Good Ideas Composting & Rain Harvesting

Do you compost? :slight_smile:

We put things in a pile in the woods behind our house and let nature do its job or we mulch things up. But I have been interested in the rain barrel concept for awhile.

I’m curious if anyone’s used these for awhile- do the wheels hold up over time?

Too, I’m curious if there’s some sort of gasket under the threaded ring to keep liquid from dripping out as you turn it- I’m planning on putting a vent of some sort on the backside of the barrel, but I don’t really want any juice (tea, I suppose) coming out where I’m going to be taking the lid on and off.

With very little effort, one could double geek out on this one and turn it into a TARDIS rain barrel. Collect water! Save the universe!

Nice! I hope these deals come back in a couple months once the purchase of my house is complete and I have a chance to save up some spending cash again lol. But like seeing it here.

Sorry to bring bad news but: The bamboo compost bucket is $38.95 with free shipping over at Amazon. Makes it cheaper than here when you add the $5 shipping.

The Plus deals are select deals of product that we can’t sell on the main sites for various reasons like it being too niche or the small quantities available.

They’re generally good deals in their own right but they’re not going to have the deep discounts that you’re used to seeing on the daily sales. This is due in part to the smaller quantities (i.e. no volume discounts). In some cases, the deal is improved if you take advantage of the $5 all day shipping.

As always, we know our wooters are serious consumers and will hunt down the best price available. We expect no less of you.

Hope that helps. Happy shopping!

Things to note on the composters:

7ft^3 = 52.36gal

At 1/2gal of waste /week = 1year of adding compost until half full on that big composter.

Our household cooks about 7 meals/week of fruits/veggies and we produce about 1/2gal of food scraps per week. That’s 2 weeks before one of those little pails get filled up… and there are only 2 of us eating food.

There are two types of biodegrading bacteria: aerobic and non-aerobic. Aerobic bacteria need oxygen, and biodegrade food quicker. Non-adiabatic bacteria do not require oxygen, but process food slower and give off sulfides and ammonia; harmless, but much more pungent. Therefore, more you can tumble your compost in open air, the less stinky it will be.

A good site that talks about composting for beginners:
Compost!

IMO:
The tumbler looks like a decent buy for that volume and that price. The bamboo and steel pails are not worth anything for composting as they will only hold food for a couple weeks at most. Your food scraps would still be pretty fresh at that point. They would do just fine if you like it to be a “mini trashcan for biodegradables” that you take out once a week to your back yard though. I know little to nothing on those rain catchermahoozits.

Large composters on Amazon:
Envirocycle: $130 with 4.5 stars
Suncast: $80 with 2.5 stars
Good Ideas: $120 with 4 stars

A picture of the wheel assembly on THIS(!) site looks like the wheel assembly is pretty simple/durable/replaceable if need be.

Another picture of the composter on the same site shows what appears to be some sort of gasket that has been mounted to the plastic bin.

FYI, check with your local soda bottling facility. The pepsi facility near me sells 55G barrels for $20

Woot…Please help me figure my figures…Description says these are 55 gallon capacity…specs say the dimensions are 32x16x16 (inches)…the dimensions convert to about 35 gallons (max)…what is the capacity of the Savannah Rain Savers?

the build-your-own kit looks confusing. I am frustrated in how lack of information there is about it; where would one mount the cover – on curved side of barrel or the flat side? and if so, how different would it be compare to me buying a simple barrel with a cover that I can open, and can roll around on its side?

From what research ive done, they mention the compost-er is made out of pre-consumer (industrial) Polyethylene Plastic, Im curious to know if its BPA Free, or what exact Plastic number is it.

For those that want to start composting & ahve never done it - FYI - I just put my kitchen scraps in a pile. I add to that equal amounts (approximately) of dry matter - so grass clippings that have dried in teh sun on my patio or drad leaves or dead weeds I pulled & laid out to allow to dry. If you keep about a 50/50 mix, if you avoid putting anything in it that is dairy or meat based, you are fine. No need for barrels or gadgets - no smell, no fuss, a TINY bit of turning MAYBE & in 6 weeks you have compost. I am from a cold climate even. I keep 2 piles going - one to use & one to add to & switch off every 6 weeks in warm weather & in the winter I just add to where ever I please. Would I like a barrel? I guess, if it were free, but I am not going to pay for something that I can already do for free. It would be one thing if we had issues with smell, but we don’t & not only that - I always have plants popping up in the pile - so I either let them live there if they are near the edge & I can work around them OR I transplant them - but that is literlaly how I garden mostly - just from the things that pop up in my pile. If I put it in a barrel I can promise I’d have no tomatoes, onions & squash volunteering to grow in there. Now if you have a SMALL space, then I can totally see using a barrel. That makes sense to me.

From browsing around, the rain barrel appears to be 50gal capacity. Might not be the best deal, but it is decent.
The diverted on the other hand is a really good price, even with shipping.

I think the specs are wrong on that rain saver.

16 x 16 x 32 is not going to hold 55 gallons.

You are correct. Looks like those dimensions are for the planter. The correct dimensions for the Rain Saver are:

21"L x 21"W x 41"H

I’ve notified the sales setup team for a correction. Sorry for the confusion and thanks for pointing it out.

Your math teacher would be proud.