My Whirlpool TC is 10 years old. We had to replace the front control panel a couple of years ago. Figured out on line what the problem was, ordered the part for $65 and fixed it ourselves. We live in the country with once weekly trash service. We don't recycle or compost. We put in a new bag once a week. I do put scraps in ours but wrap all food items in a plastic grocery bag. Rinse milk cartons and meat trays. Maybe a dozen times in 10 years have we had a stink problem that resulted in changing the bag before it was time. The bags I use come from Lowes and they do rip a little at the top towards the end of the week when the bag is getting full but it's not a problem. Some models have a ram that will stay compressed. Mine does not. When it starts to get full I'll stop the compacting cycle when the ram is at it's lowest point and leave it there till the next time I need to open the tc. This makes sure the trash STAYS compressed. YES, I would buy another! Not something I want to be without. It requires some degree of maintenance like anything else. I used to take my plastic trashcans outside and wash them. Occasionally I need to spray the inside of the tc and wipe it down. So, two thumbs up from me :)

I'm something of a nutter about recycling. At least that's what my family thinks. Seperate bins for glass, plastic, cans, paper, newspaper, cardboard. I also have a fair size yard with 4 compost bins for kitchen and yard waste. My town is good about recycling at the multiple transfer stations (it's a big town) with no trash pick-up so everything has to be hauled to one of the transfer stations. I feel strongly about people who don't recycle and feel they should pay for the convenience / luxury if they choose not to. So I am glad that my town is, after much debate, going to start charging a $1.00 per bag fee in addition to the Municipal Sticker cost of over $100.00 to be able to use the transfer station. I think it is the only equitable solution. I intend to purchase a garage type trash compactor for the small amount of trash I do toss in bags to keep my disposal costs down. I don't have room in my kitchen and don't really want it there anyway so am planning to have it in the basement. Have been searching online and so far have only come across the Gladiator Trash Compactor that seems to be intended for garage / basement. Can anyone who owns and uses their compactor recommend a brand / model? Tell me what are the advantages / disadvantages on your model? What specific features should I look for? Does anyone own or know of the Gladiator Brand which I believe to be made by Whirlpool? It appears to be a rugged model, but that could be just the tire tread front grill giving the appearance of heavy duty. Are there any other models that would be suitable (fully enclosed) for my application? I also hadn't thought about compressing recyclables but after reading one of the posts here I'll check into that as well(cans and plastic - probably not glass) especially since recycling takes up such a lot of space.

I did before I remodeled. I have a feeling that it is a bad idea from a recycling point of view. Broken bottles mixed with smashed cans and plastics may be too hard for the recycling center to untangle and they might all get trashed. So maybe call the recycle place and ask, if you're interested in being good. But if you just want to get your trash out, yeah, it should work well.

We did, meaning we chose a trash pull-out in our new kitchen instead of a trash compactor, same size space. We actually put two trash pull-outs into our kitchen, one in the cleanup area near DW & sink, and the other on the far side of our island near refrigerator & pantry. Our pull-outs hold two plastic trash bins, which are removable & replaceable. We use the front one for trash & the back one for recycling. (The City of Dallas does not require us to sort recyclables & provides a "free" recycling bin along with our trash service.) We also have space for a small drawer above our trash pullouts. One we use for wine openers, stoppers, etc. The other we "sacrificed" to provide electrical outlets to that side of the island. The drawer "front" flips up for the outlets or down to cover them.