DIY Compost Bin Review

This compost Bin is a classic simple design, made from renewable materials, and very convenient to use.

Amazon UK sells a really cheap DIY compost Bin for under £40. The design is good for UK cold composting, and it has a very convenient feature in the front panel which is removable, and comprises a series of planks which can be raised with the compost level inside. I can imagine that it would be possible to up-end your wheelbarrow over these planks to quickly discharge each barrow load of garden trimmings for most of the filling period which would be a nifty time-saver.

DIY’ers looking to get themselves a DIY Compost bin that buy this product have said that there are no instructions provided, which these days must make this product almost unique! However, others have pointed out that the design is so simple that by looking at the images on the Amazon product page it is really quite easy to see how it is put together.

There have also been a number of reviewers who have said that some of the wooden components have been partly broken on arrival. However, all buyers do seem to be pleased with the results after they have overcome initial disappointment that the product is not easier to assemble. Also, imperfections in some wooden parts seem to reported by almost all reviewers which don’t seem to be insurmountable, but detract from the product.

Some also report concern about the robustness of the assembled compost frame, and yet the product is the only DIY Compost Bin of its type available on Amazon of this type, and is the only simple wooden DIY compost bin, which we have seen. It ticks all those boxes, which plastic compost bins fail on, for sustainability of manufacture, and the wood istelf is a better insulator to keep the compost pile warm than single skin plastic versions could ever provide.

Our verdict is that it is a recommended buy due to the simple, yet very usable nature of the time honoured design, but that we will keep looking for something better. It is when one considers that the alternative is to start from scratch and buy the wood, paint with a wood preservative, measure-up, cut and joint, the wood yourself that the advantages of a pre-cut DIY Compost Bin, like this one become apparent.

Some people that have sufficient waste wood from another project may say that they prefer to take the additional time to cut, joint and erect a fully home-made version of this DIY Compost Bin, but our guess is that at this price most people who buy knowing that the product has a few glitches, will breeze through the installation and be very happy with the results. After all, always remember that the people that write reviews on product sites are always drawn from a small percentage of the actual buyers, and that those buyers who are satisfied with a product very rarely indeed ever go think to go back and write a review!

If you would like to read some of the quotations we have added a few here, but a look at the reviews directly on the Amazon UK page is still recommended:

Quite good, given the price.

I couldn’t get my head round paying the huge prices asked by some manufacturers for what amounts to a few pieces of timber slotted together, so I thought I’d give this product a try. The other issue for me was being able to access the compost from the bottom of the bin. Many, more expensive bins have no way of doing this other than complete dismantling or digging down…

Don’t buy this unless……….

Don’t buy this unless you have DIY skills, time to spare and lots of patience. My wife and I liked the look of this compost bin but when it was delivered we found that several small pieces of wood had broken off, or were only loosely attached, and the slots for joining it all together were too small. We complained and received another package but the problems were the…

To find out more about this DIY Compost Bin click here.

On the other hand – we recognise that some DIY’ers won’t be phased by the idea of starting from scratch with making and assembling their own compost bin framework.

For those people that want a woodworking project which also results in a working compost bin, we suggest that you click on the Amazon advert on the left, for detailed plans, and guidance from a book on the subject.

Listed below are some other websites with related information about this Compost topic:

On Recycling N.Y.C. Goes From Leader to Laggard - NYTimes.com
Couple aims for trash-free life with Composting
Quality Compost (PAS 100 & CQP) - Association for Organics ...
John Innes compost - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
Compost 050: Information from Answers.com

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