Making A Rain Barrel: Urban Compost Tumbler 9.5 Cubic Foot Review

I purchased two Urban Compost Tumblers (UCT-9) a year ago (12/06) for my wife for Christmas, and despite high hopes, I'm sad to say that I'm disappointed. We've tried over and over to get the tumblers to compost well, but despite a year of effort, have not gotten an honestly good batch yet.

We are determined composters, and have for years kept large piles into which we put an endless stream of vegetable scraps, leaves, dried cow manure, yard clippings and all sorts of other such material that, if turned occassionally with a pitch fork and moistened well during the process, has made us wonderful compost. Note that we also first run most of the material through a chipper-shredder to grind it into a finer mix. We live in Central Texas, and therefore can compost year-round due to our usually warm temperatures (our tumblers, as with our piles, are in full sun). On average, I'd say that it takes us about 3 months to turn a simple pile sitting on on the ground into rich, dark, fully broken-down compost.

I had hopes that a compost tumbler could speed the process and make the effort easier. Despite the notable lack to detailed testamonies based upon actual use by real consumers (beware of rave/fake reviews by company employees!), I decided to take a chance on the UTC-9. I had hopes that it's tumbling action would simplify the process of turning the compost and make it easy to keep the material inside moist and loose, and that its construction would stand up to the Texas sun.

Our tumblers arrived loosely packed in a large box, and were simple to assemble. The UCT-9 is indeed sturdy and will seemingly last forever, but is quite heavy. It is truly heavy when loaded with material, and quickly becomes very difficult to turn. Our experience is that if it is filled to more than 1/3 full (which isn't very much!), turning it becomes nearly impossible (it becomes a very very heavy pendulum). When you add a bit of water (compost won't happen without it), it becomes even more unmanageable.

Another problem is that if you add any significant amount of fresh green material, and not even any additional water, the material gums up in the bottom and turns into a huge slime ball and smells horrible. Yes, it is clear that if you add less green stuff and more brown stuff, you'll have less of this problem, but we want to compost them both, and trying to find the perfect not-too-slimy, and not-too-dry, mix is difficult or impossible.

Of all the loads we've tried (green, brown, and both), none has truly composted. All have either resulted in either a slime ball or a dry pile of chunks that haven't broken down. We even have let recent loads go for half the year, but with no real success no matter what we put in, or what the mix has been. And yes, we have followed the instructions closely, but to no avail.

A few other disappointments:

1. The unit is round, and it's lid is round, which are fine. However, during the course of the year, both of our units have slightly warped out-of-round, meaning that if the lid is removed, it is extremely difficult to get back on (requires a frustrating effort of trying to squeeze the unit into round while simultaneously trying to force the lid back on). If the unit is loaded, getting the lid back on is now nearly impossible.

2. The unit is very difficult to empty. If you turn if over, it dumps onto the ground beneath itself, which is nealy useless because it is too heavy to easily move away. We're forced to dump it beneath it and then shove the unit over and away to get to the material. If, alternatively, you try to reach in and scoop out the material, you experience a frustrating and difficult effort due to the nature of the cramped barrel shape, as well as the interior cross supports that are very much in the way.

In the end, I'd have to admit that the UCT-9 was an expensive experiment and failure for us. More broadly, I'd have to say that I can't see how any other compost tumbler would be any different because, by their very nature, they're all just closed bins into which you place stuff to break down. Therefore, if this one didn't work, I can't see how any other would work either. Instead, we'll continue to simply pile material on the ground and turn it occasionally with a pitch fork -- a process that never creates slime balls, never smells, is easy to load and unload, always fully breaks down, and never fails to create that rich, dark, moist compost that makes our garden sing.

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Product Description:
New Urban Compost Tumbler Makes Compost in Weeks Not Months with Revolutionary Central Aeration. System; Works 90% Faster Requires 75% Less Effort. Lack of space and time to maintain a traditional compost pile neighbor complaints and unwanted pests... the UCT is the perfect fit. .This unit is the only sealed compost tumbler that allows appropriate amounts of oxygen to enter the chamber and mix with materials vastly increasing the speed and efficiency of compostingand inspiring more people to take advantage of the benefits of composting than ever before. .Wagon not included.Tumble end over end. Suspended on a pivot rod that allows the barrel to tumble freely.The UCT9 is black in color to maximize heat absorption and further speed the process of turning refuse into useable compost .9.5 cubic foot 71 gallon barrel.5 Year Warranty