Jora Outdoor Compost Tumbler - Dual Chambers, Dual Doors & Galvanized Steel Construction - 33 Gallon Capacity - Rotating, Heat Generating, Insulated Compost Bin

This is a really solid, well-designed piece of equipment. I was concerned about the stability of the steel tubing stand, but it is rock-solid when assembled, thanks to the cross-bracing on the bottom and back side of the stand. The materials used appear to be very high quality. The bolts are stainless steel, and all the metal tubing appears to be as well. The main drum is made of galvanzied steel sheets that have been powder coated (a low-visibility sage green color). The handles are solid molded plastic, and are pre-attached to the side panels. Not all side panels have handles on them, so pay attention to which panel goes in which location while you are assembling the unit.The compost tumbler was shipped and delivered much faster than the "advertised" time -- a Fedex Ground truck showed up at the door two days after I ordered, a pleasant surprise. It comes in two large boxes, and everything is double-boxed to prevent damage during shipment.Assembly instructions are sparse, with a number of small illustrations and almost no text. The manufacturer has an online video to guide assembly. I found it unnecessary. If you pay attention to the drawings, the unit goes together well.The assembly instructions strongly advise having two persons available for the assembly job. This is good advise, although I was able to do the entire job myself, using one tool (a 3 foot pipe clamp) that is not specified in the assembly manual. Assembly is straightforward and fairly easy until the last step, which is to assemble the 8 sides onto the two end panels to make the 'barrel." The side panels are lined with stiff plastic foam (insulation to keep the compost mixture warm as it "cooks"), and that foam must be compressed with a good deal of pressure to bring the pre-drilled screw holes into alignment for each panel. (Two stainless steel M3.5-15 sheet metal screws are used to hold each end of each panel in place.) I found the assembly went much easier if I used a pipe clamp (a woodworking tool) to hold the side panel in place while inserting the screws.It's tempting to use a power drill with a Phillips-head bit to drive those sheet metal screws into their holes. Don't do it. Stainless steel is not as hard and strong as carbon steel, and it is very easy to strip the heads on the screws with a power driver. I stripped several screw heads in the process and had to buy replacements.The only other "trick" in assembly is used in attaching the two end panels to the hexagonal sheets of foam that go on the ends, and similar assembly of two sheets of solid plastic to form a "sandwich" with the foam sheet in the center partition that separates the two sides of the composter. These sub-assemblies are held together with nylon bolts. There are no holes in the foam sheets (about 1.5" thick) so you have to push each bolt through the foam. I found it easier to push the bolt part way through one direction, then remove it and push it all the way through the other side. One could use a power drill, but it is not necessary.The sparse assembly instructions assume a certain basic knowledge of mechanical systems. They do not, for example, say which size wrench to use for which bolts.The 9/16" wrench is used on the head of the six metric bolts that attach the cross-braces. The 1/2" wrench is used on other nuts. (Metric equivalent wrenches would be 14 mm and 13 mm.) The instructions also don't describe the orientation of the self-locking (aircraft type) nuts that are supplied for application to the six M8 bolts and two long steel shafts at the top and bottom rear of the unit's stand. If you are not familiar with these nuts, the plastic "rim" that is visible on one side of the nut points out toward the thread end of the bolt (away from the head).Read the assembly instructions carefully and make sure all the parts are in their correct position before bolting things together, and you'll do well wih assembly.At the time of this review, I haven't actually started composting with this product, but it certainly looks like it will do the job well. The heavy duty components and thick foam insulation should help to retain heat in the composter and speed the composting process.

Excellent quality. Good video on YouTube for assembly. Easy to understand how to put it together, but hard physically. Definitely need 2 people. Insulation makes it tricky to assemble, as you add panels it gets very tight and hard to line up holes. It helped to use an awl in metal screw holes on tighter pieces to hold in place. If I were to put another together, would put the middle divider insulation pieces with plastic ends together first, not after partially assembled as it shows in video. Very smooth turning. Two people can carry it to final resting place after put it together in garage or basement.

It has been almost 3 years now since I purchased this composter. It has held together well, and in good conditions it still composts well, however, the foam insulation has shrunk somewhat and now that there are gaps between the pieces the insulating value has dropped. It is not possible for me to keep the unit composting through the winter unless I have a perfect combination of greens and browns and rotate every day, sometimes twice. Currently, despite a relatively warm Ohio winter, I have a full, frozen and unusable composter. I'll be happy again once spring sets in, but in the winter, after a year or two, you will need to keep this thing in the sun as much as possible.One tip: If you find you don't have enough "browns", go to a store where they sell bulk wood heating pellets and purchase a bag. I have a bin that holds 20 lbs right by the composter and I can throw in a handfull with each load of kitchen compost. Since the pellets are compacted it doesn't take many of them to balance out your compost.I felt it necessary to review the delivery and assembly of the JK270 due to many of the negative reviews about past problems. The JK270 came to my doorstep in two boxes, on two consecutive days, in perfect condition and DAYS earlier than expected :)I unboxed everything and immediately went to YOUTUBE to watch the assembly videos referenced here. They make the process quite simple. All the parts were there, everything went together nicely (it does take some effort to install the panels while the tumbler is standing up (in hindsight I would do the panels with the tumbler tipped over onto the floor). I assembled it in our living room (after making sure the front door was wide enough to move it through AFTER assembly) and have not used it yet.We've been having record cold temps and I thought I'd wait until the thermometer got above freezing to get things started. In the mean time we are putting composting materials into our freezer in plastic containers, so by the time the temp rises we should have a good quantity to start. Even though I have plenty of leaves on our lot, I bought cheap wood pellets for the carbon end of things (under $4 for a 40 lb. bag) just to make it easy to get the mix right.So far this looks like a VERY durable and reliable mechanism for composting. I'll follow up with a comment about how it works once we get going!March 16 update: I finally "pitched" the first load into the Jora on March 6 (44 degrees outside). After a few days I realized I had gone overboard with the "browns" and added too many wood pellets. I have purchased a 2.5 gallon plastic container (like you would put cereal or flour in for your pantry) to contain the daily compost material until it is full, then I take that container to the Jora outside. In the meantime I keep the container in the freezer and take it out each time to add material from meals, etc... When full, I take it out all day to thaw and then dump it in the composter.Anyway, I start by putting a handful of pellets in the bottom of the container, but I quickly realized that our waste (napkins, paper towels, pizza box, etc...) has enough browns without the addition, so for now I'm leaving them out. After about a week I was a little discouraged. The temperature had dropped several times and I simply wasn't seeing any "movement" in the composter. Today that all changed! I just went out to empty the container and when I opened the Jora STEAM CAME OUT :) It's working away perfectly and I couldn't be happier. In only 10 days with NO compost starter and a difficult start with too many browns, I've already corrected enough to have this thing cooking away (I might add that the temp was in single digits this week!) If I could add a 6th star at this point I would do so.April 18th update - It has now been nearly 6 weeks since I started using the Jora. Despite the fact that I empty a 2.5 gallon container into the Jora, on average, about every two days, I can still see the center post in the one side I've been using, so I've put about 50 gallons of material in a 35 gallon pot... it's been composting down quite nicely. Every once in awhile I'll find it's too wet and smells bad, but after adding a few more browns it's corrected the next day. Yesterday I ran my lawn vacuum and placed several handfulls of yard scrap into the container so that it would be "full" - now I'll start using the other side. I've really done nothing to make extra work for myself (no cutting up fruit skins, etc...) and have simply dumped things in. SO EASY to use! Assuming it takes me 4-6 weeks to fill the other side, I'll come back and update with pics of what I get out of the first side.