Norpro 1 gallon Stainless Steel Compost Keeper

This is a great little pail. The 1.5 gallon size is perfect for me and I only have to empty it once a week, or close to it. It was actually bigger than I thought it would be. I needed to empty one gallon containers every night or two. No smell, no nats and the handle is attached well and is good and strong. The stainless steel cleans easily and does not hold any odors; one quick rinse under the facuet and it is ready for the next load. It looks ok sitting on the counter which makes it very convenient to use. It is not what I would call "pretty," but it is much better looking than an old coffee can :) It is nice enough that the wife "allows" it on the counter and big enough to keep me happy. The lid seals well enough to prevent smells, but comes off easy enough that you can open it even with hands full of veggie trimming; just lift it off. No catches or twisting required. I considered a pottery jar, but I wanted something a little larger. Also, I am a little rough on things and would have broken it within a year or two. The stainless steel will last me forever. It may end up with a few dents, but it will still hold my trimmings! This is a fair price for a high quality product that does exactly what it says it will do.

We've had a problem with fruit flies getting inside between the filters on this composter. It works well and we don't smell the odor but we have had to replace the filter because of fruit fly eggs growing on it. It's really easy to wipe out and clean though since it is stainless steel and it is a great size for our use because we use a juicer most mornings and have a lot of pulp left over which we just throw into it. It might be useful if there were a stainless steel grate just in front of the carbon filter to prevent food from accidentally getting on the filter and creating mold on it but I can live without that feature because it does a good job in everything else.

Very happy w/ our purchase. We've been composting for a while using Tupperware, which took up too much space for the volume we needed, lid was inconvenient, and who wants to see their scraps? We had our eye on the plastic/bamboo ones for a while, but quality was questionable, styling (for us) was questionable, and it was not really cheaper than the Norpro! The Norpro is very solid construction. This is not flimsy stainless that your appliances are lined with, it is rugged, brushed, and solid. Any more solid than this is just overkill. We love the styling, like a miniaturized retro trash-can, only shiny. Being "green" rarely looks this cool. As for smell containment let me say this. We just lived through 3 90-95 degree days, and I don't have A/C except for the bedrooms. I'm not OCD so I didn't put my nose against the product, but we didn't notice any off smells in the house, and continued w/ our routine of emptying every 1-2 days. The $40-50 is worth-it, if you're looking for something that looks nice and will last forever, long enough for your grandkids to say years from now "yeah my grandparents composted waay back in the 2010's" :)

I have had this compost bucket for about 18 months now,and it is generally working very well. It's quite large, and catches scraps for just me and my wife. So we only need to empty it about once a week. We really have no odor problem, and only rarely see fruit flies. It has no rust at all after 18 months. The only negative is that the top is a little weird. The top is made of 2 pieces that just fit together with a pressure fit -- there is nothing that really secures the two pieces together. So sometimes when I pull the top off the can, the two pieces come apart and I have to try to put the back together while I'm trying to dump some scraps in the can. It's not a huge problem but an annoyance. It seems like it would be easy enough for the manufacturer to figure out a better way of securing the two parts of the top together. If they did that, this product would deserve 5 stars.

I've had this compost bin for 4 or 5 years at least, and it's basically good as new. The 1.5-gallon compost pail/bin is kind of the perfect size. It easily holds a few days' worth of scraps unless you're binge-cooking. I also got the 1-gallon version because of a limited counter space situation, but it's too small. I should have given up the counter space and gotten 2 of the 1.5-gallon bins. Regrets to this day. I've used the bins with, and without, the circular odor-control charcoal filter discs installed in the lid. I do like the idea of the filter. The filters are a little tricky to get properly installed into the space between circular metal shelves in the lid. If you over-fill the bin and then put the lid on, the filter sits on the overflow and gets gunked up, and you're also not supposed to get the filter wet, so you can't just run the lid under the faucet to clean it off. It can be unpleasant to wrestle an old filter out of the lid, especially if it's been fouled. Honestly, I don't notice much more smell without the filters, and without them I can just throw it in the dishwasher. This "Compost Keeper" was a great purchase.

This is a totally amazing Fruit Fly breeder!! I can't imagine a better incubator for these "delightful" insects. The lid design provides safety from all manner of hazards, like water, soap, and scrubbing. They can stick on there so well, it's amazing. They can breed so fast all this happens in just a day or 2 - so in case you think the container is suffering from neglect, don't worry! This IS an extremely sturdy container. With use of a filter - which is ill-fitting and gets gunky quickly if the contents get even a little high in the can, it doesn't smell. However what it does best is breed fruit flies. We had a ceramic container before, that did NOT have this issue of being a perfect breeding ground, so we know it's possible. Unfortunately being ceramic, that broke. So we thought - Metal! Good idea, it'll last forever! Now we can breed fruit flies forever and ever and ever.