Sorry, should have uploaded the picture in my original post.

Also, just a P.S. that I think making my own composter out of an empty barrel would be much cheaper but my husband's response to this one was "thank heavens it only involves money, not more of my time...." (He has a number of garden-related projects on his to do list!)

Tumblers are discussed here regularly, and while some like them, there are various problems and issues that make the high cost not that appealing for many. One of the common complaints is that the 'compost in a few weeks' claims do not usually pan out, and experienced composters are not surprised. Compost takes a little time. Here's some search results if you want to do a little reading.

http://search.gardenweb.com/search/nph-ind.cgi?term=tumbler&forum=soil&forum_name=Soil

A simple plastic bin, or a home made one of pallets, a circle of chicken wire, etc. works just as well and possibly better, for very little cost.

What will you be putting in? Garden trimmings, leaves, grass clippings, kitchen scraps or all of the above?

Thank you for the link. I read through the thread and can see that tumbler composting has its challenges. Although I am in the city, I am one block away from a large urban forest and if we are not very careful, we experience rats in the neighbourhood. That was one of the reasons the tumbler composter appealed to me. I will be putting in leaves, grass clippings, fruit/vegetable trimmings and coffee grounds from the kitchen. I don't want to have any kind of an open compost so I am wondering if should add worm composting in my garage to the list of possibilities.

This post was edited by Swanlake999 on Thu, Aug 21, 14 at 19:15

With potential problems with wildlife, consider a worm bin for the fruit & veggie bits. Could throw in the coffee grounds too.

I have a double tumbler, not like your photo, though. Mine has very distinct chambers that tumble separately. The guy in the store said he got compost in 6 weeks. No way! Mine take 3 months at least. I keep adding materials as the volume goes down due to the compost process. I add leaves, grass clippings, flower deadheads including roses and daylilies, coffee grounds, shredded paper, and household kitchen waste.

I really love this composter. It is very neat and fits on the side of my house by the fence. I too have a small lot and not much available space. I also have two heavy duty plastic composters I have used for years but they take quite a bit longer than the tumbler. I use them when the tumblers are full.

We compost about 7 lb of coffee grounds and food scraps per day at my office, which is next to woods full of coons and possums. We use cylindrical plastic bins like the Home Composter with locking lids. A piece of chicken wire underneath keeps critters from digging in. We've been doing this for 15 yrs. now and never have problems with varmints. Your mileage may vary, just thought I'd share my experience. If rats can chew through the plastic they can do it in the air just as well as on the ground, so I don't think you gain much with the tumbler, except that you could buy several Home Composters for the same cost as one tumbler.

We had a simple one. It never worked.

The reason tumblers take so long is the volume chamber is small. Too small to create heat. A bin is all you need and is cheaper. Starbucks free coffee grounds will speed you along. You don't need to turn compost that much to make it work. I normally only have to turn a batch twice in the whole process. The first turning breaks up larger things, the second one finished up the compost. Turning everyday as in a tumblers is not actually needed and turning too often decreases heat.

Thank you everyone for the input. I really value your experience and feedback. I have already become a UCG scavenger, stalking the coffee machine at the office and whisking away the grounds two to three times a day. We have a city wide composting program where every household has been issued a ginormous bin which is collected bi-weekly and turned into bio-fuel for our garbage collection trucks. It's a fabulous system, however they are going to have to keep it running without my compostables. Given that householder participation in the first year has been beyond their wildest dreams, I think they can make do without me.

Citywide organics recycling is great, but in an ideal world, as much of it as possible should be composted and returned to the soil right where it's produced, i.e. backyard composting. Certainly less of a footprint in terms of collection and processing. So keep telling yourself that you're a generation ahead of everyone else!

If you can, try a 1-gal ice cream bucket with a snap lid for the office coffee grounds. Just put a nice happy sign on it, "Used Coffee Grounds, Filters and Tea Bags." My wife does it at her small office and brings home a bucket every week. She has a couple of them so there's always one by the coffee machine while the other one is in transit.

Happy composting!

My hubby got me a single similar to that, and I can't figure out how to get the stuff out without just dumping it somewhere! I have several bins and a bullet tumbler (that's on it's last legs sniff). I've finally decided to leave one raised bed bare per year and put the tumblers right on top of that bed, tumble away, then dump them on the bed to finish for the next spring! I'm hoping it'll work!
So personally, I don't like the small turn tumbler. I have better luck with the bullet one, but both are difficult to empty without dumping them somewhere. NT