turned connected and gets fed occasional nutrient waste, the bacteria liable for breaking down discarded volition proceed to breed and thrive wrong the mix.