In an earlier podcast I told you why we had decided to get into composting: it's not necessarily one of those "quick money in your pocket" things, but more of a strategic thing. Over half of what goes into the landfills is organic and could be composted. Instead, it sits there taking up a huge amount of space, and then produces methane - a nasty greenhouse gas - as it breaks down. We pay oodles of money in taxes, homeowner association fees, and so on to have it all hauled to the landfill and crammed into a big hole in the ground.

It's just a lot smarter - ecologically and economically - to put all that organic stuff back into the land in a useful form like compost. And it looks like even those of us who wouldn't recognize compost if it slapped us in the face can make it happen with the Naturemill Automatic Composter!

Now, as I'd mentioned in our earlier podcast on this topic, we decided on the Naturemill Automatic Composter because it claims to make composting easy and convenient even for total gardening boneheads like me who don't want to deal with traditional ways of composting.

We went ahead and ordered one from the Naturemill site for $399 (you can also order one from Amazon or some other sites, but it's more expensive) (disclaimer). A few days later it arrived by UPS in a big cardboard box. Pleasantly enough, it wasn't packaged up with styrofoam (which is a big pet peeve of mine) or wrapped up in twenty layers of plastic. We took off the external packaging, then removed the collection tray and liquid collection cup to take off the packing material from them, then we put them back in the lower compartment.

According to Naturemill, the composter is made largely from recycled materials, which is certainly a plus. It's attractive enough for a kitchen-style appliance, with a black top and gray exterior that has a pebbled texture. The top lid (which is heavily insulated, as is the rest of the inside of the unit) opens to reveal the compost reactor chamber, the stainless steel mixing bars, and the stainless steel door that drops the compost down into the curing tray below.

Opening the front panel with a couple of latches (not high tech, but quite functional), you can see into the curing tray compartment, and also take a gander at some of the components (motor, air pump, etc.) protruding through the insulative material. This is also where the air filter is located - it looks like an upside-down clear plastic squeeze bottle filled with charcoal. Again, not necessarily high tech, but everything seemed well put together.

On the "back" of the unit - the side on which the lid is hinged - you can find the socket for the power supply and the small-diameter exhaust air hose. The hose comes with an extension in case you want to put the Naturemill inside a kitchen cabinet or other enclusure (you want to make sure the hose can vent the moisture and air outside of any enclosure).

We put the Naturemill composter in our pantry next to our upright freezer. After plugging it in, the composter began to hum as the air pump came on. The pump draws air from the reactor chamber through the filter to remove odors, then sends it out the aforementioned exhaust air hose. It's on all the time, except when the mixing motor comes on. The air pump seemed fairly loud at first, but the instructions said that the unit would become "nearly silent" as it filled up, and it has piped down quite a bit as it's filled up.

I think that the claims of it being "nearly silent" are a bit exaggerated: it's true that it did quiet down as more material was put into the reactor chamber, but it still makes a low humming noise. In our pantry, we don't notice it at all. But if you plan on putting it out in the open, say next to the island in your kitchen, you'd be able to hear it. It's not as loud as either our refrigerator or freezer, but it really is an "appliance" and it does make a bit of a hum all the time. The other noise it makes - from the mixing motor - is really just a quiet whining sound for a few minutes every few hours and is no big deal at all.

Okay! It's unpacked, plugged in, and ready to go! Now, I'll be the first to admit that I don't have the first flippin' clue about composting. All I really know is that it's made out of stuff that most of us toss out in the trash or (equally bad) send down the drain, and that it's supposed to be awesome plant food. That's the limit of my knowledge! But the instructions with the Naturemill Automatic Composter are fairly idiot-proof, which was a really important point for me!

In brief, there are two general categories of stuff you can put in the composter: "brown" and "green" items.

The brown items include dry things like bread, rice, pasta, grains, and a number of other things. Even shredded paper (like our paper napkins), cotton, and laundry lint - boy, have we got plenty of *that* - can be dumped in!

The green items are the things that are "wet": fruits and vegetables, meat, egg shells, coffee grounds and paper filters, and more.

Looking at the list, about the only common things we scrape into the trash now that we couldn't compost would be bones!

There's also a list of things you shouldn't put into the composter, most of which are obvious to anyone who's got at least half a brain. The ones that might not be so obvious, though, are acidic things like citrus, grapes, pickles, tomatoes, and so on that can kill the compost bacteria. You can still compost small amounts of those items, but the instructions recommend that you add some baking soda each time to reduce the acidity.

To get the compost started, the first thing you need is dirt. That's right, just plain ordinary dirt from somewhere that plants grow. So I went outside and carved out two cups of topsoil from our front flower bed (which right now is pretty much frozen solid!), and tossed it into the upper chamber of the composter. Then it was time to start filling this puppy up!

Looking back on it, I'm sure I probably won't win the King Of Compost crown with this first batch. After the dirt, I started off with an old box of rice (which is on the instructions as a brown item), but the stuff hadn't been cooked. But who knows? Maybe it doesn't have to be, and it was too late, anyway. I followed that up with a variety of odds and ends over the next several days, until the reactor chamber was about half full (you're not supposed to fill it up more than halfway to keep the mixer from jamming). As the composting went on, the volume reduced so I could put more stuff in. I tried my best to keep it balanced between brown and green stuff, but I guess we'll find out in a couple weeks how well I did.

One question I had was how do you tell if it's composting? It's easy: you'll notice when the temperature in the reactor chamber goes way up - it gets hot enough in there that I've seen steam rise up off that stuff! But the insulation in the unit seems to contain the heat quite well, which was nice because we have the thing right next to our freezer. The Naturemill monitors the temperature inside the unit and keeps it optimal for the composting bacteria to work, and every few hours the mixing motor comes on and slowly churns the compost for a few minutes.

Now for the part that I'm sure a lot of you have been waiting for: what does the compost look and smell like? Well, first of all, when the lid and front door are sealed, you can't see anything and *almost* can't smell anything. I can't say that it's completely odor free when the top lid and front door are closed, as I do notice a faint odor when the upper reactor chamber was full to the halfway mark. But once that bunch of compost-in-making was dumped into the curing tray, I couldn't smell more than a very faint trace of the compost odor.

When you open the lid with the handy foot pedal to dump stuff into the reactor chamber, you will get a brief but clear whiff and view of what's cooking inside. Now, let's be frank, here: organic stuff breaking down into compost isn't necessarily a pretty sight. But you're not there to ogle the stuff, just dump more in. As for the smell, it's fairly strong, but it does not smell like rotting meat or plants - the high temperature in there generated by the good bacteria apparently kills off the bad bacteria. In fact, as the composting got underway in the first few days, it smelled to me more like drywall after it's been cut than anything else, and wasn't unpleasant at all.

After a few more days and more loads of goodies, the smell changed somewhat. It smelled really familiar, and it took my wife and I a while to pin it down: sourdough bread. That's the closest I can come to describing the odor. If you like sourdough bread, which I happen to, then the smell is no biggie. If you don't, well, just open the lid real quick to dump stuff in, shut it, then skeedadle. But remember: the smell after you open the lid will persist for a little while.

Actually, I figured out a way to avoid having to worry much about the smell when you dump new stuff in. I have a plastic container that I keep on the counter. When we get stuff that needs to go into the composter, I stick it in this container. Then before I head upstairs to bed, I dump the day's haul into the composter - that way there's nobody around to worry about the smell from opening the lid, and it's long gone before morning.

The instructions say to cycle the compost - drop it from the upper reactor chamber to the bottom tray - when the upper chamber is half full and the contents are dark, well-mixed, and the original tidbits are unrecognizeable. You also need to wait 24 hours after you've added new stuff before you cycle it. To do the cycle, just push the "OK" button and it churns the neophyte compost into the tray where it continues to cure. Again, the instructions are easy to follow, and the machine tells you when the bottom tray is full and needs to be emptied. There's even a little container in there to catch any liquid that can be used as compost "tea" that you can use on your plants.

So, I cycled it last night. Almost everything in the reactor chamber disappeared, with a big - maybe a cup or two - left to pass the composting bacteria along to the next batch. All the stuff that was in the reactor was dumped into the curing tray in the lower compartment. Now we have to wait another week or so to dump a second load of compost into the curing tray, then wait for the "full" light to start blinking - that's when we remove the curing tray and see what kind of compost we've got!

So stay tuned for the next chapter in our "composting chronicles"!

Update: I started having some problems with the composter producing wet, gooey compost, even though I had been adding what I thought should be plenty of dry stuff. It was so wet that it was actually leaking out of the lower chamber and onto the floor under the composter!

However, after cleaning the third batch of goo out of the unit (and muttering some very unkind words), I discovered that the intake for the filter - the upside-down bottle just inside the front door of the unit - was completely clogged up. I suspect this must've happened one time when I didn't empty the unit out, or perhaps something just got stuck in there.

Regardless, after making sure that was clear and also checking to make sure the unit was pumping out air from the clear plastic exhaust tube on the side (just put your hand in front of it and you should feel air coming out), the change has been remarkable: the new batch of compost seems to be coming along very nicely; it doesn't smell bad; there isn't nearly as much of a smell, period, when you open and then close the door; there's virtually no fungus buildup; and it looks like I think it's supposed to!

So, the bottom line? If your compost is wet and icky, check the filter inlet nozzle and the exhaust tube to make sure air's being sucked through and cleaned, and also that you're putting in plenty of "dry" items. It also helps to add in a handful of sawdust (or untreated wood shavings used for pet cages), which helps the compost reaction along. That should cure your composting ills!

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	14-04-2007 11:25
	I just wanted to make a quick update here on the Naturemill Automatic Composter on an important issue: the odor! I found out that I wasn't adding enough "brown" (read: dry) stuff to the compost. But after I started adding more - mostly shredded paper napkins and that sort of thing - the smell became a very earthy odor that is not at all unpleasant. Just a tip! http://www.savingcivilization.org Report

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	11-05-2007 16:45
	hey just found this site looking for folks with experience on this composter. Your review and discussion is very helpful. I'm going to buy one - sick of dumping a lot of kitchen waste into the trash and our yard can use some compost. Thanks again for this site - really nice. Report

Paul

	12-05-2007 06:57
	Paul - thanks for the compliments! I think you'll like it. Again, just keep in mind that it does make a humming noise, and that it may make a bit of an odor before the cultures really take hold. Right now, when I open ours up, it smells very earthy.     If it smells sour, add more brown/dry items. Speaking of which, one thing I decided to stop doing was adding shredded paper napkins: for some reason they weren't breaking down and were just clumping in the composter. Report

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	19-08-2007 14:02
	We were very excited about getting our new Naturemill automatic composter when we ordered it. From everything we had read, we thought it was going to be the best thing since sliced bread. But we hadn't actually talked to anyone who had used one.     We've had it now for about two months and my wife and I share the same opinion: WE ARE COMPLETELY UNDERWHELMED. In theory the composter is great. But in practice, we haven't seen good results yet. I clarify that we have followed the directions to a t.  Our three biggest complaints are:  1)It's loud. I don't mean just when its turning over the compost, I mean a loud hum 24/7. Much louder than any refrigerator I've ever used.  2)It smells. The odors are contained 100% until you open the lid to add more compost material. But that's the catch-22, you have to open the lid to put in the compost material. We've gone thru the instructions of adding more brown material (wood shavings, paper, etc. But still fills our kitchen with a strong, unpleasant odor.  3)The finished product isn't really composted very well. We've left stuff in the machine for six weeks, and it there is some earthy material, but we still see lots of the 2" pieces of fruits & vegetables we originally put in.    In review,we have been COMPLETELY UNDERWHELMED. But we're still giving it a go, and hopefully we will see some inprovement. Report

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	20-09-2007 14:15
	ewilson -    Okay, here are my suggestions/comments on the troubles you're having:    1) The noise. This is indeed a factor, and as I think I mentioned in the review, the thing isn't "nearly silent" as the manufacturer claims. However, from your description, yours seems to be louder than ours - and our is also comparatively isolated in our pantry. But I wouldn't necessarily want it out in the middle of the kitchen somewhere, humming away 24/7!    2) The trick we use for the smell is this: keep a conveniently sized container with a lid on your counter. Dump your compost items in there during the day. Then, before you go to bed, dump the container into the composter. That way you only have to open it once.    3) This sounds like the composting reaction isn't really doing so well. I talked to Naturemill about this, and they recommended adding 1/4 to 1/2 cup of just regular old sawdust periodically (which apparently really fires up the composting action). But even without that, ours - just using good soil where plants grow well - the compost items are unrecognizeable after two or three days. This is also probably part of the problem with the smell: if things aren't composting but are just decaying, that's gotta stink!    Finally, in my experience thus far - and I've had a couple batches of yucky compost in the meantime - I've found that the main enemy of good compost from the kitchen is too much wet stuff and not enough dry! Sawdust will help with that, but while the manufacturer says to add an equal amount of wet and dry items, I'd venture to say that you should have about 1/3 wet and 2/3 dry. At least in our kitchen, there's just a lot more wet stuff than dry that we toss away.    Another tip: don't leave the compost in the composter too long before cycling it! I do that all the time, unfortunately. But ideally (if the reaction is going well, breaking stuff down quickly) you should probably be cycling the composter at least once a week. Otherwise you get a big unsightly buildup of fungus going and the composter can jam up when the reaction chamber gets too full. If the compost is over the top of where the mixing arm comes to at the top of its arc, it's probably about time to cycle it (just make sure the most recent items have been in there at least three days).    Anyway, I hope that helps!     Mike Report

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	09-02-2008 16:59
	I've just purchased the Naturemill Plus online and am wondering if you're overall view of the appliance remains the same. Are you still getting good results? Report

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	01-04-2008 21:12
	can anyone advise me which model (NatureMill Plus($299) or NatureMill Pro ($399)) I should buy?    I'm a full time homemaker with 2 kids. I cook almost every meal from scratch, using lots of veggies.  I have a small vegetable garden and flower garden to dump compost.    And I'm planning to put this composter in our mud room since I have a soon-to-be toddler baby.    Any suggestion will be appreciated! Report

eun

	10-05-2008 10:45
	OK, so my anti-treehugger boyfriend wanted me to get this. I did. He read the instructions. Just plugged it in and wants to know why it didn't start the composting immediately. It is merely humming. Can anyone answer this? Report

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	10-05-2008 10:47
	Correction: not so much why it isn't composting, but why it isn't churning upon immediately being plugged in. Also, the power button is on. He wants to know if he is supposed to press the OK button. Anyone? Report

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