I've been using one of these for about six months, and it's great. We don't own a dishwasher; the bucket is easy enough to wash by hand, but the top is a little tricky due to the charcoal filter -- if you leave it in while you wash it, the filter gets very soggy and stays that way.

The filters are my one concern about this item -- I suppose I could buy a lifetime supply and stock up (each filter lasts about six months, at least so far in my experience my filter is still doing its job), but eventually this company will go out of business or stop making them, and if you no longer have a supply of filters you'll be out of luck.

That's so often the case with products with proprietary consumables -- drives me crazy. I don't know what the filters look like for these, but I wonder if those universal charcoal filters for electric fryers would work?

I would just use a ceramic or stainless steel bowl that you already own. Saves $47 and works just as well. How much trouble is it to walk 60 feet once a day?

My wife and I have used one of these for years and loved it (I don't remember paying $50 for it though).

Works great for compost, but since it's the only metal pail we have we also use it as an ash bucket in the winter, takes a couple of extra trips, but much, much better than our current alternatives.

Lee Valley has Stainless-Steel Compost Pails for $20. No filter.

I own one of those Lee Valley buckets and I like it quite a lot. Though I suppose I don't know what I'm missing, charcoal filters seem like an unnecessary appendage. I lift the lid a sec to throw in my peelings/scraps and then shut it again. Very little stink escapes, and none I can detect while closed. Then again, I live in LA with my windows open year-round.
My compost bins are at my commmunity garden plot a few miles away, so I have to carry the full bucket in the trunk of my car. That requires nesting it securely inside something else with my boots atop, so the lid stays on. I'd love to see a model with a clip for securing the lid in transport. Otherwise for my purposes it works just fine -- no complaints here.

The charcoal filter in the lid is there because: 1. the lid is aerated, which helps your kitchen scraps from going anaerobic over the day or three it takes to fill the bucket; and 2. because it's aerated, the filter keeps your bucket from smelling.

In practice, I don't think my kitchen scraps actually smell much better than they did when I used a container with an entirely closed lid; after a couple of days in the bucket they smell rank enough that I take the bucket out to my compost pile regardless of whether it's full or not.

But I think if I stirred the scraps in the bucket every day or so, it would keep it aerated and aerobic, and less smelly. Will I have the disclipline and the brain cells dedicated to remembering to do that? I doubt it. ;-)

True, contents do go anaerobic in my bucket and they do start to stink. But it hardly matters (to me) because they're quickly jettisoned to the big bins where they break down properly, and a quick lift of the lid when adding scraps doesn't really release much in terms of odor. Point is (and my sniffer might be a tad insensitive here, dunno) with the lid on, whatever stink is in the bucket seems to be contained and isn't all too perceptible in the air.

Yep - the charcoal filter sheet is enough to keep the bucket from stinking up the house. And I know I have seen square and round charcoal-impregnated filter pad thingies from various manufacturers in the stores here (Seattle), so I don't have too much worry that I won't always be able to find something that will fit in there well enough to work. In fact, I use an old plastic yogurt lid slipped in below the filter to hold it up there and keep it from touching anything gross in the bucket. And I have successfully gently washed the filters by hand and kept them going for months or even years.

Overall seems a bit ridiculous to have a fancy stainless bucket dedicated to compost, but ours was a gift and we love it. After a run through the dishwasher it doesn't stink, unlike our plastic bucket did, and I can bang the hell out of it on the edge of the compost bin to empty it without breaking it.

We use a 5-gallon paint bucket with a sealing lid. Costs about $7 at a hardware store. It goes under the counter next to the trash can.

We looked at purpose-built compost buckets, but all of them were in the 1-2 gallon range, which would require us to take out the compost way more often than we consider to be convenient. With this one, we empty it out every 3-5 days. Stink is not an issue because we leave the lid on. And "going anaerobic" is not an issue either. The material never gets rotten or moldy before it goes into the compost.

Need an ash pail for your fireplace? Again, for about $20 you can get a much bigger one out of galvanized steel. Not as pretty as stainless, but perfectly functional, and much cheaper.

This thing really seems like a $50 solution to a problem that doesn't exist. And not a particularly good solution either.

You should check out Bokashi, which is what I thought your article was about when I saw the bucket. It utilizes microbes to accelerate the decomposition and has little to no odor. Best of all you can do all the composting in your kitchen and decrease your trips to the main compost bin. You can either buy premixed bokashi mix, or make your own to save money. A Google search provides many options. Another option you might consider is worm composting as it has low odor, produces worms you can sell, all while using little space. My favorite composting system is the NatureMill as it has received a lot of promising reviews. I have not had the money to purchase one yet, but I will be. http://www.naturemill.com/

Careful about the NatureMill. I bought one about five or six years ago when I first moved to the city and we lived in a second-floor apartment with no garden, hence no place to do outdoor composting (a bin on our balcony wouldn't pass muster with the landlord). Despite claims that the NatureMill doesn't smell, every time we opened it to put more kitchen scraps in, we were greeted by an overwhelming stench that filled the kitchen and the rest of the apartment. At the end of a few weeks I wanted to see if there was any finished compost but instead found a few inches of black putrid slime. A very expensive mistake. However, we were early adopters; the latest models on their website look quite slick compared with the earlier versions, so maybe it works now.

Those of you commenting about 5-gallon paint buckets: I used one of those for years for my compost when I lived in New England, and the two issues I had were 1) it's big enough that you can get lazy and let things accumulate so they get REALLY rank, and 2) because of that, the plastic itself smells bad after awhile.

I think the point of the original poster here was that this is stainless steel and thus doesn't pick up odors at all. And it's just the right size for a day or two's worth of kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, tea leaves, etc. so it doesn't get too stenchy before the bucket is full and you take it out to your compost bin or pile.

Joshua, ash eats galvanized steel over time. And why would you pay $20 when you can get pickle buckets for free? I mean, if you're going to go cheap, go cheap.

I use an antique "Charles Chips" can (see http://www.yorkblog.com/universal/CharlesChips.jpg) which is not only a useful item, it's an objet de art (heh, I guess I'm not only a cheapskate, I'm a snob too!)

We used to have one of those green epoxy enameled "lasts forever" compost buckets, but the compost ate through the coating eventually.

charlie...any guy that has a charlie chips can and uses it for compost is a guy any women could fall in love with...my 2 cents

We keep an airtight plastic cereal container in the freezer and throw any scraps we can compost into it, then put it back in the freezer. It's anaerobic but frozen so a) it doesn't stink at all, and b) it doesn't decompose. Once the container's full, we carry it to our compost bin a few blocks away. If our bin were further away, it'd still work, because it's frozen and takes a while to thaw, though it'd be stinkier.

We love our stainless steel compost pail. I used to use a plastic bucket, but it smelled. The filter really holds in the smell and you can really clean the bucket.

I always liked the ceramic buckets, but I've been to seen a couple that had been chipped and one chip makes it look a lot less nice. There's no chance of chipping this stainless steel.

I've had my bucket for almost two years and I've only had to replace the filter once, and that was my fault for letting things sit there too long without emptying it. That led to lovely mold cultures growing in the pale that moved up into the filter and I didn't want to tackle getting the mold out of the filter and cover, although I probably could have saved them.

Gardeners's Supply Company has this one and 10 other composting pails. There is a cheaper stainless one for $25 that we have used for a year. The one shown is really nice, but personally I think the charcoal filter is extra money for nothing. Just empty to the composting bin more often, the exercise is good for you. Here is the URL to the 11 pails:

http://www.gardeners.com/Compost-Crocks/20707,default,sc.html

We bought this compost bucket a number of years ago for $40, and I thought it was ridiculous to spend that much on a garbage pail. However, it really does not smell (important when schedules may not allow prompt emptying), and is very easy to clean. It's also not offensive on the counter top, and we'll never need to buy another one. Verdict? In the end, well worth the money.

(BTW, I also hate proprietary accessories, but we haven't had any problem getting more filters - Kitchen Kapers carries them, for example - but if we did, there are many sources for charcoal filters, including pet supply aisles where they're sold for kitty litter boxes.)

Scraps in the kitchen that aren't sealed in a container don't smell. This product creates a problem, and then solves it with an item that needs replacing. We have a container with holes in the lid. No smell. No problem.

@Todd (comment 19). Take a look at the lid of the bucket in the pail in the picture. See the holes?

Scraps that aren't sealed do in fact smell, as you can see for yourself if you leave an open yogurt container full of kitchen scraps for a day or two. It starts to smell. The carbon filter allows aeration without odor.

I've used the $20 Lee Valley Stainless Steel compost bucket for over four years, both at home and at my church (I rotate them). Instead of dishwashing, I give a quick rinse after dumping in the composter and then let sun-dry for 1-2 days. and odors are gone. The stainless steel does not absorb the smells.

The lack of holes is not a problem if you empty the pails twice a week. Without the holes, no filters are required, and any smell that may develop are contained, except when you open the lid.

Two things:

I picked up a couple of these for $14 per at Marshall's in Chicago. If you have one nearby its worth checking.

Second, for the new parents in the house, this thing makes for a great diaper pail. Cheaper than the diaper genie products, nicer looking, and a perfect size for a day or twos worth of #1 and #2.

I have this. It is great. I would recommend using loc-tite on the handle attachment screws. They come undone a lot.

We feed the compost to our chickens and the kids have twice come back with various parts in their hands and I have had to do a scavenger hunt to put the pail back together.

Loc-tite.