Vitamix FC-50 - Convenient Home Food Processor and Recycler - Kitchen Countertop Compost Bin Alternative - Electric Waste Disposer - Odorless Garbage Disposal - 2.5L Capacity

I love this. It has helped eliminate the fruit flies in my indoor worm bin. I love how everything comes out dry and ground up and not smelly, making feeding my indoor and outdoor worm bins easy. I no longer have a smelly mess to deal with from a container of scraps sitting on my counter that I then have to clean out. It also has resolved problems of the worms bins getting too wet.I like that I no longer have to cook eggshells in the microwave and then grind them up, now I just throw them in the FC-50. Also, there is NO smell! Lastly, the price was excellent and you get Vitamix quality. This is just perfect for my DH and I; however, if you are a bigger household, you may need to buy a larger size, or just run it more often. One last thing, you can run shredded paper in it along with your scraps. I put a thin layer of shredded paper in the bin and when it is almost full of food scraps, I add another thin layer. This helps with excess moisture and helps compost paper scraps.

To say that I’m impressed with this product would be an understatement. I’ve had it for just over a week and have used it every day.I’ve used a variety of food waste including coffee grounds, leftover meat scraps, citrus, vegetables, eggshells, bread / bagels, fruit, even some leftover cat food. It has worked wonderfully to “compost” all of it.I live in a rural area - yes…skunk, opossum, raccoon, fox, and bear. So, having a traditional outdoor compost setup just won’t work out. We have weekly garbage pick up but I was looking for a way to reduce some of that. Granted, it’s just my husband and me but I do a lot of cooking and 99% of the items I use are fresh and not processed / premade foods.I will say that the food “bucket” that you use for your scraps is on the small side so if you prepare your meals, as I do, with a lot of fresh ingredients and you have a family of four or more, you might not be as thrilled. On the occasions that I have more than I can process at a time I can run 2 cycles a day or just keep the scraps in a ziplock win the fridge until the next day.There is no foul odor. The filters do what they’re supposed to. The lid for the bucket works to contain odor as I fill it up during the day. Can’t even smell the onions or other strong odors as it sits on my counter.Once the composting is done, I dump it into a plastic bucket that I keep outdoors and when that gets full I will dispose of it on our property. There is no smell to it so it won’t attract any critters.Some folks have commented in their reviews that it’s noisy, foul smelling, it leaves a goopy / sludgy mess, or that it takes too long. It’s not loud, it doesn’t smell, you have to use common sense as far as what you put in to process, and who cares how long it takes. It’s not like you have to sit there and keep it company.The bucket has some type of lining / coating that’s almost like a nonstick surface. Cleaning it is a breeze. I simply wash it out by hand though it is dishwasher safe. The unit is a bit heavy to move around, though not impossible, so find a place that will be convenient so you don’t have to relocate it often. It isn’t huge but does take up counter space so find a location that works for you.My only negative is that though Vitamix has been around for many years, and certainly is a reputable company, the FoodCycler is made in China. Not happy about that.Overall, the unit is robust and well made. It is easy to use and works very well.

I was saving eggshells & grinding them down (in my coffee grinder) to add to my garden's soil. I was also saving used coffee grounds, 'drying' them in the oven, to add to my garden, too. Both jobs were messy and time consuming. I've also saved veggie scraps to make vegetable broth - also time consuming and the scraps hog a lot of space in our freezer. I wanted an outdoor composter to put in the yard, but my husband was concerned about rats and so he vetoed that idea. So when I recently read about this countertop composter in Kiplinger magazine, I was sold.The UnitThere were a LOT of stickers to remove from the unit. I had a hard time especially with the stickers that were on top of the tube things at the back of the machine. Since I could not figure out how to remove the tubes (in order to fully remove the stickers) there are still some pieces of sticker at the back of each tube but they don't cover the 'hole' so I think it's fine.When putting together the unit, I didn't understand how the caps were supposed to set on the tubes. Then I realized that the tubes emit steam, so it only made sense that the 'open' end of the caps face me / face the back panel since the back panel has vents once you pop it back on. When the machine was running, you could feel 'some' heat coming out of the back but I don't think it was enough to peel wallpaper. So this would probably be safe to place relatively close to a wall.The power cord is THREE pronged. We have a two-pronged outlet where I was planning on plugging this composter in, so I had to use an adapter, and it was a tight fit.What I Put InsideTwo bell pepper caps & bottoms, about a half of a white onion, about two cups of ground-up eggshells, some celery stalks & leaves, and about two cups of used coffee grounds. I did fill the bucket just a bit more than I should have, but not by much.How It WorkedAfter turning it on, the machine ran for a total of seven hours from start to finish without me having to do anything. The first cycle ('drying') took an hour and a half. Then it automatically switched to the next cycle ('grinding' mode) which lasted the longest amount of time - about four and a half hours. Then the machine put itself in the final mode ('cooling') which I'm guessing was around an hour (I had noted the start time of the cycle but then I got busy, and an hour later when I checked it, it had turned into to 'standby' mode which meant that the process was complete). So it might have only had to cool for a half hour, or for forty-five minutes, I'm not sure.PerformanceThe machine was whisper-quiet. I had it running in the kitchen, and from the next room over I could barely hear it. It doesn't get overly hot / put out a lot of steam from the vents in the back. The surface of the machine does not get hot.The ResultsI am amazed! The slightly-overfull bucket full of moist veggies, soggy coffee grounds and some eggshells magically turned into garden-ready compost! It was fluffy and bone dry. I transferred the compost to a gallon-size freezer bag, and it filled the bag only about 1/4 of the way.ThoughtsWe get snowy winters where we live, but I can still use this year-round. I have a 5-gallon bucket with a lid and I think I'll 'stockpile' the compost in there until Spring each year. I can't believe how easy this machine is to use, and what wonderful results it produces.