Nature Mill "Automatic Compost Bin" Review

I have been coveting the Nature Mill composters since I heard about them a few years ago.  I was given the opportunity to purchase one at a very generous discount, but still didn't think I could fit it into my budget.  Luckily for me, I think my husband felt guilty that I would be at home on my birthday, eating grilled cheese with my kids, while he was in Italy (on business.)  So, he told me to go ahead and order it as my birthday gift!

Before I get too far ahead of myself, the Nature Mill composter is self contained, heating and turning compost material in the upper chamber.  Then you transfer the compost to a lower chamber and add more items to the top.  A red light comes on about every two weeks, telling you to empty the lower tray.  You can compost even dairy, meat and fish (which you wouldn't put in a normal compost pile.)

Initially, I was a little disappointed by how simple it seemed.  The model I purchased retails for $299.  Their specifications indicate that it is made of recycled + recyclable energy-efficient polypropylene (stamped with the "5" triangle recycling symbol.)  It has the appearance of heavy duty Styrofoam, and the overall composter just seems so simple that I felt like I had wasted my money, that there was no way I was really going to feel like this thing was worth it.  I was wrong by the way.  Perfect example of why I don't write reviews immediately after I've received a product!

Lower Tray

Upper Chamber

The composter comes with sawdust pellets and baking soda that you add 1 cup/1 tablespoon to every 5 cups of food waste you add to the composter.

Initially, I had hoped to keep this in my kitchen, beside my trash and recycling bins.  They actually make cabinet kits for the composter, but I don't have an outlet I could plug it into.  Also, there is nothing latching the top closed (from curious fingers) and they warn that the inside can get quite hot. 

The composter can be used in temperatures from 0-120 degrees, as long as it has an outlet that is protected from water while plugged in.  I have one of these handy dandy outlets on my covered porch, so I thought I'd put it there.  It's just a few steps from my trash can after all.

The dead plants really add to the look, don't you think?  OK, maybe not.  I just couldn't manage to make it not look weird!

So, I put it in the garage!

Here is a quick video to demonstrate the noise the Nature Mill Composter makes when it is plugged in.

I started using it right away.  You can put all kinds of food waste in it.  The box included easy to reference guides on what you can and can't put in it.  The big no-nos are hard or fibrous items (corn husks, peach pits) and paper or artificial items (plastic, dryer lint, compostable plates etc.)  I was worried about keeping track of when to add the sawdust pellets and baking soda, but I didn't have any trouble.  I added some every few days and I had no trash odors at all.  Just an earthy smell.

I don't want to gross you out with pictures of icky food waste, but here is a photo of the compost along the process.

The black pieces are all that remains of banana peels within hours of adding them.  The internal heat, combined with the automatic turning every 4 hours, breaks the material down insanely fast.

My videos are very dark, my apologies.  The next time I take video in my garage I'll open the door!  This next video shows the composter while it's turning, so you can hear what it sounds like.  Keep in mind that I'm right on top of it during filming, and it's much quieter if you are just walking by.

So, I've been using my composter now for about 3 1/2 weeks.  It can handle up to 120 lbs of food waste per month, and produces a batch of compost about every two weeks.  I haven't gotten to use any yet, because after you transfer the compost the first time, you let it continue to compost in the lower tray.  Next time I'm ready to transfer, I'll be ready to use some as well!

So, transfer...it's a super easy, 15-minute process that you start by pushing a button.

That starts the process of the composter turning the compost, and dropping it through the trap door, to the tray below.



Here is another clip toward the end of the transfer cycle.



and a shot of the trap door opening (and the noise it makes)



There will be a small bit of compost remaining in the upper chamber after transfer, that's not a problem, it helps the next batch!

You're left with lovely compost that will continue to break down and compact until your red light comes on!

You can see I may have rushed it a little bit since there are still bits of banana peel visible. I was anxious, what can I say!

Nature mill also has pricier models with colored accents, foot pedals and lifetime filters.

So, why I love the Nature Mill Automatic Compost bin:

• I love a gadget.  I do, I can't help it.
• It's all self contained.  No piles of food waste on my counter and trekking to the backyard to add it to the pile.
• No worries about our skunks, raccoons, wild turkeys, deer, cows, groundhogs or bats getting into it.  We've had animals get a bag from the bottom of our garbage can and spread it all over the yard.
• No trash smell!  My kitchen smells better having all the food waste out of it!
• We're only producing 1/2-1/4 bag of trash per week (we're fortunate enough to have a county-wide recycling program as well!)
• Nitrogen rich compost!
• It's fast!  No turning by hand and compost is ready in 2 weeks.
• It's attractive.  It's about the size of an old school CPU case and is much better looking than a pile of waste outside.
• It's so easy.
• You can even put dairy, meat and fish in it!
• Other things I am probably forgetting right now.

We have so much food waste around here between banana peels, other fruit skins, sandwich crusts and all the confetti that signals a toddler is finished with his meal, hee hee.  It's fantastic to not be putting that in the trash!

The composter uses about 5 kWh of power per month (about the same as a night light.)

Who knew trash could be "fun?!"  There is even more to say about the Nature Mill Automatic Compost Bin, but I don't want to make this post a mile long!  Read more about how it works and "earth facts" on Nature Mill's website!

Thank you to Nature Mill for allowing me to purchase this composter at a discount.  The discount in no way affected my review, and all opinions are my own.

SodaStream Review & Giveaway CLOSED 5/5

We don't drink tons of soda, but we do like to have it occasionally.  However, I love flavored water, especially seltzer, and I've even been known to add a dash of orange juice to seltzer.

Soda is expensive, and seltzer can be too, even the generic brands.  I go through flavored water so quickly that it takes up tons of space in the cart, the trunk, the pantry and the fridge.  Not to mention the space in the recycling bin.

One reason I like to have soda on hand is to be able to offer it to guests.  Keeping a few 12 packs on hand again, takes up a lot of space in the pantry, and trying to keep a few of each type cold takes up a ton of space in the fridge.  If we buy 2-liter bottles, it goes flat before we drink it, and that's money down the drain.

You can read here about how SodaStream helps the environment including less packaging waste and less pollution from transporting the packages.

SodaStream offered to send me a Fountain Jet starter kit and some SodaMix flavors to try and review.  They are sponsoring a giveaway too, so read on!

I was very excited to find this at my door.

It was packaged with bubble wrap that my daughter enjoyed, and some other cushioning materials that I can reuse!

I also got seven SodaMix flavors, and 3 MyWater flavors!

Each bottle of mix isn't much bigger than a single can of soda, but it makes the equivalent of 33 cans!  Each bottle sells for $4.99-$6.99 and makes 12 liters of soda.

All of the bottles in my pantry took up about the same amount of space as a 12-pack of soda, but the 7 bottles would make over 19 12-packs worth.  Each tiny bottle of MyWater mix makes 20 1-liter bottles.

The FAQs say to keep unopened bottles in a cool, dry place, and for the "coldest soda," you should keep opened bottles in the fridge.  The MyWater bottles say to refrigerate after opening, and to use within 6 weeks of opening.  I am used to things requiring refrigeration after being opened, so I decided to store them in the fridge just to be on the safe side.  They didn't take up much more space than a few cans of soda.

The SodaStream website says "SodaMix bottles feature a "best before" date which relates to optimal taste. Rest assured that sodamix can safely be consumed well beyond this “best before” date, however peak taste is ensured by consuming prior to this date. Sodamix will typically arrive at your home with about 3-4 months remaining prior to the “best before” date, therefore please order no more than a 3-4 month supply of sodamix."  I had one bottle with a Best Before date in this fall, one in December, and the rest were early next year.

The machine is small, sleek and lightweight.

I have it out on my counter instead of being hidden away like my other small appliances! 

It actually looks great with my stainless appliances.

The machine had a tag with some quick tips on the it.

I still read the instruction sheet, and referenced it as I tried it out.

The Fountain Jet has a drip tray that's easily removable for cleaning.

I'm ready to set it up and try it out!  It was really pretty easy.  I had to install the CO2 cartridge.

My starter kit came with a 14.5 oz cartridge that will carbonate up to 60 liters.  The spare/exchange deal works just like propane tanks.  Exchanging a cartridge this size costs around $15.  Getting a spare is slightly more.  Looking at their online store, it appears you can't exchange just one of the smaller ones, so I would have to do the buy 1 spare/exchange 1, which is regularly $49.99, on sale for $30.99.   (The Earth Day sale runs through 4/23 and offers 40% off spare carbonators).   The shipping charge is $7.99, and shipping your empty back is free.  If you don't ship it back, you can be charged a $15 fee (basically making it a spare rather than an exchange).

You can also search for a retailer and look for one that sells spares and/or exchanges.  For us, the nearest is about an hour away.  We're used to this.  Our mall's anchor stores are Sears and JcPenney, not Neiman Marcus and Crate and Barrel.  We travel to a "big mall" city a few times a year to shop for different things, so we could take care of this then, or just order online.

The Fountain Jet also accepts 33 oz/110 liter carbonators.  Other models do not.

In any case, installing it was easy.  I removed the back panel.

Installed the cartridge

and replaced the cover.

The Fountain Jet comes with two BPA free, reusable PET bottles. 

You can get extras for $15 per two pack.  They are 1 liter size.  They also have 1/2 liter travel size bottles.

Much sturdier than a store bought soda bottle.

They cannot be washed in the dishwasher.

The caps have a rubber seal, keeping the seltzer or soda fizzy for much longer than store bought.

You are supposed to be able to use each bottle for up to three years.  The bottles conveniently have the discard date printed on them, but mine say to discard after October 2011.  I imagine they sent me a kit that was a bit older than what they would ship a purchaser.

To carbonate, fill the bottle to the fill line (no more than that!!)

Tip the nozzle out.

and thread the bottle on.

The instructions said to press the carbonating button in short presses, all the way down until you hear a loud buzz.  3 buzzes provide average carbonation, repeat for extra fizz.

This took me a little bit of practice.  I initially wasn't pressing the button hard enough, and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be hearing.  I took a quick video to show you.

My daughter said the "buzz" sounded like a burp, and I think that's pretty accurate!

Hold your bottle of fizzy water at a 45 degree angle, and slowly pour 1 capful of SodaMix in.  Tighten cap and gently rock the bottle back and forth to mix.

Enjoy!

Or, you can do what I did.  I carbonated the water and stored it without adding anything.  The "serving size" is 8 oz of water to 10 ml SodaMix.  So, you could just add about 2 teaspoons of mix to 8 oz of seltzer in your glass, then mix.

What I really like about this is that if your seltzer loses some of it's fizz, you can re-carbonate it.  You can only carbonate water, so if your already mixed soda loses it's fizz, you can't re-carbonate it.  Also, no, you can't carbonate vodka.  *eyeroll*  Yes, when my hubby saw this, he asked me if you could carbonate anything else, with a devilish glint in his eye and yes, he specifically mentioned vodka.

Also, you can have whatever flavor you like, without having several bottles of mixed soda on the go, taking up space, getting flat!  It also makes it very easy to keep the bottles clean.  Just rinse with warm water, fill with clean water to the fill line, then store in the fridge until you're ready to carbonate (cold water carbonates better).

What I like most about the Soda Stream, is that I can adjust the mix to water ratio to my taste.  Most sodas are too sweet for me.  Even when I occasionally get Fruit2O, I cut it with about half water.  In fact, my favorite water isn't sweetened at all.

It's a rare treat though, because it's so expensive!

I set up a taste test.

My 5-year old daughter was excited, since she's only had sips of soda a few times.  It's actually quite amusing since she really doesn't like soda.  She makes a disgusted face, but forces out a "yum" or similar, before refusing another sip.  I think she wants to keep her options open to try some the next time, instead of being reminded that she doesn't like it.

Anyway, I put about 4 ounces of water and 1 teaspoon of soda mix in each glass, then stirred.  I used 1/4 tsp of MyWater in those glasses.

I really wasn't sure if my husband would like any of these.  All of the SodaMix flavors contain splenda, even the "regular," non-diet flavors.  Neither one of us is a big fan of artificial tasting flavorings, but he is really bothered by artificial sweeteners as well.  The MyWater flavorings contain natural flavors only, no sweetener (though they tasted sweet to me).

The "regular" flavors don't contain any High Fructose Corn Syrup.  However, I do wish there were flavors sweetened with cane sugar or stevia.

After a few tastes, we decided we needed a palate cleanser.

Not just goldfish, dye filled goldfish.  What can I say, sometimes it's worth giving in to pleas for colorful goldfish.  It's a better "treat" than candy!

Hubby liked the Coke Zero imitation.  He used it just as he uses Coke (ha ha).

He also really enjoyed the Diet Energy drink.  He thought it tasted and smelled just like Red Bull.  The next morning after this taste test, he mixed some up and took it with him on the ride to work, in one of his reusable, aluminum bottles.

My daughter really liked the orange mango (also my favorite).

She also really enjoyed the diet cream soda (as did my hubby).

I thought that the fruity flavors were good with the average, 3 "buzz" carbonation, but the cola, root beer etc. could have used a bit more fizz.

I loved the orange and lemon-lime MyWater flavors.  I thought just a drop to a full glass was great, and that it would taste great in "still" water also.  Even my husband liked the lemon-lime, and that is not his cup of tea (seltzer?).

The only flavor that got a thumbs down all around was the berry MyWater.

I think this would would be great for a party.  You could mix different flavors, even use them as alcoholic drink mixers.  My husband had the idea of having a pump that would dispense the right amount for one glass, which is a great idea.

I figure two liters of this soda costs between $1.43 and $1.77 between soda mix and a large CO2 cartridge (exchange-including shipping).  This is slightly greater than the typical "stock up" sale price on name brand soda in 2L bottles, at my local store.  However, we would end up throwing away about half of that two liter bottle, making the SodaStream much more cost effective for us.  That's totally aside from the convenience and storage factor.  The energy drink is much, much more cost effective and the savings on seltzer is huge.

SodaStream says you can use tap water, but I would use filtered water.  We have awesome well water that is further filtered.  Even before being filtered, it tastes like mountain spring water (probably because it is!)  So, that may make ours taste extra good!

Right now, we're having a blast using this.  Before I invest in more CO2 cartridges or SodaMixes, I want to see if we continue to use it after the novelty wears off, or if it collects dust!

Want your own?  Buy one.

Or, win it! 

SodaStream will send one lucky winner a Fountain Jet starter pack (retail value approx. $100), which includes a machine, 1 carbonator, two BPA-free carbonating bottles and two flavors of the winner’s choice.

Here's how to enter:

1. Leave me a comment with which two flavors you would choose if you won.  This is a mandatory entry.  

2. Follow my blog publicly.  Current followers count.  Comment saying you're a follower to get your entry.

3. Fan me on Facebook.  Current fans count.  Comment saying you're a fan to get your entry.

4. Follow me on  Twitter.  Current followers count.  Comment saying you're a follower to get your entry.

5. Tweet about this giveaway.  "RT @ Chgdiapers win a SodaStream Fountain Jet Starter Pack valued at $100 until 5/5 http://bit.ly/c3OeZg #giveaway" Comment with a link to your tweet for your entry.  (One Tweet/entry per day)

6. Write a blog post about this giveaway and link to it.  Post a comment with a link to your post for your entry.

7.  Become a fan of SodaStream on Facebook.  Comment saying you're a fan to get your entry.

I will accept entries until Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 at 9:00 P.M. 

I'll use random.org's true random number generator to select a winner, than notify the winner via email. 

Please be sure to leave your email address in your comment if it isn't in your profile

Thank you SodaStream for providing me with a Fountain Jet and SodaMixes, as well as the winner's starter kit.  The freebies in no way influenced my review.

Edit August 2010: We're still using this regularly and have purchased cartridge and sodamix refills.  I stll wish they had a "make your own" sampler option so we could try different mixes without committing to a full bottle, or a sampler with many flavors we're not interested in, or have already tried.