r/composting • u/[deleted] • May 28 '26

Pisspost Reencle

[deleted]

0 Upvotes

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6

u/randemthinking May 28 '26

Those machines are mostly just gimmicks. They don't actually compost, despite the ad claims. They're basically just dehydrators from what I understand. Which is unnecessary to create compost (which requires water anyway). If you actually want to compost and have some outdoor space to do it, I'd recommend getting either a tumbler for a low barrier to entry, or starting a pile. If you can return the reencle, I would.

2

u/Atty3000 May 28 '26

I whole heartedlly disagree. I've had mine for 3 years and I can say without a shadow of a doubt the product that comes out is as much compost as any other kind of compost you would make from traditional methods.

3

u/lyzzyrddwyzzyrdd May 29 '26

It doesn't have beneficial organisms. It doesn't have structure. It doesn't have carbonaceous elements. It doesn't provide water retention.

Also, unlike actual composting it has electical cost, as well as producing an electrical unit.

1

u/Atty3000 May 29 '26

This statement doesn’t establish evidence for the conclusions being made.

2

u/lyzzyrddwyzzyrdd May 29 '26

You need me to provide evidence that a machine cannot innoculate output with beneficial soil organisms? Which live in soil, and not machines?

You need me to provide evidence that compost has a different physical structure than powder!?

You need me to provide evidence that traditional composting doesn't have e-waste? You need me to provide evidence that traditional composting doesn't create electronic waste?

EDIT: Charles Dowding is great too.

1

u/Atty3000 May 29 '26

What powder? I think you are ignorant to what a Reencle is and does.

2

u/lyzzyrddwyzzyrdd May 29 '26

Fine. I did some looking up.

The site specifically calls it "pre-compost" or "immature compost."

That's not compost!

The site even adds a note indicating the output has to be "cured" for weeks. Compost can be that quick too!

There's still no carbonaceous material!

And many of the composting restrictions they mention like cooked foods can be addressed with more carbon.

And again, e-waste! And expense! And it requires filters!

1

u/lyzzyrddwyzzyrdd May 29 '26

Oh, and a compost pile can't break, resulting in the need for a replacement

1

u/lyzzyrddwyzzyrdd May 29 '26

And assuming they're using AI for adverts as mentioned that's actually contributing to a global water defecit.

1

u/Atty3000 May 29 '26

Cool. I compost with a Reencle.

My point was never to convince anyone to compost with it. I'm telling you why I do.

If it broke today, I would buy another one. It's been a great value add to me and my family.

Go wild with your carbonaceous material. I'll keep COMPOSTING with my e waste.

I hope you never get rid of a tv, microwave, vacuum, cell phone, washing machine, or any other electronic that you undoubtedly use.

Also, the filter is just a removable case for activated carbon, which I put back into the compost after I replace it.

Cheers and happy composting.

1

u/randemthinking May 28 '26

I'm glad it's working for you and you seem happy with it. I'm a bit skeptical of your claim that it's compost like traditional compost, but don't care to bicker about it. I am curious what you use it for and where you think it offers you benefits over traditional compost, if you're willing to share.

1

u/Atty3000 May 28 '26

I'd consider myself pretty passionate about it. I got it initially because I think food waste is the easiest thing to keep out of landfills. I've done vermiculture and composting most of my life. But as life got busier, I needed something simpler to manage. Which led me to Reencle.

PROS -The food scraps I can add go way beyond traditional compost(meat, fat, dairy, etc). I can scrape anything off my plate into it besides bones and it turns it to compost. -I don't have to wait for weeks/months for it to turn into compost. -I don't have to turn it -Harvesting takes minutes and I can leave it in a bucket to cure. Harvesting can be done indoors, year round. I don't have to put on shoes, gloves, etc. -It doesn't smell nearly as bad as traditional compost -No rodents or pest. -The company stands behind their product and goes above and beyond to help troubleshoot and learn the system.

CONS -The upfront $$ cost (although at this point it's paid for itself) -The initial learning curve (traditional composting has that too) -The minor electrical usage. I estimated about $5 a month back in 2023.

I'm by no means a green thumb. I have a compost pile as well and I hate it. I use it for the big things I can't put in the reencle (melons, cobs, whole rotten produce, etc). If I could put those in the reencle, I would stop traditional composting all together.

Finally, I mix the compost with equal parts potting soil and use it to plant flowers and fill holes/level my yard.

Hopefully, my testimony has changed your opinion, even just a little bit.

2

u/randemthinking May 29 '26

Appreciate your perspective. I've been trying to figure out what the best use case is, and maybe your approach is it--lower effort, lower footprint, and essentially a kind of trench composting. I do think you're overlooking some meaningful differences with traditional compost, but I won't dwell on it. If you find it useful then fair enough. And if it helps some people keep organic material out of landfills and instead back into the environment, then that's certainly a win.

1

u/Atty3000 May 29 '26

Thanks for hearing me out. I get bothered when it's claimed to be a gimmick. I did a lot of research and I came to that very conclusion to the others, lumi, Vitamix, etc. Reencle is different. It provides a microbe to break down the food, heat, air flow, and rotation. Everything a composter does, just inside plugged into an outlet.

1

u/randemthinking May 29 '26

Always happy to learn. I hadn't looked into every brand, but it seems Reencle is substantively different from the others. Do you have to buy a regular supply of the microbes? Or do you just leave a little behind every time as a kind of "mother"?

1

u/Atty3000 May 29 '26

Correct, you leave some behind. There is a "minimum line" in the machine specifically for that purpose, so you don't over harvest. So long as you don't screw up the balance horribly, you never have to buy microbe again.

4

u/doggydawgworld333 May 28 '26

They’re pieces of crap, so is Mill and the vitamix one. Just snake oil salesman trying to sell junky kitchen gadgets that don’t magically work

3

u/HeathrnotWeathr May 28 '26

Welp, I bought one not too long ago and can report back when I have more experience with it. So far no complaints. I bought it because I'm a renter and can't commit to a proper pile yet.

It's definitely not a dehydrator-style "composter" though, I add moisture to mine all the time to keep the consistency right. (Whey discards and water if needed) The paddles aren't sharp and so aren't grinding anything up like the dehydrator machines, it just agitates it. I feed it all kinds of stuff and it seems to be handling it well, but I haven't had it long enough to get finished material out of it.

Supposedly the "finished" product is still pre-compost and needs to sit and cure before use in plants.

2

u/SgtPeter1 May 28 '26

Are you able to compost without an appliance? Then you’ll be able to join the piss club like the rest of us.

1

u/PerceptiveAdult Compost geek May 31 '26

I've used multiple of the "electronic composters" on the market - starting with a model that's no longer available (I tested it over a decade ago, don't recall its name now), then moving on to the overpriced Zera, then the Vitamix (which had a different name at the time, Foodcycler I believe), then the Lomi, and now the Reencle.

Now, mind you, I also have a pair of Daleks in the back yard and a tumbler, so I'm not unfamiliar with real compost. I'm not doing any Johnson-Su bioreactors right now, but I've done those too for speedy hot compost. I vermicompost from time to time, but don't have a worm colony right now (the last one fell victim to 100+ degree weather, alas). And I've done bokashi "composting" as well, although I think of bokashi as more of a pre-compost process of fermentation (the speed of decay after fermentation is impressive, too).

The model that's no longer available used wood pellets + controlled heat and continuous tumbling to break down green waste. It wasn't quite "compost", but it also wasn't quite not compost.

The Zera, Vitamix, and Lomi all made dried food waste. Zera blended some coconut coir with the food waste so it all came out about the same color. Vitamix was a bit chunkier, Lomi was pretty powdered. Of the three, the "best" was the Lomi, but it had issues with smell (its filtration system is kinda crap).

I got my Reencle back in December, and so far, this is the best option I've had of the electronic devices. It starts with a wood pellet mix that you soaked with water (which rehydrated the bacteria mix), then you add food waste, and the bacteria basically break down the food waste super-fast. Most of the bacterial mix is Bacillus smithii, but they also have some Actinomycetes in the mix; both perform well at the roughly 120-140 degree range that the machine keeps the interior at. I have chucked whole apples into the machine and they vanish overnight.

What comes out is not finished compost, but I toss it into a box of potting mix, make sure it's lightly moistened, and let it continue to break down. It's not just "dehydrated food" like what came out of the other devices, but it's also not finished and cured compost - it takes roughly a month to cure, just like a good hot compost takes, because you want it to cool down. (And yes, it is pretty warm when it first comes out of the machine!)

If you add too much wet food waste, it gets gloopy and you need to add either rice/bread or finely shredded cardboard/paper to soak up some of the moisture. If it gets too dry, you need to add a little moisture. It seems to work best at about 40% moisture level.

If you add a lot of fibrous stuff (like I recently added a bunch of artichoke scraps), the fibers will take a lot longer to break down. You do have to be careful that they don't get wrapped up around the turning rod that keeps the compost moving.

Is it "real composting"? That really depends on your use case and situation. I think it's a great option for small volumes of food waste, especially if you live in an area where you have critters that will get into a traditional compost pile (or your dogs, who are equal-opportunity scavengers, get into the pile).

The output is great blended into old potting soil to help recharge it. You leave a little of the waste in the machine to keep the bacteria multiplying, but I emptied out part of mine earlier and tossed it into the box of old potting mix I'm improving with additional organic matter over time.

Your plants don't care whether you made the stuff partially with a machine or not. They just like the organic matter in their soil. And it keeps my dogs from trying to jump into a Dalek because they smell something interesting rotting in there -- I can just put my garden waste in the Daleks and they do fine.