Lifetime 60058 Compost Tumbler, Black, 80-Gallon

This unit is very sturdy, well designed and the drum rotation is very easy even with a heavy load. I have compost "cooking" now and it will go slower in winter but I am seeing good decomposition when I spin and add additional materials. ***Assembly requires a drill*** The assembly is a two person job for the last portions as you have to be able to get the bolts started to engage the plastic retaining nuts. I appreciated the design of the nuts to hold and lock in place once they were engaged as it made the final tightening an easy process. The only thing that caught me unawares was the requirement to drill holes in the plastic pieces for the bolts. This was not an issue for me but it may be some buyers. They provide a drill bit which I tried once and proceeded to throw away and use a quality bit. The one provide was so dull that it actually "walked" on the plastic which already had dimples in the plastic for a guide. ***Read the instructions*** Don't try to save steps and drill all the identical pieces in the same place as one section will be your lid, it does not matter which one, and you do not drill it out or you will have extra holes. Once I realized it had to be drilled I broke from my normal routine and actually read them and saved myself from that frustration. There is an air tube that is on the bottom section of the barrel when you store it with the lid on the top section. I don't know if that is the ideal location or if I should rest it at different locations so time will tell.

I really like this compost tumbler but I can see why others would not like it since it does take a little while to assemble. But once all put together, this thing is great. It works perfectly, holds a lot of compost, is easy to use and it even looks cooler than your average compost bins. To put this together in a timely manner you'll need an electric drill, screw driver, two pairs of pliers and socket wrenches. You need to drill the holes for each of the pieces which doesn't take long. I did find the instructions lacking in a few details which I will try to explain here: 1) When you connect all of the large pieces, you use small screws. This kit comes with these little black pieces of plastic. Be sure to use them as the anchors for the screws as you put them in. Trying to go back and do this is time consuming and requires two people (one to hold the black piece and the other to do the screws). 2) On each side of the entire assembly there are two triangular metal plates that are held in place by a set of bolts, washers and nuts. When you put them on by hand everything will be really loose and you'll think you missed something. This is where they socket wrenches come in handy. Using a screwdriver to hold the bolt in place, use the socket wrench to tighten everything. After you do that it really comes together well. 3) The bottom part of the legs are just galvanized steel. I didn't trust that these wouldn't rust so I went ahead and spray painted them with exterior metal spray paint. Since this would be sitting on the ground and would be exposed to the rain, sun and snow I thought this would better preserve them. If you decide to do this you'll want to do it before you start anything else. Overall I really like how this turned out. There's a ton of room in here for a lot of yard and food waste to be converted into really good compost. It's easy to open it up and see how everything is going and determine what you need to add. Another great feature is that it comes with a little locking pin so it will sit still while you fill it or remove compost from it. If you're a little handy and have the patience to take this on I would highly recommend this composter.

I've had this composter for a year but only just now got around to assembling it. Another unit I bought at the same time came pre-assembled so I never got around to putting this one together until I needed the space in my garage. The shipping box has plenty of damage, as others have complained about. The grade of cardboard used is very poor. However the parts themselves are very durable. Short of the box getting run over by a truck, a little damage to the cardboard isn't going to hurt your purchase in the least. The composter is not overly difficult to assemble. I did it all myself. More on that later. The instructions say that spinning the screws and stripping the hole a bit is ok. I'd argue that it's actually essential. Keep in mind that you're threading the screw into 2 separate pieces of plastic. If there's a gap between piece 1 and piece 2 when you start threading into piece 2, there will still be a gap when you stop if you don't spin the screw and suck up piece 2 against piece 1. Simple really. Just for experimentation purposes, I left a few easy to reach screws with gaps to see if the plastic nuts would solve the problem later. In about half the cases the plastic nuts sucked the 2 pieces together. In the other half they did not. Just spin your screws and all will be well. I am faced with an insurmountable issue at the moment though. The 3 plastic side pieces have 2 open blowmold holes in each, requiring you to fill them with plastic plugs before use. I have tried everything under the sun short of shaving the plugs down or enlarging the holes to make them fit. I have yet to get a single plug in a blowmold hole yet. This is a crappy design. I spent several years working for a company that made a living off blowmold products. Forcing customers to plug the holes is a lazy cost-cutting measure. The holes should have been plugged before the product left the assembly line. If I were to rate the product on that lone issue, zero stars would be awarded. This is simple laziness. As it stands now I'm giving up on the plugs and reverting instead to a hot glue gun to fill the holes. The only part that would have been useful to have a 2nd person was when putting on the plastic nuts on a few of the screws deep in the container. Other than that one person could do the job alone with ease. I cheated on a few of the plastic nuts. I did all that I could reach which left me with the back screw on each side and the 4 screws in the 2 buckles that hold the first 2 sides together. For all the screws I used the same trick. I did all the screws up to that point first so that the frame was solid and square. Then I backed out the screw I couldn't reach about half way, jammed the plastic nut in place and carefully screwed the screw back into the case, threading into the nut along the way. This worked every time. I have not had the unit in service at this point for any measurable amount of time so I can't yet speak to the durability of the product or if it will rust or not. I fully expect it to rust at some point. It's not stainless steel mind you. Still I find it to be constructed of durable parts so I have high hopes that it will last for several years before I'm forced to rebuild any components. Overall a good purchase with some things that I'll have to fix myself. I'd still recommend this to others. If you want to get someone their first composter I would recommend a different type. This one is great once you're really into composting and have the energy to stick with it. A simple, brainless composter a simple drum composter like this Envirocycle model: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004FVEDAI/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004FVEDAI&linkCode=as2&tag=justinshoreco-20&linkId=BHGPSPLHYF2KUSVR Gifts to first-time composters will be the Envirocycle unit. After that I'll gift the Lifetime unit.

Love this tumbler, works great!

I have been using the compost tumbler for almost a year now and I am still very happy about this product. I was able to assembly it on my own just by following the instructions. It is easy to roll.

Der Aufbau gestaltete sich zunächst nicht ganz trivial, u. a., da sämtliche Schraublöcher nicht vorgebohrt waren (durch Vertiefungen das Bohren aber erleichtert wird) und man sich erst in die reich bebilderte, aber sparsam beschriftete Anleitung einfinden muss. Zum Ende des Aufbaus hin ist eine 2. Hand sehr hilfreich, da die Trommel alleine nicht wirklich gut eingehängt und fertiggestellt werden kann (die Befestigungen müssen teils von innen gekontert werden, während sie von außen verschraubt werden). Im Betrieb bin ich von dem Komposter sehr begeistert: die Befüllung klappt sehr einfach, das Drehen wird mit steigendem Befüllungsgrad naturgemäß schwerer, aber die hierdurch entstehende Belüftung und Durchmischung sorgt wirklich für ein sehr schnelles und gutes Ergebnis. Kein Vergleich zu einem Thermo- oder gar Holzkomposter. Dazu sieht er im Garten auch noch sehr stylish aus und meine Nachbarn haben schon neidvolle Bewunderung gezeigt. Leider war mir nach wenigen Tagen bereits der hohle Raststift des Arretierungsstifts abgebrochen (ohne weitere Gewalteinwirkung). Damit wird die Arretierung des Drehmechanismus verhindert, so dass man die Trommel mit beiden Händen drehen kann. Ohne diesen Raststift muss man die Arretierung gegen den Federdruck mit einer Hand festhalten, um die Trommel mit der anderen drehen zu können. Auf meine Mailanfrage dazu hat der Hersteller sehr schnell reagiert und mir einen komplett neuen Arretierungsstift mit Raste (und Einbauanleitung ;-) ) zugesandt. Leider ist diese Raste ebenfalls hohl ausgeführt und ich habe die Befürchtung, dass dieser Stift auch nicht so lange hält. Hier sollte der Hersteller dringend nachbessern, weil der Gesamteindruck des ansonsten tollen Komposters durch dieses winzige Bauteil doch leidet.

We really like our composter so far! The setup took about an hour and a half total with 2 people. Drill is required and the nail covers were a little troublesome. We set it up in the winter so we were aware we wouldn't get very far with the compost until spring so I can't report on the quickness of it yet. So far it is doing a great job, good ventilation (you can always increase with the drill if you want more), compost seems to be composting nicely, it is not stinky, nice quality heavy duty unit. Leaks a tiny bit through the lid section, nothing I woudn't expect from a big tumbling container of kitchen and yard waste :) Also, is difficult to tumble when the load is off centre if you don't use the right method - we found pushing down with your left hand almost all the way to the ground and then grabbing in the top right hand corner was the easiest way to bring it around when it is lopsided and only 3/4 of the way full. Good luck and happy composting!

The unit requires several hours of assembling, which includes drilling approximately 40 holes within the plastic panels and also the metal legs. An electric drill is essential for this. The fixings require 2-person assembly, unless a single person is dextrous and has long arms to simultaneously reach the inside and outside of panels for installation of screws and the provided backing-blocks. The internal fixing points are less accessible than might be anticipated. Don't be tempted to assemble the unit indoors unless you have double-doors to your garden, as it will not fit through a single door! Once assembled, the composter seems robust. It does not have a turning-handle and is rotated using finger-sized indentations on the drum. When lightly filled, this is easy enough, but considerable effort is required to turn it when it is loaded more than approximately half-full. It is too early to assess how durable the unit is against the elements. I cannot envisage any vermin or rainwater making their way into the composter and as long as it is not filled too heavily, it is much easier and cleaner to turn than a conventional compost heap or bin. Once assembled, it seems a very good piece of equipment. I purchased one of these two weeks ago and a week later I was sufficiently impressed with it that I bought another.