Greenes Fence Premium Cedar Wood Composter Add-On Kit, 48" L x 48" W x 31" H (3/4" Thick) / 309.17 gallons - Made in USA with North American Cedar

I bought both a composter and this add on kit, after researching a lot of options for different styles of composters, as well as options for building my own. I feel like I made the right decision. I put off putting these together because I anticipated it could take a while, and wasn't looking forward to it. It turns out that it was really fast and simple -- all the parts are wood, and you don't need any tools at all. Everything slides into place, a little reminiscent of playing with Lincoln Logs, though not exactly the same. It's just the corner supports, the main boards, and little wooden separators that provide a little vertical separation between the boards. The most difficult part of assembling these was remembering to have a little patience. You need to keep the boards level as you slide them in, or else they'll get stuck, because the spacing is just right for the width of the boards. If you get stuck, just ease them into being level and continue on. There were one or two spots were boards gave me trouble because it's a natural material with natural variation -- I just played around with placement, and everything worked out. I think I ended up with a couple of extra boards and a bunch of extra spacers, between the two sets, too. These are a great size for setting up backyard compost -- big enough for a compost pile that can really get cooking, but not so big that a household won't be able to fill them up enough. I know that many people like a 3 bin set-up, and we might eventually add a third. But I'm finding that two is fine for us right now, and that it's useful to have some reusable yard waste bags/containers as temporary storage as you are sifting and separating out usable compost. One thing I expected with these bins was that it wouldn't be as easy as the listing makes it seem to remove boards for easier access. I read a review about how with moisture the parts tend to swell, making it difficult or impossible to do that. But even after a very wet summer, I found that I was able to easily remove most of the boards on one side when I was ready to "harvest" some compost. It wasn't necessary, but made the process a lot easier. I hope it remains that way. I assume that if I can get the boards out, I can always sand the connectors down a bit if they don't want to go back in. These, or something like these, really is the way to go for simple, plastic-free, backyard composting.

Update 8/1/2021: I run three of these now and couldn’t do landscape work without them. The cedar has held up like it should for the price. one benefit I didn’t expect is the ease of taking a side apart comes in really handy when you have finished compost and you want to load it out into a trailer or wheelbarrow. My composting mvp is definitely my chipper/shredder, but these are a solid second place and beat the heck out of bagging yard waste. Original review: On a suburban 1/3 acre lot you’d think an add-on to an already 4 x 4 composting bin is a bit much. But thanks to Covid related closures at the local dump coinciding with some big landscaping projects I was forced into composting. And I’m sold solely on the ease of composting relative to putting yard waste in paper bags and paying for pickup or transporting it myself. The problem I ran into with composting on a smaller lot with one bin is you need to have a pile of browns ready to roll next to your main bin so that when you produce greens you don’t attract bugs or wildlife. The second bin is my browns bin. Cleaning out the guinea pig cage? Got some extra lettuce? Now I’ve got some browns to cover up that waste without having a random pile on the property. Obviously the finished compost and reduction in landfill-bound garbage are great benefits of compost. But those never sold me on composting. If you’re like me and the worst part about yard work is often the bagging/what to do with all these bags process you may be suprised at how useful composting can be with these bins on ever smaller lots.

Overall I’m pretty pleased with this. I’m using it for an air conditioner cover. It fits together pretty quickly. Some things to keep in mind: 1 - it’s raw cedar - wear gloves! It’s not sanded smooth. 2 - if you’re going to use it for an A/C cover you’ll need to purchase 2 more corner posts so it stand correctly. You can purchase them on their website.

I've tried tumblers, wire compost bins and other plastic models. All failed for various reasons or were just too much work. These make composting super easy! Overall these are made of good quality wood, goes together quickly and not made out of non-recyclable plastic. I put 3 together and it looks great. So much nicer than black plastic bins or wire mesh cylinders with stuff hanging out of them. The cracks are to help with air flow. Fill one this year, fill the next bin to the following year and the third bin the third year. By the time you are done filling the third bin the first bin will be totally composted. A friend of mine uses this method and it's the easiest method I've found and makes great compost.

The add-on kit, in combination with the base unit, is a big upgrade to my composting system. My neighbors have already commented on its good looks (beats my previous big pile on the ground!). However, my base unit was missing some pieces. I've now contacted the customer service at Greene's Fence four separate times about the missing pieces and all I get is an auto-generated reply that someone will be in touch soon. It's been weeks, so I'm skeptical. I hate to write a bad review, I'd rather just get the problem resolved, but I really had no choice here.

There is nothing to hold this together. It’s easy to assemble because you just stack the pieces on top of each other. If you’re look to just buy wood pieces, then this is perfect.

This compost bin is very easy to assemble, and should hold up well to the elements. The first batch of compost is cooking! Beats building your own from cedar, in material cost and time.