Trash Compactors

togoffrd · Jan 25, 2006

Well it was bound to happen, since building the house four years ago, I've had it pretty easy with the honeydo's. She started out with paint this room, paint that room, stepped up to me putting in central vac. Now we need a change in the kitchen.

She saw a matching set of a refrigerator and a freezer at Sears Grand and now with some minor remodeling will make room for the freezer.

Finally to my question, before I get things planned out and order new cabinets, are trash compactors a worthwhile appliance to have? They don't seem to popular around here. For those that have or had them, the questions are, would you recommend them? How big of a bale does it make? Can the Mrs. or young teens handle them? Do they leak or are they messy when you empty them?

Thanks, this was a late thought in our plans.
Tom

avorancher · Jan 25, 2006

We've had one in the last two homes and think it is worth it. We use 18 gallon bags that are 2.5 mil. If you install the bags correctly, they are pretty tough and won't rupture when you compress the trash. The size is easy to handle even when full. No mess, just unlatch the front panel, lift out the bag and pull the tie straps together. Ours is a bit noisy when operating but that only takes only seconds.

We're in a rural area and my trash pickup is limited to one container. The compactor make it easy to get a weeks worth of trash in that single container.

We've learned not to throw meat or fish packages in it... they get smelly after a couple days whether compressed or not. I don't throw glass bottles in it because I recycle them.

I would say a compactor is not a must-have item, but nice if you have room and budget.

midlf · Jan 25, 2006

The house we bought came with one. If you have a need to reduce the volume of trash they are fine. They don't save any space in the kitchen however. The space ours takes is just as much space as is needed for a 3 bin combination trash/garbage/recycling drawer my brother has in his kitchen. If ours died I would replace it with such a drawer.

We do not put any wet items, garbage, or anything into the compactor that will smell if it sits, only dry stuff. We learned that right away.

The "bale" is about 9"Wx15"Dxhowever high you compress it, max maybe 15". It is not that heavy, the CFO has no trouble unloading it. Ours is not leaky or messy as we do not put anything in it that could cause those problems. If you crunched glass and put messy stuff in it you could have a leak/mess problem.

I have had to take ours apart and clean and grease it.

IslandTractor · Jan 25, 2006

I like them. Being able to store the trash out of sight but not have to bend over to open a drawer etc is a convenience. Just step on the release pedal, the drawer slides out, pop in your trash and shove it back in with your knee. It also decreases by a factor of 3 or 4 at least the number of times you handle a trash bag.

Downsides: initial expense, the trash bags can get pretty heavy due to efficient compaction, need to have special bags (I used the paper ones for years but now prefer the plastic as they are easier and quicker to load).

Bottom line: I would prefer to have one. Not a necessity but a very useful appliance.

bmac · Jan 25, 2006

When we were in the early kitchen design phase of our new home, we were talking with a kitchen designer about trash compactors. I thought being in a rural area with an 800' trek to the street for garbage pick up that a compactor would be nice as it would reduce the volume of garbage we had to transport to the street. This designer did not recommend them, based upon his experience with customers who were re-doing their kitchens. He said that of all the kitchen renovations he has done, he has not had one client to had a compactor in the original kitchen who went on to include one in the new design. We decided to forego the compactor in our new house for that reason.

After reading the other replies, I'm glad we did. we tend to throw everything in hte garbage - wet, dry, smelly, etc. Sounds as though we may have been disappointed unless we changed our refuse handling habits.

EddieWalker · Jan 25, 2006

My experience is right on with bmac and his contractor.

One house I bought had one already in it. I hated it and my ex wife refused to use it. Said it was too much hassle. I agreed, but for different reasons.

When I redid that kitchen, I threw it away. I've had a few kitchens since then and have never ever considered putting one in. Clients who's hired me to remodel kitches for them rarely ask about them. When they do, I tell them it's there call, makes no difference to me, but to ask around and see who has one and if it's worth the expense. So far, I've never had anybody want to put one in.

I know two people with them in there homes now. One is very high end, the other is just an average rancher home. Neither use them, nor would they want them again. The high end home said it was the only mistake he made in his kitchen.

But everyone has different requirement,
Eddie

Bird · Jan 25, 2006

A trash compactor just "seems" like a great thing to have, but I guess not. My brother and his wife used to have one and said they liked it, but I know he spent a lot of time working on it. And the few people I've known who had them eventually got rid of them and did not replace them.

rox · Jan 25, 2006

We keep a small condo in the states, and it has a very small galley kitchen. There was a trash compactor in there and I took it out. Since we have advanced in society to where we are now all recycling, about the only thing that could go in there was paper, and not even the newspaper since we recycle that as well. Since you can't effectively use them for stinky stuff, now instead of having leass space for garbage because it is compacted you actually needed more space for garbage becasue you need two of them, the compactor + another, so it was using more space instead of compacting space.

One thing is, when we moved it out they sure are heavy buggers. In the space of the compactor I put in a trash can and recycling.

Let
s talk garbage disposals. When my husband bought his first restaurant and had the plumber over the "old man" plumer told my husband if he wanted to say money on plumbing repairs to not ever run a garbage disposal in the kitchen of the restaurant. That was all it took, my husband never permitted any fo his staff to use a garbage disposal.

Then, he carried that way of thinking home with him. We built a beautiful home, top of the line disposal was included but my husband would never permit me to use it. Some things are worth fighting about and some aren't, I jsut gave in on the no disposal idea of his. We sold the home 12 years later and the disposal was virtually brand new, but I'll say this, we never had any plumbing problems in the kitchen so perhaps he and the "old man" plumber were right.

When we bought our condo before moving to France, same thing, real nice garbage disposal, never used it....

my 2 centimes on kitchen garbage....

Winding down my day....

Bird · Jan 25, 2006

Rox, in 17 years we've only had one single problem with a disposal. That was a day when my wife dumped a large quantity of leftover spaghetti through it, then was cleaning and freezing a large quantity of turnip greens and stuffed a lot of those green leaves in it. The sink drain stopped up, but it only took me a few minutes to flush it all out with a garden hose at the clean out access (sure was glad the sink was on an outside wall with a cleanout on the other side /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif). I think if you have the water running through it before or simultaneously with introducing the garbage and turn it on before introducing the garbage, you'll seldom have a problem.