Bokashi Compost Kit

I bought this kit after attempting to make bokashi in a beverage dispenser with a tap (not recommended, btw). I thought the price of this kit was a little high, but it was comparable to others and included more accessories. I especially like that it comes with a good-sized bag of bokashi bran, which was enough for me to fill the bucket twice. The tap has worked great for draining off the leachate, and I have not had an issue with it becoming clogged, as others have mentioned. I followed the instructions exactly and the bokashi that was created has really improved the quality of my compost. The leachate makes the BEST plant food ever for houseplants. Mine have never looked better. The bucket is easy to clean and the lid is tight enough to create the anaerobic environment that is needed for fermentation. It is not true that there’s no odor, but with the lid in place you can’t smell anything. I keep mine in the garage. Another bonus is the little kitchen compost bucket, which I keep under the sink and empty into the big bucket when it’s full-this minimizes the number of times I open the big bucket and expose the contents to oxygen.

This bucket was designed to use for indoor composting because the plastic releases most of the odor from composting and cleans up very well. I've recycled a 5 gal bucket, it's dull plastic, with an air-tight lid to use as a 2nd bucket for composting, but it's not the correct plastic to use because it retains the odor for quite awhile. The spigot works great and the bokashi liquid is great to use diluted for plant fertilizer and for cleaning the sink drain. The fertilizer cannot be stored for more than one day because it gets offensive after that. One time I accidentally forgot to close the spigot and the cup overflowed (way too much liquidy kitchen waste in bucket) and the result was the cement floor in the garage was cleaned up very well (the original floor color could be seen by the stream of bokashi juice). The bran that came with the kit was awesome so therefore when it was finished, I ordered 3 bags of it but it turned out that this "bran" had an awful odor, the bag states that it can contain animal products, it wasn't 100% wheat or rice bran, and the finished compost was putrid. This Jan 2014 I did find another source online for 100% wheat bran and this bran is very good smelling. It's great that the kit came with both the square presser and the black masher because the kitchen waste needs pressed down and these tools wash up very well. The beige compost metal bucket with the black plastic pail looks nice on the kitchen countertop and is nice to have for collecting the waste until it's time to add it to the bokashi bucket.

I've been using this product for about a year and it still performs wonderfully. No smell, easy to use and to empty. I like that it starts the composting process and the container is of good size so I only have to empty it every couple of weeks. Makes composting my kitchen scraps an easy chore.

Overall I like how convenient this compost system is.The small indoor can with the plastic insert bucket is very handy, as it saves time (we don't have to open the large pail but every other day or so). The filters even prevent odor (but we don't compost meat or anything that smells bad).The big pail is airtight, and a good size for us. The bran flakes that comes with it, actually smell decent and help keep the compost from being too foul (along with their other intended purposes).The only problem is with the spigot system. The hole needs to be larger to allow the liquid to drain properly. As our fruit and veggies break down, they of course drain alot of juice into the bottom of the pail, which I attempt to drain after I've worked them over with the little plastic masher tool... The problem is that as you mash the fruit/veggies, seeds and pulp also get into the juice and plug up the spigot. It's actually quite frustrating. To drain a cup of liquid took me about 5 minutes because I was constantly opening and closing the spigot (each time I did that, the value mashed up whatever seed / pulp that was plugging the spigot). Perhaps I'll see if I can take it out, cut a larger whole in it and put in a bigger spigot.

Just got this about a week ago, so haven't had a chance to fill it up and ferment it just yet, but it's about 2/3rds full and seems to be working quite well so far. No leaks, no cracks, no weird smells... everything seems to be going as it should. It is a bit difficult to get the spigot screwed in tightly due to not having enough space to get a good grip to install, but I was able to manage and haven't had any issues with leakage... and per another user's recommendation, I bought a 3/4" mesh pipe filter to put in the spigot to avoid clogging, and that seems to be working out quite well. All in all, I am pleased with it, and super excited to turn food waste into gardening soil! My only issue is that every time I open the lid to add more scraps, my cat tries to climb in to inspect things! So if you have pets, things can get a little interesting... otherwise it's great, and hopefully will make for some wonderful food for my garden.

It doesn't smell unless you open the container. At the point you do that, the smell of dead bodies takes over the kitchen. Also, the spigot does not work very well to drain off any fluid. But if you can get past those things, it is a good solution to winter composting.