Dan Espen wrote:
gennylee writes:
Ferg123 wrote:
I am a Product Designer at the University of Huddersfield, England. I am
currently designing a rotating compost tumbler and was wondering if any
of you have any advice for me when it comes to designing one. Any
experiences, both bad or good will be much appreciated. Thanks!

Is it cheaper to make your own rather than just buy one?

I find it a lot cheaper to make my own.

All I do is put the compost in a pile.
A pile way too large to fit in any bin.

As for some kind of large rotating bin, no thanks.
I'd spend all winter looking out the window seeing
a large plastic monstrosity.

It's silly to design a new composter, there are already way too many
on the market, most of which are J U N K.

Tumblers don't compost anyway, at best they ferment and stink. Organic
materials MUST be in contact with the earth to compost.
Tumblers are as gimmick, began for those who live on small lots and
have neighbor problems... all composters attract critters, even
tumblers.

My neighbor paid $800 for a gigantic plastic tumbler, compartmentised
and gear driven, not only didn't it compost it began to fall apart
after a few days... even half full organic materials are too heavy,
plastic gears cracked first, then as the temperatures here began to
drop below freezing the entire thing began to break apart.
This POS:
http://www.wagle.com/composters/comp...s-50100-gallon

The next season my neighbor finally bought the composter I originally
recommended, the one I've been using for some 15 years, works very
well and is still good as new. I've recommended this one to several
people, many have two and even three going. I like how when
composting is completed I can just lift it off... I never have to stir
or add any accelereator, not even water, and I don't bother with the
clean out openings, I just lift the entire thing and move it over some
to a new location. With each emptying it produces about 75 gallons of
beautiful sweet smelling compost, fully composted. I don't recommend
using the rodent screen. Over time the prices for these things have
risen dramatically, 15 years ago I paid under $40 for mine, this is
the only composter I've seen with a 25 year warranty, it's built like
a tank:
http://www.wagle.com/composters/comp...ost-bin-85-gal