This is a rather expensive, but ultra-convenient, kitchen appliance. Over the last couple of weeks I used it roughly every other day. It neatly takes food scraps and breaks them down to a dry compost if used as directed. On one experiment I weighed the scraps before and after. The heavy-duty bucket weighs 3lbs. 8.3oz. and when I filled it to the "fill line" it jumped to 6lbs. 10.8oz. Then, close the lid, hit start and wait. 8 hours later, it had reduced a full bucket to 4.5oz of dry compost. (see photos) The dry compost can be collected and sprinkled on your garden as fertilizer as needed. There are some cons, however. First, the price is steep at $399, but it does go on sale periodically. Second, it says the cycle is 4 to 8 hours, but every cycle I ran was around 8 hours so I let it run over night. Third, it does smell when working and when you open to collect it. It is not terrible, but I moved it out of the kitchen because it was noticeable. Lastly, its size. It takes up a lot of kitchen space and if you live in an apartment it will eat up counter space, but in my case it was twice the size of my previous compost bucket which I now use to collect the dry scraps.

Wow! This Vitamix Foodcycler is amazing. You can put virtually any leftover/throw-out food in the bin and it will process it into dehydrated broken down particles as small as wood shavings to flakes as large as a silver dollar. We get different results every time. We throw almost everything in here. Be careful with other types of bones, but we put left over chicken bones in here from making chicken noodle soup and it handled it just fine. We used about 1/4 of the chicken bones, bones we didn’t think were too thick. We may try the whole chicken next time. We leave our bucket out in our kitchen and it blends well without being noticed due it’s dark Matte black gunmetal color. We put the provided filter cover over it and it prevents it from attracting bugs. We throw food in there until it’s at or a tiny bit over the max fill threshold until we start it. Sometimes it takes two or three days for us to fill it. That filter cover keep any mild-medium smells, in that bucket during that time. Also, it’s waaay quieter than the average dishwasher. The only time it’s ever louder, is with bones To product designers. (Flaws) - The inside arrows are not easy to find to align the metal bucket into the housing. - The very first time we washed the metal bucket that you claim is dishwasher safe, the gears on the bottom developed surface rust. We were able to get it off, but because of this we recommend that this should be hand washed and not put in a dishwasher.

I’m a cook and there’s some waste involved. I have an outdoor composter but I live in the desert and honestly I’m not inclined to rush out in 100 degree days to add another layer and spin it around. I tend to use my outdoor composter more for lawn clippings and leaves than kitchen scraps. This thing works like a dream. It is amazing how orange rinds and broccoli shreds and unused greens are reduced to...well...kind of dry shavings. I put everything veg and fruit in there, lightly chopped or torn up...no pits. One caveat I had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year and towards the end just couldn’t keep up with it. A few tomatoes mixed with other things is no problem but too many tomatoes is too juicy and may wind up gummy instead of dry even with a second run. A little bucket soak though and good to go. I love not wasting anything.

I am amazed of how great this product is and all the great pros by using it. Package said.. 1000 pounds per year per household are being diverted from landfills by just using this. I CAN NOT RECOMMEND IT MORE! I can't wait to start sharing my homemade fertilizer with my neighbors!

This thing is amazing! I love that I have less food waste and that I will have compost to add to my garden. Well worth the money. Photos attached are before and after. It only took 5 hours for the whole process. Completely impressed.