A Review of the Lomi 2 - Food Recycler

I've had a lot of compost piles over the years – indoors, outdoors, worm bins – you name it, I probably tried it. Every compost had it's own issues that made composting our yard waste and kitchen scraps difficult. They either didn't decompose before the animals and insects got to it, attracted flies or filled up too fast, leaving us to throw our food waste in the trash.

When I learned about the lomi, I immediately wanted to try it. It seemed too good to be true! Compost material in less than a day! No need to gather all that brown material, leaving you with little space for the food? No need to deal with your compost container being full? I had to have it.

First, I put the lomi together. It's bulky, and a little heavy (not heavier than my two-year-old), but big and the bucket you put the food in looks fairly small. It took less than 20 minutes to put the charcoal into the filters, read the set-up instructions and connect it to the app. 

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Then I ran my first cycle, which included some of the biodegradable bag it was packaged in. 8-ish hours later, I had this dirt/mulch substance! Woo hoo!

I ran another cycle 2 days later on the eco-express cycle. This cycle is considerably faster and the next morning, I had more compost.

I started to google "lomi can I compost..." and put all sorts of things at the end of that phrase and was surprised to find quite a bit of information about composting on the lomi website. I learned all about recycling cardboard boxes and why my county didn't allow the recycling of pizza boxes (though you can put your pizza box into a lomi) and more.

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Lomi Shop: https://lomi.com/products/lomi-2

It is now 2 weeks later, and I have to say, I love this thing. It's exactly what it says it is – a food recycler.

Now, the lomi isn't going to take all of your yard waste (though you can put yard waste into it) and turn it into compost because it's just too small for that. It is meant to recycle your food waste from your home, so you're not throwing it into the trash. I still have an outdoor compost for my yard waste, but I'm glad I have something I can do with my kitchen waste so that my outdoor compost isnt' not attracting insects and animals to my yard (and looking pretty gross).

The lomi is pretty simple in design. There's just one button. This button allows you to select one of three composting modes – eco-express, lomi approved and grow mode.

Eco-Express Mode

The eco-express mode is what I have used the most because I don't have any indoor plants at the moment and it's winter time. It runs faster than the other modes and leaves you with what I would describe as a mulch-like substance you can throw outside. 

Lomi Approved Mode

The lomi approved mode allows you to compost non-waxed cardboard and biodegradable plastic bags like the one the lomi came in. This cycle runs a lot longer than eco-express and you do not want more than 10% of the container to be full of non-organic materials. I doubt I will use this mode often. Although it would be great to recycle all the cardboard trash we have, it's just too small of a container to make much of a dent in the paper waste at our home. If I occasionally have some biodegradable plastic or packaging, then I might use this mode.

Grow Mode

The grow mode produce nutrient-rich compost you can put in your plants. You really shouldn't put the compost form your worm bin (though the tea from it is fine) or outdoor compost into your house plants, so the lomi is a great way to fertilize your indoor plants. Lomi sells pods they recommend adding to this cycle which add microorganisms to the compost, making it even better for your plants. This cycle also takes about twice as long as the eco mode, but well worth it if you have a use for compost.

I had read a few reviews about this composter stating that it took longer than 8 hours to run and I didn't find that to be the case. However, you do have to use it properly. This means following the sheet they give you with the recommended food you can add. This chart has a list of food that you can put into the lomi as much as you like – mostly fruits and veggies – as well as things you should only put small amounts in like pasta, pizza, and dairy. You also want to cut up thick peels and stalks such as your kale stems and broccoli stalks into smaller pieces. Not following the manufacturers guidelines can potentially lead to your lomi taking longer to decompose the food and breaking it!

What I Love and Don't Love

I love how fast you can compost your kitchen scraps. There's no full compost bin or pile to deal with. I love the size of the compost container. At first, I though tit was too small, but it's just the right size that it doesn't take too many days of food scraps to fill yet big enough to hold a decent amount of food. I also love that I don't have to run outside to throw out my kitchen scraps at the end of the night and there's no attracting animals to food waste decomposing outside.

I don't love that it is powered by electricity. In that respect, a worm bin is a better alternative. It is also fairly large and heavy. We have the space in our kitchen for it, but our last kitchen would have been too small for it. 

All things considered, I am very happy with my lomi. I've been using it almost daily and it is so easy to operate. It works really well for my living situation and a great way to compost your food waste.