I don't use tumblers so I can't offer advice based upon experience... but... lol...

I think under similar circumstances, I would look to vermi-composting (worm bins,) especially instead of a 'small' tumbler. I've read a number of success stories with tumblers, but I've read just as many bad experiences. The biggest problem is the amount of organic matter necessary for successful composting is more than many tumblers hold. The second biggest problem people mention with tumblers is the difficulty in regulating moisture content.

On the other hand, once you get the hang of a worm bin, the results are almost unanimously praised.

Marie, that Yimby looks a bit small. I think there is a ratio of air to matter that plays into this process. Others know those numbers and will likely show up shortly.

I like the Gardener's Supply ones I have. One from a yard sale, which you don't see often. This was a gardener that posted in our local gardeners forum that she was moving across country and had lots of gardening stuff, including the compost tumbler. The other I ordered from Gardener's Supply on line. One rests, the other is active......I'm sure I said all this in your previous post about vermin proofing.

I can second the Gardners supply one. I have one that has been around since 2008. It's a decent size and has held up but I kinda wish it was bigger.

I'm not a fan of tumblers but I just wanted to suggest an alternate way of handling kitchen scraps in winter. A simple 5-gal bucket outside the door with a brick on the lid (if wind or critters are a factor). When it gets full, on a less treacherous day, walk it out to the compost bin. I suppose if you have 7 feet of snow that could be a problem, so this may not work for you. But if you have that kind of snow your little tumbler is going to be frozen solid too, or even buried, so a bucket is just as good. :-]

Happy composting, whatever you decide to do!

good points, all of them. Which gardener's supply composter (s) are you talking about, Mary and Bacon? GS has several: stationary, wood, ....I don't remember if they have a tumbler.

Your points are good, toxc. Why are the most obvious solutions sometimes not so obvious?

Hi Marie, This is the one I bought a couple of years ago. Works fine.

Gardeners Supply - Tumbler

The one from the yard sale is a different shape, more like a barrel. Right now, that one is resting. I would think you could keep one near the kitchen door, then transfer the kitchen door working scraps stuff to the resting scraps in spring [after removing what has been resting into the garden] and start again with the working scraps unit.

Getting them from the tumbler to a wheelbarrow is not easy or simple. I lay a tarp on the ground, open the 'door', turn the tumbler up and dump. Then shovel into the wheelbarrow. They have more sophisticated units but I don't want to spend that much and besides, it does me good to do some shovel work from time to time. Even if my shoulders scream about it the next day. :-|

I'll post a pic of my area tomorrow. Happy composting - Just Do It! :-))

This is the one my son gave me for Mother's Day several years ago, It has held up well. http://www.gardeners.com/buy/rolling-composter/34-374.html#start=37

Will any tumbler continue composting throughout cold or freezing temps?

Food decomposes even in cold temps it just happens more slowly. Aren't you the one who freezes most of your kitchen scraps? Not much difference if it's frozen in the freezer section of your fridge or out of doors methinks.

Microbial action is proportional to the temperature, at least down to the freezing point, at which point it stops. Those of us in freezing climates know our compost will be a popsicle in mid-winter. However, on those days when it's 40 or 50, things are happening. Slowly, but over enough days, it does make a difference. Always compost in the winter, because the bacteria don't sleep unless they're frozen.

I have the same tumbler as MaryMcP.

< Aren't you the one who freezes most of your kitchen scraps?>

I freeze my scraps during the winter outside in a trash barrel because my outside on the ground compost pile goes dormant for the winter.

I don't compost in tumblers and didn't want the OP to spend all that money thinking with two tumblers she could compost all winter. IF it were me I would just get enuff hardware cloth to make a 3x3ft pile on the ground (placed right in the garden if possible) to start out and see how I like composting and the work involved.

To me tumblers are way over priced for the product you will get and no less work. And then most people get discourage when all it does is turn into a slimy mess that attract thousands of insects.

To me you are better off with a pile on the ground with or without a ring of hardware cloth to contain it.

OR check FREEcycle for a FREE tumbler.

I posted previously about the tumbler I received as a gift. The OP had specifically mentioned wanting a tumbler and this one had held up well. However, it is expensive and the one I like that I already had is this one: http://www.gardeners.com/buy/wire-compost-bin/40-279.html I have three of them and they fold for storage.

Freecycle and craiglist free are good places to look if you are patient. Have seen a couple ground composters there in the last couple weeks.

We're a long way down from the OP so I'll review the original reason for a thoroughly OFF THE GROUND composter: a rat problem. Despite bi monthly exterminator visits(since July) etc we are still finding burrows. There is no way to seal up an 1811 house and come winter, if they are still here, they'll find their ways indoors. Indoor field mice at first frost is a given. We can deal with little mice. Rats no.

There's a barn with horses across the street. No matter how they lock up their grains--even with a kryptonite shield-- rats will find it. If they can't get it , they'll visit us.

I've had passive compost year round for the 40 years I've been gardening. Been shoveling it for about as long: into wheelbarrows, sheetrock compound buckets, screening etc. It is getting old, like my back, but no avoiding it.

I completely agree with a 'winter pail' outside the back door. My reservation about hardware cloth, even elevated off the ground, is that smaller stuff can still drop through onto the ground or pallets. And trying to shovel or even move compost or composting stuff on a hardware cloth service is a real pain. Been there, done that.

Yesterday, I did "just do it". I have a huge blue barrel....maybe it held bulk flour or shortening....and I threw the annuals into it. I refuse to put it in yard waste bags and haul it a a couple hundred yards to the street, then next spring go to recycle center (the dump) to shovel compost into the truck, unload it and bring it back to where we moved it from (in its undecomposed form) 2 years ago?

But whoever said 'just do it' is right. Get out the charge card and order one. I know I'll need another and will look on Craig's list and Free cycle for someone who's even more tired of composting than I am!

Feel free to argue or speak persuasively to me....I know we don't disagree about the benefits and given our rodent problem I don't think we're generally disagreeing about the method. I just have to get off my duff and pick up the phone.

That doesn't look like a review of the OP but an addendum to. I've never had rats but can they not climb at all?

For field mice I have an old unused gas grill out back that I use to bait an trap field mice BEFORE it gets cold and because it is up off the ground they seem to like it after a rain storm too.

This is a long read so search for "Rat Zapper" http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/3939488/die-squirrels-die-how-to-kill-furry-little-pests-safely?n=77

I have been using a "Rat Zapper" for field mice cuz they stopped feeding on the snap traps - almost like they talk to one another. I was getting a mouse each night (using peanuts) for the longest time but now it has ceased. I am now leaving stale bread in there to see if there is any activity but I think it is squirrels bc of the size of the tears in the paper bag and the slice is gone not nibbled on.

Apparently my squirrels won't feed on my Rat Zapper for some reason.

But if rodents are that much of a problem maybe it would be worthwhile to calculate how much compost can be purchased for the cost of two tumblers. Or advertise on Craigslist for someone to take the scraps from you maybe with a share of the finished compost. Or see if there is a local Master Gardener office who has a compost program which could use the scraps.

Yes, rats can jump and climb. When I disturbed the first one I saw- in a raised garden bed- it high jumped out and fled. It's a squirrel! It's a rabbit! No, it's super rat!

Aha, I just understood your comment, gumby. This post was a follow up to an earlier post where I asked "which composter?" and explained the rodent issue in detail. There were a number of comments and suggestions which led me to think a tumbler composter was the best solution. Hence, this question was "which tumbler composter?"

Sorry for confusion.

Point is I doubt a tumbler will keep rats out or away.

I set up a wildlife cam to see what goes on while I am in bed and I am just amazed at the over night and day time activity I had no idea was going on. This is not near my compost bin but out near the gas grill mentioned earlier.

It all started when trying to find out who was taking the mice and blossomed when I saw a woodchuck who was not eating from my garden but showed up there periodically. Then of course there are the cats, feral or not, turkeys, and who doesn't have coons, possum, and skunks. Not to mention squirrels and chipmunks.

Guess I have it all but I reinforced my compost bins with hardware cloth top, bottom, and front so they won't dig in.

"Point is I doubt a tumbler will keep rats out or away."

Yes, a tumbler can keep rats away. It is off the ground and it is locked and sealed - like a locked trash bin.

Sure, rats can climb, but it is a lot of effort and if they can't get it there is no point. This is like locking your front door and building a moat around your house. The lock is there to keep out intruders, but the moat discourages them from even trying. They head down the street to an easier mark.

There are probably thousands of rats on my street. But they are not in my compost bin - so mission accomplished.

TY, richard

My combine caught a rat once all by itself. Technically it didn't compost it but it was all dry and brittle when I yanked it out.

the rat must have been in the tines for awhile. Or it was summer in Ok or where ever you run your combine~

That thing's huge. Are you sure it's not a small capybara?

And what got into your well in the next pic? Sorry for snooping but...yikes.

where's it's tail? Either it's obese or it doesn't have a rat- like body or skin/hair. It just doesn't look like a Norway rat, though it does look like a rodent.

It's a rat. The hips got stuck and with it's hind legs up in the air it couldn't wiggle its way out of the small hole. The combine was in the machine shed for the winter and when we started pulling the machinery out in the spring this rat was hanging out.

The well started pumping out diesel fuel. It is a shallow well for around here. We had to drill a new one down to 185 feet with 160 feet of casing to get into the next aquifer. It is suspected that the diesel originated from local quarries nearby. Pretty well the only way diesel could get through the 14-20 feet of clay overburden. Governments know about the contamination as they've been out here for testing but don't seem to be that interested in doing much about it.

It was, indeed, a well fed rat.

That's awful. A lot of free product, someone had a huge release. Sounds like an underground tank, the bottoms can be about 10-12 ft. and they always leak, not if but when. Whoever is responsible should have paid to redrill your well. Although pinning it on them yourself is quite possible, it can cost more than a well. Which is why the govt should be doing it or forcing potentially responsible parties to do it.

One local quarry (while not admitting guilt) offered some compensation. There have been cases where re-fuelling was taking place and the operator walked away trusting the auto-shutoff. Spills are not uncommon.

Herein ends the tumbling composter discussion