Should You Buy a Lomi Composter?
video description
In the UK, we have a separate truck and bin for our food waste. Our output is low as we don't waste food and only get rid of a little cooked food, bread ends (if we have enough croutons) and meat and fish products. This gets collected every week.
On alternate weeks we have two types of collection and separate bins. One for general waste (black bin) and a blue bin for cardboard.
The other bi weekly bin in-between collects plastic bottles, recyclable plastics, foil, tetrapaks and tins.
I only know about Tesco but they offer to take in the soft plastics like the ones that hold the sliced bread, crisp packets and anything that is produced by them that you can't recycle locally. They are offsetting this into different projects to make other things as part of a pledge things. I think it is only Tesco Extra atm. So the bigger store but have been doing this for a year.
They also sell laundry style delicate bags for about 30p for your veg, instead or plastic or paper bags.
Whilst we do all this, we have a big problem where we live with the people (contractors) that collect this. In our old borough our taxes were 1/3 of what we pay here but the collections were much cleaner. No left of recycled waste on the street. We had a street cleaner AND a road cleaner! No of which are present here. They wonder why there are so many issues with floods and blocks drains!
We had an issue with an overflowing waste overflow in our garden patio on the 23rd Dec. We cleared it after two days. It came back on the 2nd Jan (a bank holiday here) but it was worse. We knew it wasn't us causing it as it was rising when we weren't using it. We have had two new neighbours at the same time but we haven't had this issue before. We first thought it was the end terrace and the drain worked outwards as they had experienced.
Turns out ours is the only uncovered overflow drain as stated by law.
It was the other new neighbour who had a blockage and they found a brick down there too!
It really confused me as they were away a lots over Christmas and they found ghee fatbergs and allsorts there. We just had tissue paper and poop as even the other new neighbours knew not to put oil, etc down the sink.
The worst thing about it was Thames Water response. It started Monday on a Bank Holiday so we reported it on Tuesday on a 48 hour fix and it only got sorted today. 1hr 15 min job. There delay has wrecked out patio and grass and almost got to our door. Was also traumatic in using our facilities. We hope school uniforms dry tomorrow as we don't have a dryer as it's bad for the environment and it's raining heavily as per this time of year in the UK.
It makes me sad and frustrated that people have no respect for their neighbours or community anymore. We collected about a kitchen bin worth of tissue before they came. The neighbours knew that were adding to the blocked pile up. I think the parents were out as a outdoor fire was lit during the rain and we had loud music until 11pm. Took ages for the smoke to die down too.
So two great new neighbours. Also interesting how we confirmed a lie about the housing association name on another occasion for the renter side. The same open fire people also turned their fire escape path into a bedroom. The same fire paths that Thames water needed to use tonight to access the sewers, after walking on the contaminated area in our garden.
Anyway, our new jet hose part arrived before them so hopefully our gun is not leaking anymore. Didn't think we would need it, this side of winter but as the hose is out, temps are still a min of 5 c at night, we can give it a go over. We had that weird artic blast of -7c at the beginning of Dec but it's been wet, windy and mild again.
I probably paniked planted the garlic on the 4th Dec. Some have come up (and was dug up by the foxes investigating the smell) I hope they haven't rotted.
Last year i planted them on the 4th Nov but it was too early. Someone on the SE coast suggested Jan. Met office suggested a hard winter. IDK. Had the garlic in the fridge for weeks.
I bought the famous Isle of Wight Garlic, whilst one the Isle processing my late Mother in Law's estate after she passed away in Feb. His brother has been changing his mind weekly on whether to buy him out. This has been very stressful. He has kind of made it harder to process the house. He forgets about our kids memory but he chooses to remember his own now adult kid, when it suits him.
It was the same when my Dad had a stroke during the heatwave in July. My older sister left her fiance of 10 years to be with my bf in the Netherlands and married him after the mistake. Bruh Again she is calling the shots but i am here visiting my dad and looking after his cat that i am allergic too, looking after her daughter and her bf, whilst my kid is still at school and needing to to homework.
She would have been homeless if it weren't for me. She ignored the abuse i was getting. But i still did it. I made a promise to my dad and step mum. I then reported my abuse to social services. They would not be charged if they still housed my sister and stopped their shit. She was about 23 when she left.
I still have PTSD, from my mums attempts of sc.
I just want to look after my kid, garden and enjoy it with my hubby. We hugged at Christmas and said it can't be any worse than last year and then we had this.
It is hard to trust friends, when your family is like this. Am I ready to go back as an IT Specialist? No. The BBFC has totally put me off everything. And that's another story f up.
Posting this as if your viewers need this in a cost of living crisis just like my trauma dump. You can compost your kitchen. Makes no sense!
Date: 2023-01-08
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Comments and reviews: 14
Jennifer
We are very happy with our Lomi! We have a 5-acre farm, plenty of room for compost bins, tumblers, worm bins, etc, but also for accompanying wildlife, flies, and rats. We use different composting options for various needs, such as landscape debris, vegetable garden clippings, livestock waste, etc. We aim to avoid attracting animals and flies to our processing bins, and our winters are long and cold enough to slow down the aerobic break-down, so the Lomi provides us the best answer. We got a Lomi for our house food scraps for a number of reasons. We do not have chickens currently. We are retired and love to cook, so scraps from 3 meals a day for 2 to 4 people go into the Lomi, including meat scraps, which you can't easily compost any other way. We run 1-2 short cycles (2-4 hrs each) and 1 long Grow cycle (12-16 hrs with added probiotics) over night every week. We don't remove the dirt between short batches, we just add scraps on top, and dump our final Grow cycle bucket load into a bin, to add to our soil mixes. It is clean and easy. No smell, no bugs, no scavengers, and the worms love it. Our power bill isn't noticeably different, maybe an extra 5-8 every 2 months.
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We are very happy with our Lomi! We have a 5-acre farm, plenty of room for compost bins, tumblers, worm bins, etc, but also for accompanying wildlife, flies, and rats. We use different composting options for various needs, such as landscape debris, vegetable garden clippings, livestock waste, etc. We aim to avoid attracting animals and flies to our processing bins, and our winters are long and cold enough to slow down the aerobic break-down, so the Lomi provides us the best answer. We got a Lomi for our house food scraps for a number of reasons. We do not have chickens currently. We are retired and love to cook, so scraps from 3 meals a day for 2 to 4 people go into the Lomi, including meat scraps, which you can't easily compost any other way. We run 1-2 short cycles (2-4 hrs each) and 1 long Grow cycle (12-16 hrs with added probiotics) over night every week. We don't remove the dirt between short batches, we just add scraps on top, and dump our final Grow cycle bucket load into a bin, to add to our soil mixes. It is clean and easy. No smell, no bugs, no scavengers, and the worms love it. Our power bill isn't noticeably different, maybe an extra 5-8 every 2 months.
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Edie
That was a great video. I'm like your marketer. I live in a small apartment in Los Angeles. And her apartment reminds me of mine except for I might have even more plants than she does. But I'm also starting to grow food from seedlings inside my apartment as well. I bought the lomi about 6 months ago and I don't need garbage bags anymore. Because the only thing I ever throw out is packaging so there's no grossy smell that I need to close up. I also share whatever my lomi makes with several of my clients that have small raised garden beds. I absolutely love the lonely. I hope it goes down in price because I have been recommending it to a lot of people who are very interested but it does carry a pretty high price tag. If it were even 200 less I think a lot of people would buy it. I'll buy a second if it drops like that period possibly even a 3rd.
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That was a great video. I'm like your marketer. I live in a small apartment in Los Angeles. And her apartment reminds me of mine except for I might have even more plants than she does. But I'm also starting to grow food from seedlings inside my apartment as well. I bought the lomi about 6 months ago and I don't need garbage bags anymore. Because the only thing I ever throw out is packaging so there's no grossy smell that I need to close up. I also share whatever my lomi makes with several of my clients that have small raised garden beds. I absolutely love the lonely. I hope it goes down in price because I have been recommending it to a lot of people who are very interested but it does carry a pretty high price tag. If it were even 200 less I think a lot of people would buy it. I'll buy a second if it drops like that period possibly even a 3rd.
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Robin
I compost and have chickens and I also have 4 kids. I bought a Lomi 9 months ago.
I don t think my use case is unique. Some materials will attract vermin (possums, rats, raccoons) to your compost bin and/or be too old for chickens to eat. Moldy cheese, animal proteins that have gone off (I have a house with 1 vegetarian, 2 pescatarians, and 3 omnivores, and restaurant leftovers of questionable age are all perfect for the Lomi.
Being real: my life is busy. Yes, my preference is allocating food waste to the chickens or the compost tumbler (if not avoiding it all-together. I even dry out and crush bones from any animal product and mix those into my compost. However, sometimes I find questionable stuff in my fridge. I would rather make pre-compost out to it than send it to a landfill.
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I compost and have chickens and I also have 4 kids. I bought a Lomi 9 months ago.
I don t think my use case is unique. Some materials will attract vermin (possums, rats, raccoons) to your compost bin and/or be too old for chickens to eat. Moldy cheese, animal proteins that have gone off (I have a house with 1 vegetarian, 2 pescatarians, and 3 omnivores, and restaurant leftovers of questionable age are all perfect for the Lomi.
Being real: my life is busy. Yes, my preference is allocating food waste to the chickens or the compost tumbler (if not avoiding it all-together. I even dry out and crush bones from any animal product and mix those into my compost. However, sometimes I find questionable stuff in my fridge. I would rather make pre-compost out to it than send it to a landfill.
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Nick
Kevin, I just want to say that I respect this product a lot more because someone like you, someone I trust and who's been doing all things gardening for pretty much your whole adult life, reviewed it.
I'll be doing the apartment lifestyle very soon, and so I think the Lomi would fit what I want to do.
I'd still want to map out the process flow for what to do with the Lomi's output, but that soil blocker, and the idea to mix the output with cross-shredded cardboard gives a great idea.
At the end of the day, I'm sure I can start saving that output in buckets and asking around on ShareWaste to see if anyone with actual composting setups wants it.
Thanks for the review man, and Good Luck in the Garden
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Kevin, I just want to say that I respect this product a lot more because someone like you, someone I trust and who's been doing all things gardening for pretty much your whole adult life, reviewed it.
I'll be doing the apartment lifestyle very soon, and so I think the Lomi would fit what I want to do.
I'd still want to map out the process flow for what to do with the Lomi's output, but that soil blocker, and the idea to mix the output with cross-shredded cardboard gives a great idea.
At the end of the day, I'm sure I can start saving that output in buckets and asking around on ShareWaste to see if anyone with actual composting setups wants it.
Thanks for the review man, and Good Luck in the Garden
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Greg
Another absolute rubbish marketing paid video about this product even if you say it's not! Not a single important question was answered.
-what max temperature is being reached? What happens to nutrients and microbes?
-has anyone run a chemical test of what chemicals are being created during the process as they might be worse than natural?
-missing a germination/growth test in pure end product
-what is the average cost per month for running it everyday, including all filters/parts/tablets?
-what is the average energy consumption in kWh per typical running cycle?
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Another absolute rubbish marketing paid video about this product even if you say it's not! Not a single important question was answered.
-what max temperature is being reached? What happens to nutrients and microbes?
-has anyone run a chemical test of what chemicals are being created during the process as they might be worse than natural?
-missing a germination/growth test in pure end product
-what is the average cost per month for running it everyday, including all filters/parts/tablets?
-what is the average energy consumption in kWh per typical running cycle?
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Rick
I see there is competition in this Product, LG have a Stand unit you next to your kitchen bench.
Dehydrated Waste is used by Markets to reduce food waste and on sell the finished dehydrated product.
The process is within 24 hours for these industrial sizes machines, and not so large in size will fit in easy to any back dock area.
Taronga Zoo in Sydney Australia has a larger version as EPA Authorities forced them to compost animal and food waste differently, there process time is 24 hours.
Amazing, but no bacterial life nor pathogens at completion.
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I see there is competition in this Product, LG have a Stand unit you next to your kitchen bench.
Dehydrated Waste is used by Markets to reduce food waste and on sell the finished dehydrated product.
The process is within 24 hours for these industrial sizes machines, and not so large in size will fit in easy to any back dock area.
Taronga Zoo in Sydney Australia has a larger version as EPA Authorities forced them to compost animal and food waste differently, there process time is 24 hours.
Amazing, but no bacterial life nor pathogens at completion.
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Masrur
Ways that I can see this machine could be useful for me:
-pre processing food scrap for my worm bin, sometimes big and wet piece of food scrap creates anaerobic pockets in my bin
- clean way of storing food scrap, when I'm building a hot compost pile I like to collect my materials before mixing, and for storing my food scrap I use bokashi bucket, the problems with the bokashi buckets is they can take up some space and once the bokashi is exposed to air it can get quite smelly (although bokashi does a really good job at starting a hot compost pile)
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Ways that I can see this machine could be useful for me:
-pre processing food scrap for my worm bin, sometimes big and wet piece of food scrap creates anaerobic pockets in my bin
- clean way of storing food scrap, when I'm building a hot compost pile I like to collect my materials before mixing, and for storing my food scrap I use bokashi bucket, the problems with the bokashi buckets is they can take up some space and once the bokashi is exposed to air it can get quite smelly (although bokashi does a really good job at starting a hot compost pile)
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planmoshplan
Thanks for doing this! I ve been looking at Lomi for awhile now, and I think I have even more questions after this video!
What exactly do you mean by pre-compost? If I add it into my raised garden beds, do you mean it will quickly breakdown into actually compost and therefore replace the need for adding other compost to improve the soil? Or would I need to add this pre-compost into an actual compost pile or worm bin to get that result?
If it s not fully composted, does it have the opposite effect and draw nitrogen away from my plants?
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Thanks for doing this! I ve been looking at Lomi for awhile now, and I think I have even more questions after this video!
What exactly do you mean by pre-compost? If I add it into my raised garden beds, do you mean it will quickly breakdown into actually compost and therefore replace the need for adding other compost to improve the soil? Or would I need to add this pre-compost into an actual compost pile or worm bin to get that result?
If it s not fully composted, does it have the opposite effect and draw nitrogen away from my plants?
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Janoh
Why would I buy an expensive thing, that uses electric, that I have to pay, while nature does it for me. Even without hot composting nature does cold composting all the time, everywhere. I don't get it.
Iff the goal is to put it in the soil, why not put the stuff in the soil without using this Lome. I still don't get it.
So the goal is that all the people in New York will have an extra machine that runs constantly. What a terrible amount of electric is going to be used that heats up the planet. I don't get it
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Why would I buy an expensive thing, that uses electric, that I have to pay, while nature does it for me. Even without hot composting nature does cold composting all the time, everywhere. I don't get it.
Iff the goal is to put it in the soil, why not put the stuff in the soil without using this Lome. I still don't get it.
So the goal is that all the people in New York will have an extra machine that runs constantly. What a terrible amount of electric is going to be used that heats up the planet. I don't get it
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Dace
Question: I have a compost system similar to Kevin's. My ears perked up, however, when I saw that you can compost compostable plastic. Compostable plastics don't really compost in my pallet compost system and I'm wondering if the Lomi machine could handle it if I used it primarily for breaking down the compostable plastics well enough that I can then put them in my compost system and then have them break down completely. Is the Lomi machine tough enough to handle primarily compostable plastics?
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Question: I have a compost system similar to Kevin's. My ears perked up, however, when I saw that you can compost compostable plastic. Compostable plastics don't really compost in my pallet compost system and I'm wondering if the Lomi machine could handle it if I used it primarily for breaking down the compostable plastics well enough that I can then put them in my compost system and then have them break down completely. Is the Lomi machine tough enough to handle primarily compostable plastics?
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Monica
I was on the Lomi kickstarter and I ve had it for more than a year. I appreciate the honesty of this video, but I m pretty annoyed by the CEO flippantly walking back the initial claims of the device. yOu CaN gRoW sTuFf iN It! No, you can t. I also don t recommend putting the output in your work bins, either. It ll grow a moldy carpet that you ll have to scrape off.
This is just another example of an overmarketed. Calling preconpost dirt is cynically misleading. Super annoying.
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I was on the Lomi kickstarter and I ve had it for more than a year. I appreciate the honesty of this video, but I m pretty annoyed by the CEO flippantly walking back the initial claims of the device. yOu CaN gRoW sTuFf iN It! No, you can t. I also don t recommend putting the output in your work bins, either. It ll grow a moldy carpet that you ll have to scrape off.
This is just another example of an overmarketed. Calling preconpost dirt is cynically misleading. Super annoying.
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John
Counter-point to the CEO talking about climate impact of food waste: many municipal landfills these days cover the waste and install methane exhaust pipes to recapture the methane, so it's not like methane is just freely flowing out of the landfill anymore. Composting is still way better, but I'm skeptical that inputting a bunch of electricity rather than throwing scraps onto a compost pile that takes no inputs is even worth doing compared to just sending it to the landfill.
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Counter-point to the CEO talking about climate impact of food waste: many municipal landfills these days cover the waste and install methane exhaust pipes to recapture the methane, so it's not like methane is just freely flowing out of the landfill anymore. Composting is still way better, but I'm skeptical that inputting a bunch of electricity rather than throwing scraps onto a compost pile that takes no inputs is even worth doing compared to just sending it to the landfill.
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Phe
I'm an apartment dweller and I made a two-nested-buckets compost system that I keep on the balcony, and it works, but the output is very. dense? If I add too much of it to a plant pot it ends up clumping into hard rocks so I have to watch the ratio when I'm adding it to potting soil or my soil becomes so compacted. This looks so light and fluffy it would probably help that problem! Can't afford one atm though, maybe if the price goes down someday as he said.
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I'm an apartment dweller and I made a two-nested-buckets compost system that I keep on the balcony, and it works, but the output is very. dense? If I add too much of it to a plant pot it ends up clumping into hard rocks so I have to watch the ratio when I'm adding it to potting soil or my soil becomes so compacted. This looks so light and fluffy it would probably help that problem! Can't afford one atm though, maybe if the price goes down someday as he said.
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JennN
Yes! These are the kind of review videos we need! Thank you for taking the time to sit down with the CEO and get us a candid discussion about the Lomi. I am not in the target group, and I appreciate having that knowledge up front so I can focus on strengthening other aspects of my gardening while keeping a product like this in mind for the future, thinking gift-wise. Things like this increase our trust in your team, knowing you put it all put on the line.
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Yes! These are the kind of review videos we need! Thank you for taking the time to sit down with the CEO and get us a candid discussion about the Lomi. I am not in the target group, and I appreciate having that knowledge up front so I can focus on strengthening other aspects of my gardening while keeping a product like this in mind for the future, thinking gift-wise. Things like this increase our trust in your team, knowing you put it all put on the line.
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