Should You Buy a Lomi Composter?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2024
- 25% off ALL Birdies Raised Beds: growepic.co/3yqRx2N
Grab a Lomi: growepic.co/3GsQtvA Today we put the Lomi composter through its paces with 4 different tests, share some thoughts from their CEO, and Kevin shares 1. Who he thinks it's right and WRONG for, as well as 2. Some creative ways to use the output in the garden.
IN THIS VIDEO
→ Lomi Composter: growepic.co/3GsQtvA
SUPPORT EPIC GARDENING
→ Shop: growepic.co/shop
→ Seeds: growepic.co/botanicalinterests
LEARN MORE
→ All Our Channels: growepic.co/youtube
→ Blog: growepic.co/blog
→ Podcast: growepic.co/podcasts
→ Discord: growepic.co/discord
→ Instagram: growepic.co/insta
→ TikTok: growepic.co/tiktok
→ Pinterest: growepic.co/pinterest
→ Twitter: growepic.co/twitter
→ Facebook: growepic.co/facebook
→ FB Group: growepic.co/fbgroup
TIMESTAMP
00:00 - Intro
00:22 - What Is Lomi
01:39 - Test #1: Bioplastic, Citrus Waste, Cardboard In LOMI MODE
01:57 - Test #1 Results
02:24 - Test #2: Snack foods, Peppers, Food Waste, Greens In GROW MODE
02:54 - Interview: Who Needs Lomi?
04:20 - Test #2 Results
04:52 - Test #3: A Bunch Of Leaves In ECO EXPRESS MODE
05:04 - Interview: Is This Bad For The Earth?
05:46 - Test #3 Results
06:20 - Interview: Why Does It Cost So Much?
07:36 - Test #4: Eggshells, Coffee Grounds, Kitchen Scraps In GROW MODE
08:13 - Interview: Is It A Bread Maker?
09:14 - Test #4 Results
11:14 - The Rest Of The Interview
15:31 - Conclusion & Outro
DISCLAIMER
Epic Gardening occasionally links to goods or services offered by vendors to help you find the best products to care for plants. Some of these may be affiliate links, meaning we earn a small commission if items are purchased. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. More info on our process: www.epicgardening.com/disclai... - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
Just don’t plant directly into the byproduct 😅 compost it or you will regret your choices. It’s a dehydrator combined with a grinder not a Composter. IMO.
Yes, very true!
Agree! MUST mix
@@epicgardening my worms love it!
@@GardeningInCanada was going to ask if it's good to feed to worms!
@@bbbuds8880 yea! They really enjoy it. Plus it helps with moisture control
I've owned a LOMI composter for about 2 years. 12 LESSONS LEARNED:
1. Using one function is all you need... no bacteria starters, no activated charcoal... just run on the shortest cycle and call it a day. Too much of a hassle to fuss with activated charcoal. Just skip it.
2. Activated charcoal REDUCES odors but it STILL smells. Do you want that in your kitchen? (The odors can get very strong).
3. Same for noise. Grinding, stirring and whirring goes on for HOURS and hours. It seems endless even on the short cycle, which I use all the time.
4. Put your LOMI in the garage or other isolated, well-ventilated area... minimal exposure to noise and odors. I keep ONLY the empty LOMI bucket in my kitchen inside a plain, covered compost tin. When it's full I schlep it to my garage where I keep the machine base unit itself. (Manufacturer: when, oh when can we purchase a SECOND LOMI bucket? I've been asking your reps and get only vague "not available" answers).
5. I accumulate the finished "dirt" in a covered, 5-gallon bucket set next to the LOMI machine (in the garage). When it's full, I use a large pet food scoop to scatter the dirt on my lawn. It simply VANISHES into the grass!! Love it... all my scraps have gone full circle!!!
6. My kitchen is small with limited counter space. The LOMI footprint is bigger than you think, plus, it needs adequate space around the machine to operate effectively.
7. Yes, certain comostable products can be put in the LOMI, but ONLY in very small amounts... AND they have to be manually broken down... hardly worth the effort considering that the LOMI bucket CAPACITY is a significant limiting factor.
8. It is AMAZING all the things that a LOMI will compost. DO NOT compost banana STEMS... they are too tough...whole skins are fine. Don't compost syrupy jams, jellies, pie fillings... the LOMI heat will turn these into concrete. Avocado pits? Yes!
9. Balance wet and dry ingredients. We put in SOME (definitely nor ALL) tissues, paper towels, etc. The LOMI is great, too, for all kinds of sloppy messes... the skill is to properly balance the mix so it "cooks" well.
10. Cardboard? Sure, if you have nothing else to do besides breaking it down first, in very small, tiny quantities... Remember that the LOMI capacity is relatively SMALL and the shortest cycle is several HOURS.
11. There are 2 persons in my household. We ourselves fill the LOMI 2-3 times per week. Larger families need at least TWO buckets.
12. I'm SO glad that I experimented and placed only a small piece of the LOMI (supposedly compostable) PLASTIC SHIPPING BAG in the LOMI mode. What a mess! To properly compost the "compostable" PLASTIC BAG and "turning it into dirt" (this is what is printed on the bag) DIRECTIONS should be CLEARLY and COMPLETELY PRINTED on the bag itself and in the instruction book. The small portion of the bag I tried to compost (LOMI approved mode) turned into a tangled mess! Imagine if someone puts in the whole bag!! It did NOT "turn into dirt"!! ...and the info video on this subject does not demonstrate that the LOMI bag turned into dirt.
I REALLY like my LOMI!! Despite the noise and odors and other caveats, I would STILL purchase it. It is an AMAZING device that, if possible, many should get - if you've read this far then you know what to expect.
It's important to know that Lomi doesn't really stand behind their product. I owned mine for just under a year, had issues with it, and their suggestion was simply to spend another $500 on a new one. This despite reaching out to them well within the stated warranty timeline. I would NOT give them my business again.
Really appreciated this candid interview. I’ve heard a lot of criticism about the lomi but at the end of the day, it’s really not for people who have access to outdoor composters (have a worm bin, chickens, etc). My family has all three and the lomi just doesn’t makes sense for us. BUT. I purchased one for my grandparents because they live in a complex that doesn’t compost. Everything goes in the trash. And while my grandma does have a small garden, she is in no position to manage a compost pile. That’s where the lomi is the perfect tool. It’s simple enough for them to use and the “pre-compost” can easily be mixed into soil. My grandma can confidently do that! At the end of the day I hope people can see this as a tool for folks who truly don’t have access to an outdoor space and want to do their best to minimize their impact. I truly believe the lomi (despite using electricity) is a FAR better option than throwing food scraps in the trash.
But its not just the electricity, think of the plastic, metal and rare earth used to create this. And probably the hundred of liters of water used in manufacturing it. All it does is dehydrate and blend food scraps. Then the powder gets wet again when you put it in your garden. Its useless.
And when it breaks after a year or two, you buy a new one, making it worst.
Yes this seems so useful for people who live in apartments with small rooftop or terrace "gardens" and even for those without, turning your food into this is better than just adding to the dump.
Yes, I live in a mobile home park that doesnt allow composting so this is perfect.
Even feel better sending this to the dump than the raw plastic or adding to the apt buildings smelly trash. Or walk and drop the pre compost in the local park beds where there are worms etc.
I live on the 4th floor of a building so yeah this is the best I can do other than paying a composting service to get my scraps. Looking at houses now as long as I can find a place with no HOA in getting a tumbling compost
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.
Plus, we don't want to pay waste management for yet another bin, just so they can drive it in big trucks to their giant plant where they expend lots of electricity to turn it into "compost", which isn't usable for organic food gardens in the end. (So funny people think sending it away somehow magically makes it disappear.) I'd rather make pre-compost with my Lomi out of my own organic food scraps, including meat, so I can put it back into my organic vegetable garden, knowing it's free of glyphosate and other GMO crap. Truly organic soil/compost is hard to find and very expensive. (Soil companies are allowed to call any non-synthethic soil "organic", but that doesn't mean it's certifiably Organic and chem-free. Think about how your neighbors eat! Is that what you want in your garden? ) Our priority is our food and what we grow it in. The Lomi has reduced stress, eased the workload, and quickly turns our food waste back into food.
Appreciate the breakdown. Love that you have a multifaceted approach
The hot compost bins are super well secured so I haven't had pest problems since upgrading my bin. Of course I enjoy that it works faster too.
To piggyback on this post, I also live in a very rural area and the Lomi has been a lifesaver financially. We were quoted at over 6k to remove a family of skunks from the property. Instead, we invested in a Lomi and since we took away their food source (our compost bin), they've moved on to find food elsewhere. Lomi is as necessary to our household as the clothes dryer. Yes, we can live without it, but Holy smokes, is it nicer to have it.
@@medusalithpax3572 Yes! Years ago we paid thousands for rat/squirrel/raccoon exclusion around our place. Removing the easy food sources is way cheaper and actually more effective. Lomi for the win!
I'm one of those cold climate gardeners that has a Lomi. We absolutely love it! We use it year round and use the Lomi "dirt" as food for our worm bin. I've had way less flies and pests in the worm bin since switching over.
Amazing to hear!
That's a great idea!
I live in SoCal but dont want to attract rats n squirrels 2 my compost bin so it only has yard waste n never seems 2 break down. Instead we put 1/2 gal collected food waste under sink n then pulverize it all in blender 4 worm food in raised beds into a corner. Lomi would reduce fruit flies coming in kitchen in summer.
Me too ❤ and I love it. Accept it draws worms into my garden because I don't have worm bins.
And a higher electric bill. Hey why worry about contributing so much to global warming when you use an overpriced food dehydrator for your garbage.
I appreciate how honest and candid their CEO is. I prefer my outside bin for my garden debris and garage worm bin for kitchen scraps, so it's nice that he was honest that this isn't for people like us necessarily. I know a lot of people who would probably use this because my worms are gross to them or a big compost bin full of debris isn't their aesthetic lol. But I think my way is better haha.
Yeah, it was a rare moment to get the chance to speak to the CEO of a company, so was refreshing how candid he was!
Thought the same thing. He wasn't there to hard sell this product. Found him rather candid about its limitations, pricing related to development costs and who would be a good buyer for it. Refreshing. Great video!
The CEO is obviously a salesman, why would you listen to his sales pitch? Go look at user reviews and you’ll know exactly what the product is like.
Or maybe if you need more “ browns” to throw into your compost? We have two bins and always too many food scraps
@@TroyParry74 Did you watch the video? What was his sales pitch?
Another way to use the dried product that you didn't mention in the video is to feed the product into a worm bin. I'm from a cold climate, and we trialed a table top composter at my workspace since we are also not allowed to have a composter outside the building at my workplace. Originally we tried putting the dried product onto the soil surface of our indoor plants, but it became a mush fungi product crust on the top of the soil. We then tried scratching that into the plant soil, but that became too overwhelming for the indoor plant dirt overtime (indoor plant soil isn't an active soil like outdoor soil is). We then fed the product to the worm bin with some moisture, and quickly had a bonanza horde of our compost worms devouring it. Worm castings are much easier to add to indoor plant soil, so this is the method we are sticking to.
Do you put other carbon material like cardboard into worm bedding? Or you just put this pre-compost things purely into worm box?
I was just thinking about this!! Thank you !
I live in the Near North of Ontario, Canada. I have two compost bins and they both end up full well before spring so I can understand the appeal of the Lomi over the winter. The price has been the reason I haven't gotten one. If they are able to aggressively drop the price in two years, I'll definitely be getting one.
I think I had 12 coffee cans coming into last spring in Michigan, couldn't wait to bury those
Mine was a gift or I wouldn't have one either, but they eventually pay for themselves because of the money saved not buying compost and by reducing food waste. There's no food waste here because of lomi. I put lomi away in Spring. Maine resident here.
I agree. Sask here and we just don't get long enough summers to break down good large compost. However, if these prices drop substantially. I would Get one then
@kdavis4910 It would be many, many years before I spent as much on compost as a Lomi. When you factor in the effort and electricity to get the equivalent of even one bag of compost... I just don't see the value financially right now.
Get a regular countertop composter. $40. Same thing
My chickens would hate me if I got something like this. Love that the CEO can speak so candidly about the pros and cons of their product.
Just the sort of thing id use it for
Brianna's use of the precomposted material is really intriguing. Use of peat or coir is between a rock and a hard place. So Brianna's use is really interesting. Could you have her do an episode just on her use of Lomi and how she uses the precompost in the soil block.
Also really says something about the Matt the CEO. Gives more respect with his honest answer.
Working on that one, we are experimenting with another material as another alternative too, I’ll get that one out as soon as we get it through some testing! 😊
Definitely will have her do one!
@@epicgardening I look forward to this.
@@Blossomandbranch that would be really useful. Thanks
I have a different brand of composter that is similar to a lomi and I love it. As someone who does not have a place for "traditional" composting, this is a great option for me. I even got one for my parents. We just take what our scraps are broken down into and add it to the soil. It is AMAZING how much my trash output has been reduced (which is the main reason I got it). Would definitely recommend it for folks like me who have a small garden and/ or no real place to compost the old fashioned way.
Which one do you have?
yes please, which one?
What composter do you use?
I have a countertop composter that I use for kitchen scraps, etc. I collect them in a 5-gal bucket until I eventually walk them down to my greenhouse where I feed it to my worms. Worms love the already-ground-up food & I love it not collecting fruit flies during the time it collects in the kitchen. Only warning: product needs to be well-mixed into the worm bin & not just dumped on top or else it will clump into rock-hard bricks.
Such a good use case!
Thank you for this comment! Great info for us beginners
@@TDAEON The goal is that we all don't make the SAME mistakes, right? 🤣
Oh dang, I'm super glad I ran into this comment. Mine clumped up into rock hard bricks when I didn't mix it in, and I didn't think to mix it all up, when I put it in my worm bin. Appreciate the heads up, gonna get this well mixed in next time round.
You know you don't need an overpriced food dehydrator to compost on your countertop. Just an old coffee tin. It's sad that we think we need "high tech" gimics. Just adds to more global emissions.
I think if you start spending too much money on your garden, it may not be worth doing for some people, that's why I try to keep things as cheap as possible, like making my own compost and fertilizers. 😃😃
I can certainly respect that
Gardening for me isn't just about the produce I grow, it also is relaxing, rewarding and helps my PTSD.
@@davidbrooks9576 Here here! It has helped with my PTSD and depression. I still have both, but it's a great, meditative outlet.
It eventually pays for itself, especially if the fertilizer shortages hit backyard gardens and it allows those in cold climates to continue building compost. There's the electric bill still, but I generally don't use lomi in summer, opting instead for chicken manure and compost bins.
@@kdavis4910 how could it possibly pay for itself compared to walking the compost outside and dumping it onto a pile? How many years have you had yours? Does it have a multi year warranty?
I was on the fence about buying a Lomi because I didn't know if it would be good for my situation but the amount of respect I have for this man after this interview... I'm going to buy one with my next paycheck for freaking sure. I'm a florist and we're about to use my boss's beautiful yard to grow a large portion of our inventory this year. It would be so great to lomi things in my apartment and bring them to their house. Awesome interview, thank you!!
I invested in LOMI when it was a Kickstarter and have never been more grateful for something. This has changed our world. We live in a very wet climate that breeds insect infestation with any kind of indoor compost. This device has given us the ability to not just throw away our scraps. This preps everything and then we can throw it into a spinner in the yard. Love it.
And did you make any money from ure investment
U got scammed
It’s a scam…
Thanks for making this video! And amazing to have the chance to chat with the CEO!
I wish they didn’t call the output compost in their marketing and I’m glad he mentioned it’s more of a pre-compost. And great discussion about use cases, nice to hear it’s not the right tool for everyone but I agree, it has its place for some.
Thanks so much! Great video 👍
It's great to see fellow gardening channels here! I subbed!
I would agree, it's not quite the most accurate framing to call it compost...I chalk it up to the fact that the average consumer (read: non-gardener) doesn't KNOW what compost is, and perhaps that framing is easier for them to visualize? Pre-compost is for sure more technically accurate
Thanks!
Thanks Eric I found this very interesting. Never had considered purchasing the Lomi,I already compost using bins and don’t have room for any gadgets. I loved your demonstrations and honest talk with the CEO.
@Epic Gardening I think you're right. Lomi is a gift for those living in cold climates. It's cold for 8 to 9 months per year in New England and lomi allows me to keep making compost when my compost piles went inactive long since. September was the last month my piles were active and they won't reactivate until about May. Maybe later, all depending on when spring decides to start.
I have a Lomi and LOVE it. Run a batch every couple of days and mix it in with my enriched soil pile. I can't physically do full-blown compost outside anymore and squirrels ate big holes in my tumbler. So it really suits my needs for small-scale gardening and composting general kitchen scrap.
If you don't mind me asking, how did you set up that enriched soil pile? Plastic bucket? Metal raised bed? Was it easy to set that up, especially for someone with no experience doing this stuff?
@Nick Schrombeck I just cleared out a 4x3 space in a corner of the yard, put down some square concrete slabs and made a pile out of some regular dirt, a few bags of potting soil, organic enriched soil. Mixed in some Blood & Bone meal and dug up some earthworms and stuck 'em in. I dump pot & raised bed dirt in there each season, the Lomi stuff. I'm not sure if I'm doing it by the book lol, but my veg garden & potted plants love it.
@@three2267 Ahh, I gotcha. I'll be doing the apartment lifestyle soon, so I looking to see what people are doing with the output since it's clearly not a true compost.
Thanks for the process map!
@Nick Schrombeck If you're doing apartment pots or have plants, you can certainly use the lomi. I like it because there's no smelly scraps hanging around. Even if you toss it in the trash or throw it in a common flower bed, it beats stinky rotting scrap. It's really light weight and has no smell, so you could save it in a bag and give it away. I put coffee grounds, tea bags, cooking scraps, and paper in mine. Everything except bones & pits.
@@three2267 Throwing it in the common flower bed or giving it away to others such as via ShareWaste are great ideas. I'll be living in a city, and there are plenty of beds around that I could drop this stuff into discretely haha
Come to think of it, Pela says to place the pre-compost in with soil in a 1:10 mixture.
Do you think it would work if I just add this stuff on top of the existing soil for my potted plants?
This way, you don't really need to keep buying new soil except maybe every year or so. Definitely a worthy experiment to run.
This video perfectly highlights why I absolutely adore your channel. The honesty, the thought that went into the examples you used and the use cases you presented at the end.. It’s even more amazing that you had the CEO there to ask the questions that we all wondered about, AND that HE was so honest and open and willing to share his insights.
Great video (as ALWAYS!) but something about this one in particular really made me want to write a comment telling you and your entire team how thankful I am for the effort and thought you put into your channel, your shop, and your content.
❤
Very much appreciate you, Stephanie!
You are propping up a shill. He wasn’t paid, decided to buy a heavy $600 electric appliance, and started walking around with it just for shits and giggles?
The CEO of Lomi dropped everything he was doing and decided to pop in all casual like just because some random influencer wanted to interview him? Yep. I was totally born yesterday.
The shill even has the Lomi on a pedestal during the interview. Seriously, how stupid do you think the audience is?
GTFO with your guerrilla marketing campaign.
Totally agree! This is one of my very favorites!
I love my Lomi! I have outdoor composting in my garden, however, to avoid rodent issues, all my kitchen scraps go through the Lomi. Then once I fill up a separate container of the Lomi pre-compost I dump it in my outdoor compost or directly into my garden beds. I live in zone 8b and I love how I use it. The best part is I can put not only kitchen scraps, but dinner scraps. You can’t do that in a regular compost bin. Love it!
Another option to consider is keeping your scraps inside until they get rotten and the critters don't like em anymore.
I've literally been throwing things on my dehydrator over night and zip it through the food processor in the morning.... boom same thing
I rent but have what I call a dead yard. I simply use a blender to reduce it, then bury it well below the surface. I used trench composting when I owned my home. But breaking it down speeds up the composting.
Blender technique is a good one!
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.
I can appreciate this approach! Very honest
Thanks so much for this! Very cool that the CEO was on, was REAL, was honest about pro's & con's, and was a genuinely nice guy. Community gardens, balcony gardens for apartment dwellers... great uses for Lomi. Thanks to Matt & his team for creating this very useful, Earth-friendly machine. ♥️
Who says he was being honest? Also, it takes a lot of energy to dry out the food scraps, only to rehydrate them to a ground up version of their pre-lomi state as soon as they hit the garden. I see no reason to believe this is earth friendly at all.
Next video for this: compare the use cases for the LOMI vs vermicompost vs bokashi compost, all of which can be done in a small apartment.
Kevin did mention that one of his co-workers used an innoculant with the Lomi and got good results, so some advanced strategies with this device, combining what we know from the other methods, would be super useful
@@SeeNickView lomi comes with innoculant pellets. One pellet per cycle. It also comes with charcoal pellets for air filtration. Don't lomi spoiled food because you'll smell it regardless of filtration.
I tried the vermaculture in the basement about 30 years ago. Had to quit cuz of the black flies and attraction to mice (which caused us to hang the box from the ceiling😂). My current compost bin is frozen and filling up fast with wet scraps. This video was very helpful to understand what lomi offers. And I think I’d be a good candidate for using one. It’s just a little pricey. Might wait for the 2.0 version.
Bokashi is misleading though! Everyone says it's great for apartments but you have to do the soil factory stage or bury it somewhere. So if you have a very small apartment balcony, or no balcony; what are you supposed to do with the stuff that comes out of the bokashi system?
Whereas the precompost from this stuff looks like it could easily be bagged and given away, or used cleanly in houseplants.
@@Rumade soil factory can be in small bins and you can cut your batches to whatever size and if you have friends that garden or community gardens near you can share it. it's like a double good, you're not filling a landfill and you're making friends and others happy. bokashi isn't really pretty but you're not doing it for pretty. bokashi you can also run without electricity, no parts will break over time (maybe a spout but you can repair that yourself), and results results results.
Something I would've liked to see addressed was if Lomi has any advantages in areas that divert food waste from landfills through municipal composting. In the video he made it sound a bit like the only options are composting at home or landfill and that just isn't true for many areas.
I guess one advantage is that it feels cleaner. I have some friends who hate municipal composting because the bins get stinky before weekly pick up, or the bio-bag bursts while they're taking it out
@@Rumade Before I started composting, when I lived in an area with municipal composting, my solution to that was to freeze everything until the morning of pickup.
@Phina Gage that's what I used to do in Japan so I wouldn't have stinky rubbish in my house. But not always feasible obviously depending on freezer size and number of housemates etc.
Then again, there's not always space in the kitchen for another appliance either!
Yeah, in NYC, there is municipal composting. It can be done through compost bins at your apartment building that get emptied on recycling day, drop off sites at libraries and community gardens, or even special key-card access compacting bins on street corners in certain neighborhoods.
Sounds like the Lomi was made for me! NYC apartment with no outdoor space and a growing plant collection.
I think my favorite aspect of the Lomi though is it looks like it provides the right conditions for the decomposition of biodegradable packaging. As it stands I don’t live in an area serviced by a compost facility, and biodegradable plastics still end up in landfills- or worse, they ruin plastic recycling. I love the idea of being able to choose compostable products and actually divert them from trash.
I live in nyc too and curbside composting is coming to all five boroughs by 2024 (hooray!) I have the same problem with biodegradable plastics too. Only a few container in downtown Manhattan actually accept these and they are quite a trip for me. Did you end up getting one? I am quite curious about how well they work for plants in apartments
@@jasminewang5514 I’m glad to hear it!! Unfortunately I haven’t yet, I’m staying with family this year and don’t have much dedicated space for it. But it something I’m considering for the future :)
I love the idea of pest free composting. While I'm on a half acre, and have active compost bins, my bin does draw pests. I imagine this would be very helpful in this matter.
I would love to see the Lomi be repairable, because as I understand it, it currently is not. That would go a long way towards making it even more environmentally friendly, and would make the price easier to stomach, in my opinion.
Couldn't agree more!
Is there a warranty option to send the machine back to the manufacturer for repair or replacement within a certain time period? Because if they don’t already have that, that definitely should.
It has a warranty and is repairable! We have 5 acres and really ran it hard to make sure it would work for us. We needed to replace the fan and their customer service was great. We also threw in too much dough that sheared the bolt in the bottom of the bucket and they replaced that too.
@@darthvanderh that’s great! I was under the impression that they would only replace the machine, not repair it, so I’m glad to hear that!
Yeah having parts available online would be super useful
I imagine the CEO and the Lomi team have already thought about this, and so they might be waiting until the technology matures more before releasing the parts to the masses. Might be a trade secrets thing
I live full time in an RV and travel the country (USA). Lomi has been a great option to reduce greenhouse gas waste and to ‘compost’ in a small area. We obviously don’t have our own yard so this is a really great option. I love Matt’s ideas and where this is headed. This may not be THE answer, but it’s a big step in the right direction. Thanks for the review!
Love the RV perspective and I hope the company is exploring this application.
I am a senior citizen that lives in a community with an H.O. A. My back and I love my Lomi. I live in the desert. Anything I can do for the soil will be beneficial.
I happened to be one the first people that get to try it and I love it. I bought it in their pre sale. Have chickens but I own a restaurant, is a lot of kitchen scraps for the chickens only. So, to me this is a life savior to my plants. I have citruses that didn't produce anything until I put Lomi's dirt on them. So, I'm glad I have it and is part of my grain of sand to help the environment.
I live in a 59m2 balcony apartment with the wife and we manage to bokashi everything to compost in 6 months. in a world were we need to cut down on energy use this does more damage than good.
That's amazing!
I think it would be interesting to see if this could be used in a mushroom farm as a nutrient rich growing medium for mushroom grow bags
Amazing idea!
Might fuck around and try that when I have money honestly
I would also love to know if this would work!
Please update if you do this !
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)
Definitely appreciate the candidness of the whole conversation. To ever hear a CEO of a product say, “no you’d not need this product”, that speaks volumes to me.
This is the best video to describe what I've experienced with my Lomi. I couldn't find anything like this out there when I was like "okay this isn't compost, I'm going to have to find a way to continue this compost process in my apartment." Such helpful tips for that here!
Another option for apartment-bound or other small property folks is to daily blend your food scraps in a blender with a sufficient amount of water to create a pre-compost slurry that can be watered into existing planting containers or raised beds. Of course you have to have a sufficient planted area to deposit the slurry in, and depending on what you are blending there may be critters who come a callin'. In my case I live on a relatively small 60' x 150' foot lot in a casual suburban area so there are plenty of spots on the property for me to water in a food scrap smoothie. However I generally do deposit the food scraps in a couple of different composting containers, adding in browns from time to time, which do take a while to produce finished compost. But I have utilized the compost smoothie method on many occasions.
A lot of people live where landlords, condo associations, or homeowners' associations won't let them have visible compost bins. If they don't have access to municipal composting, or if they can't get there often enough to deal with odors and bugs, this seems great.
I appreciate this video. I recommend having someone from Vitamix on your show as well. I've been using a Vitamix Foodcycler for almost a year and it has worked very well. We have the option for renewable electricity through our provider, and we're avid gardeners, who follow your show.
I also have the Vitamix, it is a smaller unit with a single setting and i think it was about HALF the cost of the Loomi - I use every day and love it- it just sprinlke the material over my garden beds and it has been a great fertilizer
I love mine too! And just use the product as a soil amendment directly in the garden.
@@debs7252 It's the first countertop composter that breaks down bio plastics. He mentioned in the video the price is expected to drop in ~ 2 years. (:
I wish it was half the price in Canada, usually it’s at least 75% the price
I've been on the fence about buying one, but considering I live in canada I just might get one so I can compost over the winter. Thank you for posting this
That makes sense. Even once I get my compost set up going, winter discourages me from bringing the scraps outside.
I live in WI. I love it, especially during the winter.
In Maine is works beautifully. We use it late fall through early spring and I have no complaints.
We are in Chicago. We used to store Bokashi in a bucket. This is so much better! It’s dry, takes up much less space, and is so much easier to work with and incorporate into the soil when spring comes. We save about one garbage can full each winter outside next to the other garbage cans. As opposed to Bokashi 5 gallon buckets stacked up in the garage.
I appreciate the CEO being honest by saying it’s not for everyone, he seems intelligent and genuine
Unbiased review steps:
1. Say the review is unbiased
2. Have the product CEO
3. Test the thing in ideal conditions
4. Tell that everything is nice
I'm 70 and want to help our planet.
I have a LOMI, and it makes my life easier, less smelly, and it's a process that I can manage. I use mostly the ECO mode, and I add the material to my garden's soil. I appreciate being able to personally contribute to a healthier planet by using my LOMI.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to reach their customer service department. I need to change my delivery schedule!!
When I was an apartment dweller in my 20s, I tried an earlier version of this from a different company. It worked....OK. But it was really just about TRYING to take a step to do something better. This looks better. Do I need it? No. But if younger-me got this for Christmas, I would have been absolutely thrilled. If you can't do the best thing, do the next best thing...
I like that! If you can't do the best thing, do the next best thing. I haven't heard that before.
I’ve had a Vitamix Food Composter for over a year now. It doesn’t take plastics, but I can put small bones, like chicken in & it composts them down nicely. Everything goes into one of the raised beds that is being setup (limbs, branches etc added) to help fill in without having to use soil. The next season we fill the raised bed with soil & go from there. I love my Food Composter it is a bit more compact in size than the Lomi.
A study on those compostable products found without turning (oxygen) many were exactly the same as when put in, it depends on conditions a lot. The one upside, is that it’s made of non-oil bases which reduce extraction
And municipal sorters can’t determine what is or isn’t a compostable one. It’s okay ur composter doesn’t take plastics (corn or soy even) cause even though it’s Bio-based not oil, still nobody really wants ‘plastic bits’ in their garden.
So good for production emissions reductions mostly. (Plant crops versus gas extraction) do want to say it’s still better to have corn forks instead of wood because trees are great carbon stores and while well carved wooden utensils can last for decades, the cheap ones are barely finished products and meant for throwing out. I come from a place where they log a lot for paper and such, and replacing gas for wood is still harming our atmosphere
Wooden utensils have a future but more in artisan pieces. And a glaze that keeps the wood’s integrity intact and keeps it from going bad (although you could technically sand it down a little) wonder what glazes are good, foodsafe and durable (while balancing good to cook with, with lasts very long)
Man I love that you did a video on this! Very honest and very helpful! I see it all the time on ads and this video answered SOOO many of my own questions! Like perfectly! 😀Matt is so honest and straightforward in his answers too, that's awesome. Makes you feel even better about the product and who it's designed for. So yeah, thanks! 😊
A #6 can with a lid(like a large coffee can). There's your compact composter. And it's basically free.
I live in Norway. I have no chance of getting a hot compost going. I'm starting Bokashi this month. I would adore having a Lomi for my gardening. Any conservation of nourishment for the soil is a good thing.
Hey Kevin, thanks for reviewing the Lomi. It was great to see it in action. Also, "High 5" to the CEO for being honest.
I love this episode!! Thanks for being so normal and discussing this in everyday terms, I’ve been eyeing the lomi for some time and I think it could be of great benefit for so many, I struggle with my tiny tumbler composter for my deck container garden and love getting information like this thank you
I appreciate that this video acknowledges there is no one size fits all solution and there are as many ways to compost and use a Lomi as there are people who compost and use Lomis.
I have a very large family, a very small number of chickens, even less time and space to compost, and I LOVE my Lomis (yes, plural, because my family is that big).
I run all of the kitchen scraps through the Lomis.
Then I give the precompost to the chickens along with their feed and all of the yard clippings.
Finally, I clean the chickens coop and yard into a compost tumbler every couple of weeks before eventually putting everything into my big bin with the worms that I turn by hand.
The Lomis do a great job of breaking down the food scraps, the chickens love the precompost and do a great job of breaking down the yard clippings and then the more traditional composting methods give me a nice finished product 😊
The problem with most electronics like this, is if you use them consistently for 2-3 years, something stops working. so you think you're going to not waste money with this type of system but you keep having to shell out money every few years.
This is greenwashing at its finest
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. ❤❤
Here’s a challenge for you.
Go out and buy the cheapest bread maker possible. Then dump your scraps into the machine and run it.
All Loomi is is a bread maker you don’t put bread ingredients into.
It’s a heater with a spinning agitator.
There is no reason for it to be as expensive as it is.
I agree with the CEO that food waste should not go into the landfill if possible, but even when I lived in an apartment, I found cheaper and more effective ways to compost my food scraps.
I used worm bins, then dumped the worm castings around the plants around the apartment complex.
I also petitioned our apartment complex to get community composting bins, which they ended up doing right after I moved out.
This answered all the questions I had about Lomi. Thank you! This is something my daughter can use once she’s done with grad school. When she gets her own place, she’ll definitely have an apartment balcony garden. Thanks!
We have a similar product and I dump it into a small trash bin and then dump that into our outside compost bins and into the garden this winter.
It degrades the material and makes it into smaller particles, making it more bioavailable. Less small animals getting into the food scraps…I like using it
Kevin, great video and you asked some excellent questions as well. I applaud the CEO for his candid responses in regards to who would benefit from one of his products. Also for what truly comes out of the machine in lieu of compost. 😊
NY'er here with a huge house plant collection. I have been very interested in this product but had so many questions. Thank you for pulling together such an informative video, it has definitely made my decision easier.
I'm in an association-governed home, so my composting options are limited. I'd seen the Lomi ads and was interested, so this frank assessment was sincerely appreciated. More food for thought. Thanks for making this video and to the CEO for a great explanation of his reasons for creating the Lomi and his goals for it.
Certainly remember a whole lot of snobbery when this came out in gardener groups. Having recently gone through our county's master recycler/composter volunteer program, can definitely see the use for this thing. The more broken down the material, the more surface area and faster composting. Love that the CEO is honest about where they see this fitting too, not trying to replace composting systems but give another option. I don't have a large place and my biggest issue is garden scraps, I have one pile but then just have the never ending compost pile. Between this or Bokashi I would probably do this. Though I do want to try it first. And I have no desire for worms, know what it takes to take care of them and just for me.
Breaking material into smaller pieces is a well-proven method for speeding the composting process. But the Lomi not only does this, it also dehydrates the material. It's an energy-intensive and completely unnecessary step. In order for the composting process to actually start, you have to rehydrate the material and allow it to decompose. It's an expensive bread-maker with fewer functions than an actual bread-maker.
Would love to see a video from Briana on her seed starting mix! If I knew I could replace buying bags from the store with a mix of Lomi output and some vermicompost, I'd definitely give it a go to try and switch.
Don’t mix Lomi with any seed mix since it’s not really composted it isn’t broke d down and also provides no microbial Benefits just use worm castings + anything else
@@GarrettXHolder I don't want to mix it with a different seed mix. I want to use it INSTEAD of seed starting mix. I basically want to replace miracle grow indoor seed starting mix with Lomi + worm castings.
I can't see how it would differ than peet since peet isn't compost either. So I'm really just trying to get a loose fluffy medium since the worm castings would handle the microbial benefits and fertilizer. Do you think that would work?
@@Ebonyraeful the stuff that comes out of a Lomi is essentially dried up food scraps. Not anything like peat witch is very broken down. If you already have a Lomi great use it for a few years till it breaks, but if you don’t have one I suggest watching the Lomi busted video before you buy.
@@GarrettXHolder fair enough! Thank you!!
@@GarrettXHolder did you watch the video? If you did, you’d see that’s not what i used. I experimented with using broken down leaves from the lomi as an alternative to peat and it works great. The harvest and use of peat in the garden is incredibly unsustainable and I’m always on the search for a better alternative. And no, coconut coir isn’t that much better. ;)
Pre-compost is a great way to describe it. Seems like you could throw your kitchen scraps in your dehydrator and end up with basically the same result. There probably is a market for this item but unfortunately, it isnt me. Props to the CEO for being upfront about it.
I got a Lomi for Christmas and we run it a few times a week. I live in South Louisiana and have a compost bin. The Lomi allows me to put kitchen scraps in my compost. That’s huge for me! I love it. ❤
This is interesting. The way I see it, is that you're making a slow release fertiliser and not compost. I do the same process using my oven to dry out and blender to grind. I add a teaspoon or so directly to my pots when planting. I also blend dry leaves before adding as an amendment to my homemade potting mix instead of coir and both options work pretty well. So this actually has a use case when I compare what I do.
My experience is the "compost" attracts bugs once they rehydrate and start decomposing. You'll need to bury it at the bottom of a very deep container, or risk having a million flies on your balcony if you plant in 1 gallon containers like my mom did.
Make sure you're blending the product into the soil itself. It's not meant to be laid on top of growing containers.
Calling it compost or dirt is a misnomer. It's ground-up dehydrated vegetable scraps ( or whatever you put in) No composting at all. As you say, the 'finished' product then needs to rehydrate and only then will it actually decompose into compost.
Love this! Was on the fence and looking for a thorough and honest review. I appreciate the added context from the CEO too. Not sure it’s right for me now but excited to see how it continues to improve.
I appreciate this video so much! I was thinking about getting one being that I live in NYC and I appreciated seeing you use and review the product and the CEO being honest about who the product is best fit for.
Where I live it's really dry and hot. Making compost is extremely labor intensive because you have turn it and water it several times a week which is so unsustainable for me (mom of almost 4 kids). This machine sounds amazing even though I do have chickens as well. Just being able to put scraps in a container (with a lid) and dumping it in a compost pile would be so helpful!
I was surprised you had the ceo on but you know what Im glad to have heard from him, I wondered if this product was a gimmick but he honestly seems really candid and invested in this issue and idea. Also, I never realized that keeping food out of the landfill is a large part of the reason behind composting, I never knew about the concept of food waste decomposing in an anaerobic environment at the landfill. Very interesting and makes the "small" impact of the lomi make a lot more sense to me.
It releases the methane emissions from the dump, which are some of the higher emittors
I love this interview! This would be something I would consider in my colder winters, where I can't get down to my garden to put scraps in my compost bin. I could save up what I process in my LOMI to put in my compost in late Winter.
I love mine so much. I got this for our gym. We had to deal with our own garbage. It is great it made such a great garden addition last year. My garden did so well. I just added it to my garden weekly.
Excellent review. As of Jan 23 have 2 wormeries, 3 dalek bins and 4 bokashi bins between home and my allotment, so I'm not exactly in the target market sector either. But more composting and carbon capture is a good thing and there have been many times in my life, living in urban apartments and so on, when I'd have loved one of these.
I really love mine. It's on the counter and isn't too noisy and definitely doesn't smell. I'll mix it back into the soil around my home, or pop it into my compost bin (which I'm really bad about turning....). Also, I have a clippings bin, and they're encouraging people to put in meat/bones/etc. While the Lomi can handle some meat/fat products, the larger stuff goes into my clippings bin and I'm happy knowing it's not going into the land fill. Oh I've had mine about 7 months and it took me 2 to find the courage to set it up. It was scarier than my Instant Pot for some reason.
I was scared of my insta pot for 3 months 😊
Got it! It was sitting on my counter when I got home last night. Yay! We live in a strict hoa so this is perfect for us. We have lots of wildlife in our neighborhood and it take two seconds to attract critters so a compost pile is not the best for us. With our new juicing life this is perfect.
I really really cannot express how much I appreciated the straightforward nature of the interview. I’m so impressed and have a lot of respect for both of you. Thank you so much for reviewing this product.
Ty so much for this! It was hard for me to wrap my head around how fast they claim it to "compost." I was just picturing it being something that just ground things up, but not fully breaking them down that quickly. I was skeptical that it actually came out looking like that (the peat/coco coir like matierial) & learning about how it has a fan to control the moisture & everything was super helpful to know! Even though I have a compost pile outdoors, I'd love to have one! I'd love to be able to mix it into my seed starting mix. I don't like using compost in my seed starting mix because I don't want to bring a bunch of bugs in the house...
this could be very useful for drying and grinding herbs at the same time
The electricity alone makes the output product cost way more than a bag of the good stuff and then $500 to buy it? And don't forget that lomi pod (shown in test #1) ... those cost $1 each to get about a handful of not-compost.
We have one and love it. Saving a ton of garbage space as well as not filling up our septic tank. I have learned not to use the dirt straight from the lomi to plant something but works great in the yard patches, etc.
NGL I was nervous when I was the CEO was gonna be in this video but I can really appreciate his honesty! This product isn’t for everyone but it can be a net positive for many, and I can respect that
He's quite a chill guy!
Thank you so much for setting up the interview and making the video. I have seen the ads everywhere too, I love the idea but wasn’t sure if it was right for me in my smallish yard. Now I’m hoping I get a decent sized tax return so I can snag one. 😊
Glad you enjoyed it!
I’ve got the Vitamix competitor to this. I bought it when I lived in an apartment but kept a garden elsewhere and had a ton of houseplants. We have a house now but live in a very cold climate so have stuck with it. I plan to use it until it wears out and then re-evaluate. But I love it! I just use what it makes as a soil amendment (and call it that). I’ve been really happy with how fast it breaks down in the garden without attracting pests or making smells.
So so glad you addressed the Lomi. I was on the waitlist for one of these last year, lost the $50 deposit after I found out that I was going to benefit more from a tumbler composter. Thank you muches!!
I just burry kitchen scraps directly in the ground. Everything degrades in about a month.
Same, I even made a video about it, burying scraps into a pot, and now the plant is doing great!
Method words quite well!
I have a different coutertop composter. I actually use the end product in my worm bin. It helps me feed them more than I normally would be able to without having an excess build up of moisture in the bin, which anyone with a worm bin knows leads to gnats. It also allows me to compost old rotisserie chicken carcassas that I made soup with and egg or seafood shells that would take a long time to break down in the bin.
can u mention a bit more about your experience using meat/bones in the lomi? i wish they touched on that more in this video
@@chrissi827 I've only put in soft bones, like the kind from soup or that you could easily break with your hands. It gets pretty noisy when you put anything too hard in there. I only use 50% meat and bones max. The texture comes out pretty fluffy and nice I think.
@@gennafer thank you! any sauce concerns or extra wet concerns? ideally id like to use lomi as a complete alternative to tossing food of any kind
@@chrissi827 I don't put sauces in it and I try to let foods dry out a bit before putting them in. The wetter the food is the longer the cycle takes and I try to be energy efficient. I put all my scraps in a small bin and then when it gets full I transfer over to the composter and pour out any liquid that collected at the bottom.
I have the Vitamix composter and I love it. At time of purchase Lomi had no warranty and I wasn't comfortable with that. Thank-you for this video. I live in the Rocky Mountains and summer is short so we use our Vitamix fall, winter, and spring. But I wasn't sure how to use the end product as it didn't seem like compost to me. Now I know I'll just add it to my compost pile!
I was honestly skeptical of the product until I heard the honesty of the CEO. While I would likely never need one myself. I would probably recommend this to friends and family that don't have the same set-up that I do. I also keep chickens and multiple large compost piles. It's hard work but i love every moment of it. The best way to live is creating more life.
We have an HOA and not much privacy in our corner lot. The Lomi might help me produce something I can camouflage as mulch.
I looked into these a few months ago and the idea of running for 5 - 8 hrs about 5 times a week just seems a lot on the power bill, also you need to replace filters far to often and depending on the brand (lomi is one of many) they can be costly.
One year later and this video has still had a huge affect on how I think about composting
I have a Lomi and I love it. Even if you aren't a gardener, it keeps your garbage from smelling bad. I've tried to encourage my building to have a compost program but they've refused, so this has been a good option for me.
Not going to lie, this definitely felt more like an ad than a review. You just brought the CEO on to talk about his product and took everything he said as fact without challenging any of it.
After I seen some of the examples I knew that this would be great for making a soilless seed starting mix.
I have the vitamin counter top composter. As a home owner in a residential neighborhood, I do not compost any animal product. But I really love it and I felt that it really helps keep my vegetable garden with nutrients. I am very happy with mine
Great to see honesty from the CEO. I live in Portugal, and have a good composting system. However, I bought one because I use it to create seeding compost. Seedlings don't depend on nutrients until the first set of true leaves push past the cotyledons. I normally use old compost for this by microwaving it and then putting it through a food processor to break it down and then sieving it. So the Lomi is great for creating my sowing material without the other hassles.
What's better than lomi is community composting. We have a program where I live (I live in a small apartment), and I walk my scraps to the DPW biweekly. The compost goes back into our public spaces and I can pick up a bucket for free.
If you don't care whether the scraps are organic or not, say, for ornamental plants, then this is a great program. I wouldn't want to eat food grown in it if it's not guaranteed to be organic, like what I produce in my Lomi is.
Cool invention. I could definitely see the utility for those in apartments or cold climates. Bit rich for my tastes but I'm glad to see guys like the ceo coming up with new ideas and making a living doing it.
Yeah, it's super hard to compost in an apartment/urban setting.
Not only do you have neighbors that might object to your activities and inform the landlord, which could lead to some variable outcomes, but there aren't as many use cases for compost unless you already have community gardens/greenhouses and/or balcony grow beds set up.
There are compost-to-your-door services, but those are few and far between. Even so for municipal green waste services.
This product just goes to show that we as a society need to be better with our food waste, which I'm sure it an obvious fact to people that watch this channel.
Even if they gave them away for free, the cost of running one 8 hours a day just isn’t worth it…
@@TroyParry74 Look up the Earth911 article on the device. They found 25% less GHG emission using the Lomi vs landfill even with petroleum electricity production. ~100% reduction via renewables.
The product, they reported, uses about 1 kWh a day. Compare that to how most households use ~30 kWh a day. That's a 3% electricity increase, which to a $150/month ($1,800/month) utility bill would add $5/month ($60/year).
The electricity cost pales in comparison to the OPEX cost of the device, which after CAPEX is about $200-300/year.
The electricity argument works in favor of the Lomi, not against it.
Btw, running a game system like an Xbox Series X or PS5 for ~6 hours in a day yields a similar amount of electricity use (~.7 kWh).
It's just a breadmaker
1kw of electricity (using this product for a 24 hour day) is 10 Canadian cents in my province. If it creates some heat in my kitchen in the winter, that's fine.
The real cost is the initial price, not the operating expenses.
I am happy with the brown paper bag with a Tupperware plastic container under it. If it gets full, I dump the brown paper bag in a hole in the ground in the backyard. It’s been about 3 years I’ve been doing this and it hardly ever gets smelly on the counter. Got pretty good dirt from it. Funny how simple it is. If the Tupperware container gets slimy or moldy, it goes in the dishwasher.
I’ve have a Lomi and been using it everyday. Been building up my Lomi compost pile and adding it all to my 9 raised bed and 7 greenstalk. We’ll see how my spring garden turns out this year 😅. The beauty of exploring with Mother Nature in the garden 🪴 😊
Lomi + Greenstalk = small space garden pack