Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Took 30 minutes or so to assemble. There are a lot of screws because there are 4 quarter panels that come together, but it’s pretty straightforward to build. This is my 4th or 5th compost bin over the past 10 years. I have 3 in my back yard right now including the Spin Bin.The ones that tumble end over end can be harder to tumble over when they are full, but they also tend to hold more material than the horizontal ones, and I prefer the bigger capacity. My technique is to get it swinging back and forth and then use the momentum to make it tumble if it’s super full with heavy kitchen scraps. With grass and leaves only it doesn’t get that heavy, so it isn’t necessary. Most of the other ones in this price range have a much lower capacity because they are smaller. The difference between 50 and 60 gallons doesn’t sound like that much, but it’s actually 20 percent less. Black color is nice because it heats up the contents well in the sun. Lids on both sides are convenient when you want to add more stuff from the kitchen. With tumblers you can batch compost where you fill up the entire bin with the right mix of carbon and nitrogen rich materials (greens and browns) and then wait for the whole batch to finish. But that’s a lot of work and planning, so I don’t usually do it that way. The other way is to continuously add material to it and let everything break down over a longer period of time. Toward the end, you’ll have mostly finished compost with a few things you still recognize. You just screen that stuff out, or stop adding materials and wait a few more weeks until it breaks down too. If you add too many greens (nitrogen rich materials) it will get all goopy and can smell. So add browns if that happens, like dried leaves or dried out brown grass clippings. If you just have a bunch of dry leaves in there, nothing will happen. So add more nitrogen rich greens like coffee grounds, vegetable scraps from the kitchen and fresh grass clippings. Just keep adding more greens or more browns if you get off track, and eventually you’ll have finished compost.