Im looking to get a composter and my mum has one of those big pigs, like the picture but im not sure i want to spend £500+ on one. Any recommendations? Think we would want a tumbler style.
by philod1984
Im looking to get a composter and my mum has one of those big pigs, like the picture but im not sure i want to spend £500+ on one. Any recommendations? Think we would want a tumbler style.
by philod1984
13 Comments
A conical bin is by the far the best back garden composter. Nothing comes close to how well they make compost
A dalek or two, or three pallets zip-tied together. That’s an outrageous price.
[THESE](https://www.deubaxxl.co.uk/compost-bin-black-1200l-198x72x83cm/106393/)
are perfect. Two is better than one as I often take it all out, shovel it into bags, then add the bags back in to aerate, add water, more material etc. Two side by side means you can just move one into the other without too much fuss.
I had one of these, it was the best rotary composter I ever had. I may be wrong, but the last time I looked it appears the company got bought and moved to the US.
You sure that’s not an iron lung?
Do u play bingo with ur big tombola? Might be cheaper actually
I bought an old tumbler and a pair of conical bins on facebook marketplace for like £5. I tumble until it’s just over half filled then transfer the contents to one of the bins. Once one of the bins is filled I transfer it to the other. Basically, fresh stuff in the tumbler, one bin filled with part-done, and one with finished compost.
The one in the photo is insulated, which makes a difference, but ultimately you get out what you put in, whether it takes 2 months or 12 months. For the price difference you could buy a dumpy bag of finished compost for this year and have £400 change.
so, those are insulated and overall will probably improve the speed of composting if you use it right. A cheap tumbler will also be a good way to (maybe, if the stars align) get hot composting going. They will become your hobby.
Or you can use dalek bins/similar which is cold composting and slower. They rarely heat up so it’s months instead of weeks.
Or you could try worm composting which is not so good at dealing with sticks and grass cuttings.
Personally I gave up on rotating bins, could never get them to heat up and now have wormeries (mainly for food scraps) and dalek bins (which take forever but do eventually swallow up grass and hedge cuttings ie sticks).
The questions are: how much space do you have, how much effort do you want to put into your compost, and what will you be composting (eg if you don’t have a lawn, no grass).
I inherited a tumbler one with My house – it was awful – just wet sludge but that was possibly because it had been left with 3 years of grass in it….
I never fathomed how to empty it without covering myself in said sludge.
Sold it to some sucker on fb market place and got a dalek one; and currently trying to get a second dalek one cheap!!
For that price range I’d recommend a hotbin instead.
You can put all food waste in – even small bones, dog waste and plate scrapings.
I had 2 tumblers from Temu that cost me £20 each that are doing a pretty good job at home and do the 3-section pallet method on my allotment which is great there. But I’m aiming for a hotbin at home.
I use several one tonne weaved rubble sacks. Very common as a disposable delivery bags in the uk. They allow water to seep out and keep the compost together. Just throw cardboard on top and fold over the flaps easily accessed and turned. And all for free.
I got a Hotbin this year (the actual Hotbin brand). It cost me around £200, including 20% off. Not sure what came over me as it seems a silly amount to spend on a polystyrene compost bin, but it does get remarkably hot. Shove some grass clippings in there and the top thermometer reads 60 degrees C, with steam billowing out of the top vent. I had cheap plastic compost bins before and they never really got hot, but this thing is really quite impressive. It apparently does not need turning.
looks solid for composting