Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I did a lot of research and I've been very pleased with my decision to buy the Worm Factory 360. I started with 2 lbs of worms (versus one) because I knew that we would have enough kitchen scraps for the additional worms. The only surprise that I've had was when I put in a bunch of cantaloupe scraps (seed pulp and chopped up rinds) and opened the bin a week later to find tons of sprouts growing in the worm castings! I guess it goes to show how great a fertilizer the castings are...too bad it isn't time to plant cantaloupes! I go ahead and chop up the worm food scraps while I'm preparing our food and put it in a plastic container inside the fridge. For example, it doesn't take much extra time to cut up the cucumber and avocado peels (I prefer to use kitchen shears) while making a salad. I also feel better recycling vegetables and fruit that I let spoil instead of just throwing them out (makes me feel less guilty about wasting food and money). I was able to finish my first full bin in a little over a month. I've avoided any bad smells by putting down a layer of wet shredded newspaper, a thick layer of food scraps, and then covering all of the food thoroughly with more wet shredded newspaper (use your document shredder, it's very fast that way!). I now cover 1/4 of the bin at each feeding, about once a week. As to the construction, the Worm Factory is well made and seems to be made of durable plastic. The design is easy to use and I like how you can rest a bin on the inverted lid so that you don't squish any of the worms hanging from the bottom. Update 6 months later: All four trays are full and I may consider purchasing more trays (I think you can stack up to 8) because the trays on the bottom are about 95% composted but there are still worms remaining that you have to sort through in order to harvest the castings. The 5% is made up of avocado peels and thicker pieces of grass (the kind that looks more like hay than soft blades) so I won't be adding those to future trays. I don't know if the worms would migrate upward once all of the food is eaten. I now cover 1/2 of the bin at each feeding because I found it tedious to continually go back and feed. I have not had any problems with odor or fruit flies with the addition of this extra food. I have had a problem with excessive moisture in the bottom bins. I think that once you have all four bins full, the moisture that comes out of a lot of the fruits and vegetables (watermelon, cucumbers, lettuce, etc.) drips down with gravity and makes the castings very wet. Not a huge problem, but it makes the castings messier to harvest. The first batch was pretty easy because it was like very fine loose soil but this last batch was more wet clumps of soil. The houseplants are all doing well, but I'm waiting for spring to see if the worm castings will make a difference in the tomato plants. I plan to mix some compost into one pot and feed it with worm tea, and use regular soil and Miracle Grow with the other.