Vego Kitchen Composter, 4L Electric Composter Countertop 5 Modes Weight-Based Smart Compost Bin with App Odorless Auto-Cleaning Food Waste Compost Machine Indoor, White

Love how I can use all of my kitchen scraps in this machine the material after it's done comes out very fine almost like sand, which is great because when I go to add to the soil of my plants, it incorporates well it's easy to use fun to watch and in my own way helping out the environment with recycling to me. It was worth every penny especially now that the summer is coming. I'll be doing a lot of composting.

Absolutely love this love being able to throw food scraps or veggies and fruit that have gone bad in the composter . We love our vego

I absolutely love this. I recently got into composting and growing my own vegetables. While I did buy a larger one that is outside (where you manually have to spin it, etc) I found I never actually took my left overs outside. I bought this as a result and have already made 3 gallons of compost for my garden. I just add my scraps (they give you a list of dos and donts) and store the compost once it is full to use at a later time. The machine is quiet, efficient, and well worth the cost. I purchased the black and it is very sleek looking. A little big on my counter top, but still fits with room to spare in front if needed. It sits beside my HydroGarden where I can even use the leaves and steams that I clean up, to add to my compost. If you are on the fence, I recommend it. If you are into or getting into gardening and want to be more self sufficient and learn how to reuse almost everything - get it.

First off, you can just tell this is a high quality product by the feel and intuitive design of the whole system, app and controls. My biggest driver for purchasing this was to be able to add nutrient rich fertilizer to struggling houseplants while doing a little bit better to keep waste out of landfills. Vego mode is really the only mode I use right now as I live in Colorado and want the very best output to put in indoor plants. I may try some of the other modes this spring and summer. With vego mode I highly recommend vego tabs to add the necessary microbobes to the compost. Since doing this, I run it about once or twice a week and my indoor plants are thriving! I'm always amazed by how quickly it creates nutrient rich soil with all the leftovers I put into it. I do avoid meet and cheeses per the instructions but almost everything else I put in it. I have a friend that has a lomi and one of the key difference that she is jealous of my vego is the ability to stop mid-cycle and add more to it. Vego has a sensor that detects the weight change and adjust the cycle to accommodate. As a result, it may run a few hours longer but I don't have to wait and keep scraps aside for it to finish. Highly recommend this Vego composter.

It is remarkable, but it really does convert food scraps into compost in 24 hours or less. The unit is attractive and compost bucket is big enough to handle a good amount of food scraps. The unit’s size is big for a small kitchen counter, so keep this in mind. Not much one can do about that, since it needs to be big enough to handle a reasonable amount of food waste. The convenient “Vego mode” allows you to add more to it while it processes the waste. It recalculates the running time on-the-fly based on the additional weight added. The other modes are meant to be run straight thru to completion, and therefore you’ll want to have it pretty full before running it in these modes to be efficient. When running it is quiet, but not silent, so you should expect to hear a hum as the agitator works and the fan spins. There is no noticeable smell during the processing. I assume this is a credit to the included charcoal filter.I live in Hawaii and electricity is absurdly expensive, so running the unit is not a cost free exercise (at nearly $0.50 p/kilowatt for electricity, a cycle costs about $0.75). This is based on a cycle using up to 1.5 kilowatts to complete (the energy usage upper limit I found online).The other costs to be aware of are the enzyme tablets (a “3 month supply” costs $30 on the Vego site) and the replacement charcoal filter ($25 for a “3 month supply). Vego offer a modest subscription discount. Regardless, the cost is not insignificant. If you assume the supply estimates are accurate, the total annual cost is $240, plus the electricity (which could add $100 to $250 p/year depending on your utility costs). That’s a fair cost to make compost from something you can likely throw away in the trash with no additional cost (other than guilt). In fairness, getting a year’s worth of garden compost has some real financial value, but it is possible to compost outside “the old fashioned way,” if you have the space, and this is essentially free.Overall, it’s a good product and I would give it 5 stars on how well it functions, but only 4 stars when you factor in the annual running costs. I understand that Vego is trying to keep customers on the hook for ongoing revenue, but I suspect they are taking advantage of their captive customers with excessively high prices (nearly extortionate) relative the actual cost of enzyme tablets and charcoal. I imagine they could combine these two essentials and sell them for maybe $20, and still make a worthwhile profit. Hopefully, as a result of Vego’s high prices, a competitive 3rd party market for these low cost consumables will arise.Update on the consumables: For the record, I have not tried these yet, but I asked ChatGPT for alternative options and there are likely several much less expensive DIY solutions for both the enzyme tablets and the charcoal filters. Here’s an excerpt from the AI response:DIY Enzyme Liquid:You can make a simple enzyme solution at home with just three ingredients:- 1 part brown sugar- 3 parts citrus peels (orange, lemon, etc.)- 10 parts waterMix and store in a sealed container, letting it ferment for 2-3 months (or use EM-1 to accelerate it). Use a few tablespoons per compost batch.Generic Enzyme Cleaners:Look for enzyme drain or septic system treatments (e.g., Bio-Clean, Rid-X). These typically have the same enzyme profiles and cost less than branded compost tablets. Just ensure they’re safe for organic matter breakdown and don’t contain harmful additives.Bulk Loose Activated Carbon:If your filter tray holds loose carbon, buy aquarium-grade activated carbon and refill it yourself. A $10 bag can last a year.

I was excited to use this product as I've composted my vegetable/plant scraps for years and was hoping to speed this up. Even though this product has multiple modes, it only seemed like there was one - ON. As I travel, I was hoping to use the mode that allows a slow decomposing that allows additions through the week with a standby mode activating every two hours; nope, same method as composting or food grinding - ON. It is easy to clean the non-stick container and supposedly dishwasher safe, but the lid is not easy to open and most will have to use two hands. Lining the interior bin is not always easy and usually took several attempts to line up the pins. While this did grind materials up into a great soil additive, and the odor was minimal, it's not worth $300 to have a machine the size of a microwave going non-stop having a grinding noise in the gears after 2 weeks.