Does anyone have a hot composting system? Advice needed.

[Lovelyview]

Does anyone use a hot composter (looking at buying rather than making one)? Does it compost weeds and seeds effectively?

I’ve got a hotbin composter. It makes great compost. Not entirely sure all seeds are killed off but I’m really pleased with it.

Does it need careful management or do you just throw stuff into it?

Quite careful - but it’s not hard once you get into the habit.

Thanks. Maybe I'll ask for one for Christmas 😁

Love my hot composter. So useful in using all the vegetable waste (we have a caddy by our chopping board in the kitchen) and it chomps its way through masses of paper and cardboard each year. I sort of just lob stuff in though am careful to not let the centre get anatomically as that seems to break down more slowly. I can definitely recommend it and am even considering another.

Look out for used ones - people sometimes don’t get on with them so you might be lucky. I’m going to empty mine today in fact - that’s quite a messy job but satisfying once it’s all on my veg patch.

Thanks. Is anatomically a typo? I'm wondering what this means?

Garr..thanks auto-correct. That should have said anaerobic!

I'm looking at possibly getting one. Which ones have people got? How easy is it to use? What do you chuck in, I'm thinking garden waste and kitchen waste? Only just moved in so no idea yet how much garden waste there'll be, going from a teeny weeny garden to a decent size garden and intending to do lots of gardening.

My garden is quite small but densely planted. In the summer I also use the council green bin for larger garden clippings etc as the hot bin is fairly small (size of a wheelie bin). Otherwise I put all kitchen waste, some cardboard/ office paper; grass cuttings; prunings; spent veg plants in there.

@InsulatedCup do you know which bin you have? I came across an article reviewing 10 best hot compost bins, clicked through on one and there was a review saying it had fallen apart after a year! It was nearly £200 so it needs to be a considered purchase.
Thanks.

I have a Hotbin 200. It works really well and can become quite obsessive. It does need care when adding stuff but we use kitchen scraps not meat or fish but you can, and garden and allotment waste. It does need a reasonable volume to work. Through the summer I’m emptying 40l or so monthly.
Ours is in the front garden alongside the bins, it is very robust- I got it 2years ago via Black Friday deal, my neighbour has one on their allotment and the rats ate the lid off the first year so where you put it is important.

I got given a hotbin composter by the in laws who didn't get on with it. I've found it fine. It lives on the drive and we put all our vegetable peelings in it, some garden waste, lawn clippings (tiny lawn so not much) and cardboard if it's looking a bit too wet. There's no great science to it and I get a couple of builders's plastic buckets full of compost out of it about 3 or 4 times a year. It doesn't get hot enough to kill tomato seeds but it probably would if I was a bit more scientific.

I've had it about 5 years now. Still in good shape.

Emptying it is a bit of an art - and makes a bit more mess than I'd like - but it's not that bad.

Even though my garden is small I still need to use the council green bin too.

I’ve got the hotbin 200l one. Yes it does look quite pricey now! I’ve raised mine on a crate to make it easier to empty. Agree about being careful where to put it. I don’t put meat or fish in after I found evidence of a rat trying to gnaw its way in - no problems since.

I really want to be able to compost weeds. We currently fill bags and take them to the tip green waste skip but I don't like all that potential compost leaving the garden. However, I am not very organised (hence all the weeds in the first place) and I feel like I'm not going to be able to maintain the bin at the correct heat to destroy weed seeds. We already have a couple of worm bins for veg waste.

Also got a hotbon 200. I dgot n’t put weeds in if I can avoid it as not sure I keep mine hot enough. But have read that you can rot weeds down in a bucket of water and then add them.
I have a very weedy lawn which is full
of cinquefoil and I don’t dare add grass cuttings to the hotbin as the weed is an absolute pain!

You can get it hot enough to kill weeds but you have to think about it. I try to minimise put in any weeds that have got to the seed stage or are likely to spread. But weeds will spread anyway to be honest so I try and deal with it by keeping the borders densely planted and mulching lots.

I've toying for one for ages. ATM, as a single person household, I have a dalek compost which gets full too quickly in the colder months when it doesn't get hot enough to decompose that quickly. Is the Hotbin 200 sufficient for my needs? I, too, have a very small garden, so if it's smaller than my dalek, then that's a benefit too.

could an old chest freezer be adapted into a hotbin composter?