NatureMill Plus Automatic Composter
Have you been looking for a great new composter for your home? Are you fed up with trekking down the garden every time you have food scraps or leftovers to add to your heap? Some composters can get frustrated at the length of time it takes food to break down and mixing in big chunks of bread or even tea bags can be difficult and lead to an uneven mixture.
If you’re facing these problems you’ve probably come across an automatic composter like the Naturemill. Having a product you can rely on will ensure better compost for your garden. Read on and see all the pros, cons and special features before you decide on a composter for your home.
Let’s Take a Look
The Naturemill Plus automatic composter is a neat little device which will sit on your worktop without taking up too much space or even tuck away in a cupboard or deep drawer.
The foam covering is made from Temporene which is an insulating material. And as all good composters know, heat is your friend when you are trying to break down materials.
It has a motor inside and it comes complete with a heating element (remember warm compost is better compost). The air pump and filter allows air to circulate around the machine. Finally, it has rotating stainless steel blades which make light work of any compostables in the main upper chamber. This makes sure food scraps and vegetable peelings are mixed together well before they are dropped down into a lower area where they rot. This lower chamber has a removable tray to make the whole thing easier to manage.
If you’re living in the city and don’t have room (or even a garden) for a compost heap, this will do the same thing on a smaller scale and help you divert your eggshells, leftovers and other kitchen waste away from the bin and, ultimately, a landfill site.
Features & Benefits
This composter comes with a range of features and benefits. We will explore each one but it is important to remember all these added extras when you look at the price which is upwards of a few hundred dollars.
Automatic
The composter mixes and mulches the food automatically so you don’t need to manually move around gross old food and peelings yourself. This is one of the biggest bonuses to having an automatic composter as you can add anything to it, cooked food, meat, bread and even dairy.
Don't Add Paper or Kitchen Roll
You’re best not to add paper or kitchen roll as it can become tangled around the rotor blades and stop the automatic composter working. If you really want to add paper products, just rip them into small shreds so it will reduce the risk of it becoming clogged.
Don't Add citrus Fruits
The manufacturers say you should not add citrus fruits or peels as it kills cultures which are needed for the compost to mature properly.
add some already made compost
You can also add some already made compost if you have some from the garden or pot plants, this can give your mixture a bit of a kick start and the automatic function means it will be mixed in regularly and thoroughly.
Needs kitchen scraps and sawdust
The compost needs to have a mix of nitrogen-rich and wet materials like kitchen scraps and the same amount of dry material like sawdust.
No Smell From the Waste
One of the best features of the Naturemill composter is the lack of smell. It comes with bicarbonate of soda and some sawdust so you can add them to “balance” the nitrogen-rich food scraps and leftovers. This also stops your food becoming smelly and slimy as it breaks down quicker.
If you have easy access to sawdust from a local carpentry company or even from a stables nearby then it is great to add to your bin every now and then.
The Naturemill has an airtight seal which will stop bad smells from escaping – very useful if your composter will be in a high traffic area of the house like the kitchen. The extra thick insulation, while helping to keep the compost and rotting food at a constant warm temperature, also aids the trapping of foul smells.
If you do ever get a very strong odour from your Naturemill, it is worth checking to see if the rotor blades are still turning and mixing your compost properly as unmixed compost is what will cause your unit to smell. If it is working properly but you are still getting a bad odour, you can try to use carbon filters in the filter area of the unit as an added method to prevent a bad smell.
Use Indoors or Outdoors
While automatic composters like the Naturemill are mainly for use indoors, if you don’t have room in your kitchen or utility room you can put them outside in an outbuilding or even your garage.
This is quite useful as depending on the size of your house the noise that comes from the Naturemill composter might become annoying. As the blades turn and mulch up the materials inside, you will hear a low-level whirring and cracking as the blades get to work. You might find it is louder when you add things like eggshells as, unsurprisingly, they are more difficult to compact. You’ll also get a bit of a noise from the air pumps and heater but this is minimal. If this is the sort of thing that will annoy you, then placing it in a garage or basement might be the best option for you.
Up to 120lbs Per Month
The Naturemill can handle 120lbs of vegetable peelings, leftover and other kitchen scraps per month. This should suit most kitchens.
Small Size
These composters are great for a small kitchen or area. You can even get a cabinet maker to integrate the Naturemill into your units like you would with a trash compactor. Not only does this save space but it also tucks it away from view and can help mask smells.
If you don’t have cupboard space for the unit, then you can just as easily leave it on the top of your work surface. The Naturemill at first glance looks just like a coffee machine or other high end household appliance. The sleek design will fit into most kitchens and 99% of people won’t even realise what it is when they visit.
Customer Reviews
One customer said: “We give it a lot of farmer’s market scraps (carrot tops and damaged lettuce) not to mention eggshells and coffee grounds and fish skins. It does not handle cut flowers well at all, especially if they are woody like roses or tough like sunflower stems. Things like the fish and meat and spoiled cheese go down fine and surprisingly do not smell bad.
Another added: “It smells faintly like vegetable soup, unless we add basil in which case it smells like basil. You really need to add the sawdust and baking soda that they provide with it in order to get the right activation balance.”
Alternatives
Food Cycler Indoor Kitchen Composter
- Warranty: Not specified
- Three step process to composting
- Reduces waste to 90% of original volume
- Composts to soil amendment in less than three hours
- Odourless and environmentally conscious
- No venting, draining or additives required.
This neat looking kitchen composter is a state of the art machine which promises to make composting your leftovers and kitchen scraps a snap. The sleek white and green design is compact so it fits onto your work surface easily or even tucked into a cupboard. The manufacturers, Magic Cara, claim it can turn your kitchen wastes into a ready to add soil material within just three hours.
There are no additives needed (so no need for sawdust or pellets of any kind) and the removable basket is washable and dishwasher safe.
Urban Composter
- Warranty: Not specified
- Sleek design
- Composting spray used to break down materials
- Fertilizer is accessible through the tap at the bottom
- Leftover food waste can be dug into soil once the fluid is drained away
- Ready assembled
This Urban Composter looks just like a regular bin – but one with difference. Unlike your regular kitchen bin, it has a tap at the bottom which instead of just being a place to store food until you can carry it out to a compost heap in the bottom, this unit actually creates the compost where it sits.
The built-in composting spray acts as an agent to break down your scraps and leftovers so it can be turned into a liquid fertiliser. The tap at the bottom allows you to drain off this organic fertilizer and, once diluted at 1/100 ratio with water, it can be poured onto your plants for a boost of nitrogen.
The remaining food residue in the bucket should dug into soil and then left for 5 to 7 weeks. After this time, it will be composted fully and ready to spread onto the garden.
Epica Stainless Steel Compost Bin 1.3 Gallon-Includes Charcoal Filter
- Warranty: Not specified
- Sleek design
- Replaceable charcoal filter
- Stainless steel design
- Ready assembled
This simple design from Epica is one of the easiest ways to get into home composting. It’s one the highest rated kitchen compost bins online and for good reason. It’s sleek and stylish with a completely stainless steel outside and looks like nothing more than a modern cookie jar sitting on your kitchen counter.
It comes equipped with a charcoal filter to cut down on the gross smells that often come from these bins, in combination with its airtight lid.
This would be perfect for anyone looking for a bin that’s stylish and high quality.
Conclusion
So, if you’re fed up with throwing your leftover food or kitchen scraps straight into the bin and want to start composting, we hope we’ve given you some great ideas on where to start.
An automatic composter like the Naturemill takes the hassle out of composting and it really help you keep things simple. You can just throw all your materials into the unit and it does all the mixing and churning for you to make sure you have perfectly balanced and mixed compost ready for the garden.
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