Brand: Aerobin. Model: 400 Composting System. Rating: 4 / 5 ✭✭✭✭✩
My 4 year old Aerobin composter
Likes: Easy to assemble. Comparatively little maintenance required in comparison to other composting systems. Makes good quality compost relatively quickly (depends very much on what materials go into it). Design eliminated the need to turn the compost, which is good for lazy gardeners! Is easier to make good compost for beginners.
Dislikes: Construction materials could be sturdier (claims to its durability have been over stated in my experience). The draining spigot is too close to the ground – the bin should be assembled on a raised platform, like a few large-format pavers, to aid draining liquid. It’s exorbitant price tag.
Overview: When it comes to home composting there now many options to choose from. The Aerobin 400 compost bin is certainly one of the more pricey options but you do get more bang for your composting buck. Firstly, the capacity of the bin is much larger than other systems at a whopping 400 Litres. This means that for the average suburban block, one bin is probably all you need. It is designed to be maintained as a hot composting system, meaning that the turnarounds between the production of useable compost are comparatively faster and easier than other bins. Claims to the Aerobin’s ability to make ‘better’ compost should be treated with a healthy amount of scepticism. With apologies to Gertrude Jekyll, compost is compost is compost.
Removing finished compost from the Aerobin is easy through the large doors
Features: One of the keys to the Aerobin’s effectiveness is grandiloquently referred to in the literature as a ‘lung’. It is essentially a segmented pipe that runs from the bottom chamber of the bin right through to the top, encouraging aerobic conditions inside the bin while discouraging the formation smelly, wet compost. It is also insulated with polystyrene, which helps to keep the heat inside the bin over the cooler months. It also has a reservoir at the base of it to collect the leachate formed in the composting process. Finally, two large doors are located at the base of the bin for easy removal of compost. The doors are large enough for easy access with a spade when it comes time to harvest your precious, black gold.
Used by whom and where: Owing to an unexpectedly large tax refund in my student days I was able to purchase the bin and have been using it for almost four years. It works well if, like me, you don’t enjoy manually turning compost bins. I live on a pretty small suburban block in the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne and it easily handles all the materials I put into it. When I purchased the bin I was renting a house with a kikuyu lawn, so lawn clippings were heaped into the bin on a weekly basis in the summer time. Each week I would fill the bin to capacity and each week the materials would cook down enough to fit the next load in – no turning required.
You need to manage the ‘green to brown’ ratio of what you add to the Aerobin 400 compost bin to make good compost
Performance: Within the first couple of months a bit of trial and error was necessary to become familiar with what the bin required to work properly. It is by no means a chuck-anything-in-and-forget compost bin. A proper balance of brown and green ingredients needs to be added in order to have it work properly. When I had an abundance of lawn clippings the system became too wet very easily, so careful attention was needed to ensure the conditions in the bin didn’t become anaerobic. This was achieved with the addition of large amounts of dry ingredients such as raked up leaves, dry twigs and the odd bit of newspaper here and there. The ratio of green to brown ingredients I have found work well are a little more than half green to every dry part, so between 2:1 and 3:1. Thankfully, the house I’m now paying off came complete with two medium deciduous trees and a grape vine-covered pergola, which provide me with almost enough brown matter to last me all year. The leaves and grape vine canes live in bags in the shed and are added to the bin when necessary.
A note on the leachate reservoir at the bin’s base: I’ve never experienced the bin to produce any liquid in great quantities. Which is a good thing because the spigot used to harvest the liquid is impossibly low to the ground, so much so that I imagine collecting the liquid would require a McGiver-like ingenuity to get at it. Compost tea, as I’ve previously written about on GardenDrum, is not all it is purported to be, so I’m not put out by my bin’s lack of leachate.
While the design of the bin is groundbreaking as far as compost bins go, I feel the design could be a little tighter. There are many nooks and crannies in the frame that spiders like to take up residence in, not least of which are the handles on lid. I always make sure I use gloves when dealing with the bin to ensure I don’t get nipped by an errant arachnid.
On a final note, the bin is not vermin proof. I found this out the hard way when a pair of mice took up residence in the bin and soon burgeoned into an extended family. The solution I came up with was to drill small holes in the leachate reservoir and block up the spigot hole completely. Sacrificing leachate for vermin-proofing, for me, was a small sacrifice to make. This problem can also be avoided by mounting the bin on a hard surface, such as pavers or concrete.
Specifications:
Dimensions: 740mm x 740mm x 1200mm when assembled
Capacity: 400L
Patented ‘lung’ inside the bin eliminates the need for turning the contents.
Where to buy:
Many online retailers sell the bin, as well as most garden centres and nurseries.
Price guide: $350 – $380 RRP
I pretty much agree with the above review. We bought an AeroBin 200 from WormsRUs and it seems to work pretty well. Certainly the best static type compost bin in it’s class. I like the insulated walls feature. No mice problems though. Yea had to place it on a solid surface, That’s what the instructions say to do. I saw the Swinburne study on compost bins and the AeroBin convincingly beat the competition overall, though it did not always score top points in some areas.
The one tricky thing I have found is getting the right temperature mix with hot composting. I agree with James’s comments that, the right mix of greens and browns seems to effect the composting process and hence how much heat the AeroBin generates. I’m only an amateur gardener, however I prefer to measure compost pH. temperature / moisture with long probe meter to get a rough idea on the pH, core temperatures and moisture levels inside the AeroBin. We use a 4 in 1 soil meter which I find quite useful, even though it only serves as a rough guide, but it beats guess work.
We keep our AeroBin 400 on old bricks, which seems to help make it more sturdy. We don’t get many compost worms because the AeroBin is elevated off the ground, however we keep a Vermihut worm farm going on the side for our kitchen scraps and use it to stock up our AeroBin with compost worms, from time to time.
We tend to use our AeroBin more for organic garden matter, grass, leaves etc… The worm farm handles more of the kitchen scraps, however they complement each other as an overall solution to green waste management.
We’ve had our AeroBin for a few years now and it’s still going strong. Admittedly we don’t do a huge amount of composting, as we only have a small garden, but it’s good to have that extra capacity in case we need it. Also it means we don’t overload the compost bin. Works well in winter, so I guess those insulated walls of the AeroBin do help keep it warm inside.
We’ve owned some of the cheaper compost bins in the past, however the AeroBin is the best we’ve had so far. It’s clear that considerable design has gone into the AeroBin compared to the other cheap bins ( basically just a bin with a lid ) The AeroBin has an aerated core and liquid compost collection tray with tap, which I think are worth paying extra for. Generally speaking you pay for what you get and the convenience of having the liquid compost fertiliser on tap, saves allot of time messing around with making liquid fertiliser preparations by hand.
We use a Bokashi Bin for kitchen scraps, however we do have an old AeroBin and we often empty the Bokashi Bin kitchen scraps into it. The Aero Bin serves as a refinement process to help further break down the waste scraps into good compost for our garden. This also saves us time, as we don’t have to bury the Bokashi scraps in the garden.
Overall I agree with review, the AeroBin is an excellent composting choice, for beginners and even experienced composters, however I do think generally, effective composting can be a bit of an art, though yes the AeroBin with it’s features, does help make the process easier to manage. When you get good quality compost, it’s very rewarding.
I do agree with James, that this is a more expensive compost system, however it does seem to offer much more than the rest of the bins out there. We have an AeroBin 200 which suits us for our small unit. I must say it’s a nice looking compost bin, if you are concerned about that sort of thing. Composting away and already we have some nice compost for our small garden, soon after 8 weeks. We have put in a few compost worms we got from a friend, that seem to be multiplying now, so they seem to be helping things along.
Don’t know how the AeroBin 200 compares to the AeroBin 400, other than being smaller, but we are very happy with it and like the advanced features it has, that other bins simply don’t have. i.e. airflow core, insulated walls, liquid compost collection with tap etc… Pretty cool features that save us time and seem to offer better results overall. I just wouldn’t bother with those cheap compost bins anymore, now I’ve tried the AeroBin. I lead a busy life so, the time and effort saved with the AeroBin, more than makes up for it’s higher price.
I have read the reviews with interest and so far like what I see. I have been composting for many years so I now get the ratio pretty well. I have learned that compost needs to be well seasoned before using especially in vegetable gardens. I add to the pile almost daily and am concerned that the compost will be seasoned enough. I imagine that the compost on the bottom will be ready to use?
Cockroaches and slater beatles infest my aerobin 200. Any ideas about how to control these unwanted additions to my composting. Other than the above the bin works really well.
Cockroaches will infest the bin if it’s too too dry, in my experience. Slaters always seem to be present in varying populations throughout the year. I tend not to worry about them – they aid decomposition so their presence is not a problem (the chooks go crazy when pull the side of the bin!).
Slaters, interestingly, are one of the few land-dwelling crustaceans on the planet – they’re not technically insects. I feel pretty privileged that they’re shacking up in my bin!
Save your money and buy a tumbler……aero not worth a cracker.
Tumblers are OK, but not very efficient at composting. Also you don’t get worms in them. Nothing wrong with roaches and slaters in the garden, they feed off the organic waste. So long as they stay in the garden. They are just part of the food chain. Make sure the AeroBin is on a solid brick slab full dimensions of the bins base or a cement slab. Don’t put it on the ground i.e. grass or soil. Worst case, you could get a tray and flood it with water, then put the bricks / slab in the tray and then the bin on the bricks. Many will drown if they try to get in. You could try adding some lime around the base and in the bottom section of the bin, which might deter the bugs.
You’ve hit the nail on the head, Brad! It’s all about diversity. Too often do we see critters and quickly conclude they’re a problem. Slaters and roaches will aid composting. I find slaters in the bottom of the bin, never in the middle or top. In other words, they only seem to proliferate in the ripe compost – I would even go as far to say that in my bin they’re an indicator that the compost’s ready to use!