Food Cycler Platinum: An Easy Indoor Compost Bin

Finds
#1

I recently discovered this thing called a Food Cycler. It’s a sort of an indoor composting machine. However, the trick is that it speeds up the 2-3 year composting cycle to about 3 hours. It doesn’t require water, worms, chemicals or draining. Put food scraps in, let it run for a few hours, enjoy your new compost!

The Food Cycler uses heat and vibrations to compost food. It’s kind of like a Crock Pot for dirt. Apparently, it filters that remove any odors during the composting process.

After looking through a few Food Cycler Platinum reviews, it seems to be well-liked. Although those were mostly blogs, I haven’t seen reviews from major publications like The Wirecutter or Consumer Reports.

Food Cycler Platinum

The best indoor compost bin

Automatically, compost your old food scraps. The Food Cycler Platinum is perfect for those who want to compost, but hate hate the mess, smell and time required.
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#2

That video is pretty wild. Maybe if I had a house, I’d purchase one. I live in a condo, so I have limited counter space. There’s really not room for an appliance other than my coffee maker and grinder on the counter. Also, I don’t have a garden —plus I think composting could be against my HOA policy. Cool that something like this exists though. It’s like magic.

I wonder though, how much energy does that composter consume? Is it really a net gain for the environment, if it takes a ton of energy to compost and dehydrate scraps?

#3

Not really sure how to take power usage into account. According to the Food Cycler website:

The max draw on the Food Cycler is 500W, but this won’t last for more than a few minutes. Each cycle consumes less than 1kWh, with an hourly average of 0.8 kWh. The FoodCycler has built-in sensory technology that monitors the dryness and humidity of the food waste. Once complete, the unit will end its cycle automatically.

Not really sure what to compare that with, but 1 kWh per cycle seems pretty low. What’s keeping a light bulb on? Like 8 kWh per month?

Also, that page has some info about the types of things you can’t put in there.

Accepted scraps

  • Meat, fish, shellfish and poultry scraps
  • Most fruit and vegetable scraps
  • Cereals and grains
  • Cheese
  • Beans, seeds and legumes
  • Chicken and fish bones
  • Coffee grounds, filters and tea bags
  • Eggs and eggshells
  • Pet food

Scraps that can’t be processed

  • Hard bones such as beef bones and pig bones
  • Candy or gum
  • Cooking oils or greases
  • Hard pits (peaches, apricots, nectarines)
  • Nuts and other hard shells
  • Pineapple leaves
  • Paper towels (not on the site, but I’ve seen it mentioned in other reviews)
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#4

Whoa, this thing looks freaking amazing!

Every time I smell the stinky, rotting vegetables in my compost bin I want to puke. If this thing really doesn’t smell, it’s going to be a game changer!

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