How To Compost: Sun-Mar 200: Starting All Over Again

If you've missed any of the excitement, you can view the entire How to Compost series.

So, I guess it begins all over again...

From: Josephine
Date: Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 2:17 PM
Subject: Sun-Mar 200 Problem
To: compost@sun-mar.com

Hello.

I spoke with someone at customer service on Monday, and she suggested that I send you an email with some photos to describe my problem.

I purchased a Sun-Mar 200 Garden Composter in May 2007. As you can see from the attached photos, it seems that the inner drum is falling out. Each time I turn the composter, the inner drum pushes out more and more. It is bending the arm of the stand so far out that I have to be very careful when I turn it so that the entire tumbler doesn't fall out of the stand (which has now happened twice). If I lift the composter onto its side (difficult to do because the composter is quite full), the inner drum *will* slide back into place, but after a week or so, it begins to inch its way out again. Is there anything that can be done to secure the inner drum in its place?

Additionally, I would like to say that I have not had good luck getting compost in the inner drum. Even though the composter is quite full, and material in the *outer* drum has been balanced and composting nicely all along, there has never been anything but dried, uncomposted garbage in the inner drum. Finally, after more than a year of adding material, a local retailer suggested regularly spraying water into the inner drum which seems like it is helping.

However, now that I can no longer turn the composter without the inner drum falling out, that seems less of an issue.

I'm sorry to say that I have tried your customer service multiple times since May 2007 with either no response (via email) or unhelpful, bordering on rude response (via phone). I hope you will be able to help me out this time. I was very excited to use the Sun-Mar Garden Composter because of its innovative, continuous compost design. Sadly, it has yet to meet my expectations.

Sincerely,

Josephine Cameron


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From: compost@sun-mar.com
Date: Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 5:13 PM
Subject: RE: Sun-Mar 200 Problem
To: Josephine

Hi Josephine,

It looks like the screws that hold the inner drum in have let go. This was an issue with earlier models of the Garden Composter 200. I am going to replace the unit under warranty. Your new unit should arrive in approximately 2 weeks.

Regards,

Donna Seabrook
Sun-Mar Corp.

Here is the complete How to Compost series in case you'd like to catch up or review:

Step 1: Make it a Priority
Step 2: Choose a System
Interlude: Nature Tried to Kill My Composter
Step 3: Collect Organic Material
Step 4: Mix the Materials
Step 5: Moisten the Mixture
Step 6: Wait
Interlude: The Lightbulb Change
Interlude: The Yogurt Change
Interlude: The Sponge Change
Interlude: The Leftover Change
Interlude: The Napkin Change
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part One
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part Two
Sun-Mar 200 Compost Update
Sun-Mar 200: Starting All Over Again
Step 7: Use Your Compost
Step 8: Sun Mar 200 Garden Composter Review

Grab Bag Friday: Sun Mar 200 Compost Update

I've had a number of requests for a Sun Mar 200 continuous composter update, so here's what I've got for you:

My composter is about 3/4 full. When I open it, steam comes out and everything appears to be moist and breaking down, so something has to be working.

But. (You knew it was coming, didn't you?) In the inner drum where the compost is supposed to be gathering, there is still a bunch of dried garbage collecting there. Even when I push it back into the main composter (as suggested by Sun Mar), more dried garbage still falls into the inner drum. Let me be clear: everything in the inner drum is not composting because it is completely dried out. Got it?

So I chatted with the friendly folks at FW Horch this week (rather than try to duke it out with the Sun Mar folks again), and they suggested that instead of pushing the dried garbage from the inner drum back in, to pull it out and put it back in at the top. In case it is the same dried garbage that keeps falling in?

So that's my next plan of attack. In the meantime, Brett at FW Horch pointed out that at least it's working like a bottomless garbage can. Which, I suppose, is something. As always, I'll keep you posted.

If you've missed any of this riveting food-disposal drama, you can catch up here.

Here is the complete How to Compost series in case you'd like to catch up or review:

Step 1: Make it a Priority
Step 2: Choose a System
Interlude: Nature Tried to Kill My Composter
Step 3: Collect Organic Material
Step 4: Mix the Materials
Step 5: Moisten the Mixture
Step 6: Wait
Interlude: The Lightbulb Change
Interlude: The Yogurt Change
Interlude: The Sponge Change
Interlude: The Leftover Change
Interlude: The Napkin Change
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part One
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part Two
Sun-Mar 200 Compost Update
Sun-Mar 200: Starting All Over Again
Step 7: Use Your Compost
Step 8: Sun Mar 200 Garden Composter Review

How to Compost: The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part Two

Here is the complete How to Compost series in case you'd like to catch up or review:

Step 1: Make it a Priority
Step 2: Choose a System
Interlude: Nature Tried to Kill My Composter
Step 3: Collect Organic Material
Step 4: Mix the Materials
Step 5: Moisten the Mixture
Step 6: Wait
Interlude: The Lightbulb Change
Interlude: The Yogurt Change
Interlude: The Sponge Change
Interlude: The Leftover Change
Interlude: The Napkin Change
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part One
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part Two
Sun-Mar 200 Compost Update
Sun-Mar 200: Starting All Over Again
Step 7: Use Your Compost
Step 8: Sun Mar 200 Garden Composter Review

For those of you who are looking for the final word on the Sun-Mar 200 Garden Composter, I will warn you right now, I don't have it. But I'll tell you as much as I can.

Note (11/2): If you have used a Sun-Mar composter, please feel free to add your voice to the comments below. There's not much customer feedback on this product right now, so let's create some! :)

So as you know from Part One of this review, I began composting in May and have yet to see compost from my Sun-Mar. Before I get into the exciting customer service drama, let's talk a little bit about how the Sun-Mar appears to work. It's supposed to be continuous compost, which means as opposed to other systems where you have to wait for an entire batch to finish composting, you can add stuff continuously *and* get compost at the same time. Brilliant.

To achieve this feat, there is an outer drum and an inner drum. You put the garbage into the outer drum. Eventually, the compost will make it's way to the inner drum where you simply empty it into your barrel as in the illustration above. Here's a more detailed illustration (you can click on it to make it bigger):



So once a month or so, I would check the inner drum. Inside would be a few pieces of garbage, totally dried out from being in the inner drum, but certainly not compost. And since I had learned that moisture was a necessary part of the mix, I would shove the dried out garbage back into the outer drum (where everything seems to be decomposing quite nicely) and wait some more.

Around August, I started to get a little impatient. I emailed Sun Mar customer service to see if this was normal. No response.

Around September, I tried the customer service email address again. This time throwing out the "I'm writing a review" phrase in hopes that it would get a response. No luck.

At the beginning of October, Reba (visit her organic farm here), who works for the terrific company that sold us the Sun-Mar (and who, as a former union organizer, has a lower threshold for being ignored) called Sun-Mar directly.

After a *long* discussion, here's essentially what the Sun Mar representative said:

• First, the composter needs to be almost full
• Then, the garbage will fill up the inner drum
• Once the inner drum is full, the material inside (aided by the heat from the full outer drum around it) will begin to compost
• As the material decomposes, it shrinks down, so you can keep adding more garbage as the process continues

Ok. Logically, this makes sense. So my composter (which is currently just over half full) needs to fill up and the inner drum needs to fill up, and *then* I can wait for the compost. So I need to add a lot more garbage before I start to see results.

But let me just say (and please tell me if you disagree) this is *not* what it looks like in either of the diagrams.

Let me also point out that the Sun-Mar representative was incredibly rude and impatient throughout the conversation. Reba told me that at one point he exclaimed something along the lines of:

"If you knew anything about how composting works, you would understand this."

At which point she lost her patience and retorted:

"I am a farmer!"

Now to be fair, the person she talked to was not a customer service representative. He said he was filling in because they were short-staffed and didn't have anyone else to do it.

Still, it is not that difficult to be courteous.

So I'll keep adding garbage to the composter through the winter, and in the Spring, I'm going to expect some serious composting action. I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, some advice for Sun-Mar, in case they're reading:

• Be more clear in your materials
• Answer your emails
  
• Staff your customer service desk
• Lose the attitude: BE COURTEOUS
  

I can't emphasize the last point enough, as simple as it may seem. You may have the best product on the planet, but if you are continuously rude, I'm not going to buy anything from you in the future. If you're kind and courteous, patient and helpful, I will not only become a repeat customer, but I will probably tell everyone I know. It's not rocket science.

How to Compost: The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part One

Remember this whole How to Compost for Home & Garden series? If you weren't hanging around Please Come Flying when I started it, here's the recap: my husband and I decided to try composting this summer for the first time. So, according to Fred Horch's rules of composting, we:

#1 Made it a priority
#2 Chose a system (the Sun-Mar 200 Garden Composter)
#3 Collected organic material (with a healthy mix of greens & browns)
#4 Mixed the materials
#5 Moistened the mixture (but not too much)

And then we hit #6: Wait. And wait we did. May. June. July. September. Is it *really* October?

So why didn't we get any compost, you may ask? Good question.

While I was waiting for results, I had some emails from other Sun-Mar composter-users who were also waiting for results. I also had some emails from people who were *thinking* about buying a Sun-Mar and wanted to know how it was going. Why were they asking me of all people? Because there are virtually no customer reviews out there for this composter. Even now, months later, I still can't find out what customers think of the Sun-Mar 200.

So I guess it's up to me. Before I get into the heart of the matter (the compost), let's have a review of the claims from the Sun-Mar brochure to see how they stand up (the purple bullets are from the Sun-Mar literature, my comments are in black).

Next week, in Part Two of this review, I will tackle the biggies: Continuous Compost, the Inner Drum, and Customer Service.

They claim:

• Easy to feed: Material goes in through easy-access top ports. This is true. Sometimes the sliding door can get a little sticky. You just have to pull harder. And as the material accumulates and the composter gets heavier, you sometimes have to balance the barrel to keep it upright while dumping the garbage in. Otherwise, the extra weight you are adding can cause it to start rotating against your will. But after that happens once, you learn pretty quickly to brace the barrel with a hand or knee. Overall, it is very easy to feed.
  
• Back-saving ball bearings mean easy turning. Again, true. The bigger models have handles to turn the barrel with. The 200 has what Sun-Mar calls "finger friendly slots" that you grip to spin the barrel. As it gets fuller, it definitely gets heavier (obviously), but so far, it's been easy enough to turn (and strength is not one of my best qualities).
  
• Patented, double drum, Autoflow® design. See diagrams of the inside (This is one of the biggies...I'll get to this in Part Two of this review.)
• Compost exits automatically as the drum rotates: Fresh compost comes out the bottom port, automatically, when done. Tool free, shovel free, fork free! Again, we'll talk about this later, but yes, so far it has been entirely tool free, shovel free, fork free!
• Pest Proof. So far, so good. No critters have been able to penetrate it...not even the enterprising squirrel that has made a sweet little seed-stash in Kevin's outdoor grill. There are, of course, flies and gnats and all those lovely creatures, but they are working hard on making compost. They are also relatively contained to the *inside* of the composter.
  
• Assembly in minutes (really!): Just snap the cradle on to the drum bearings and you’re ready to go. Yes. Simple. It has wheels that snap in easily and you can move it around the yard with no trouble at all.

So I've been pretty happy with it, I have to say. Simple, easy to use, no critters. What more could you ask for? So now there's just the pesky little problem of compost. Let's discuss next week, shall we?

In the meantime...anyone out there use a Sun-Mar this summer? How did it go? Leave a comment and let us all know.

Here is the complete How to Compost series in case you'd like to catch up or review:

Step 1: Make it a Priority
Step 2: Choose a System
Interlude: Nature Tried to Kill My Composter
Step 3: Collect Organic Material
Step 4: Mix the Materials
Step 5: Moisten the Mixture
Step 6: Wait
Interlude: The Lightbulb Change
Interlude: The Yogurt Change
Interlude: The Sponge Change
Interlude: The Leftover Change
Interlude: The Napkin Change
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part One
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part Two
Sun-Mar 200 Compost Update
Sun-Mar 200: Starting All Over Again
Step 7: Use Your Compost
Step 8: Sun Mar 200 Garden Composter Review

How to Compost #6: Wait

"Patience is the companion of wisdom." ~St. Augustine

Now that Spring has honestly arrived in Maine, I'm guessing that if I can achieve a good balance of Greens & Browns and introduce enough (but not too much) oxygen and water into my composter, I should have compost for my garden sometime in June. Then, theoretically, since we went with the continuous composter system, I should be able to continue to add waste to the composter and collect compost all summer long. Theoretically.

In the meantime, I'll keep you posted on progress, tips, tricks or foibles.

Also, you'll notice that I've added Step 8: Sun Mar 200 Garden Composter Review to my table of contents list. Since I wasn't able to find any significant consumer reviews about this continuous composter when we were looking at systems, I feel it is my civic duty to post a review of my own after I've had a chance to see whether it works or not, and how well.

In the meantime, here are a couple interesting articles:

• The Daily Californian on the benefits and obstacles of city-wide compost programs

• Cool interview with Tony Vecchio of the Oregon Zoo about Sustainability Practices at the Zoo (really!) And you've got to love an interview with a guy who is a member of the Pig Advisory Group of the Zoo Association (really!)

Missed anything in this series? It's easy to catch up:

Step 1: Make it a Priority
Step 2: Choose a System
Interlude: Nature Tried to Kill My Composter
Step 3: Collect Organic Material
Step 4: Mix the Materials
Step 5: Moisten the Mixture
Step 6: Wait
Interlude: The Lightbulb Change
Interlude: The Yogurt Change
Interlude: The Sponge Change
Interlude: The Leftover Change
Interlude: The Napkin Change
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part One
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part Two
Sun-Mar 200 Compost Update
Sun-Mar 200: Starting All Over Again
Step 7: Use Your Compost
Step 8: Sun Mar 200 Garden Composter Review

How to Compost Interlude: Nature Tried to Kill My Composter

So, this week we drove up to my husband's former and much-beloved place of employ, Shelter Institute in Woolwich, Maine. At Shelter, still slightly skeptical, we purchased the floor model of the high-tech (it's all relative) supposedly continuous Sun-Mar 200 Series Garden Composter (doesn't it sound like a space ship?)

SIDE NOTE: A quick plug for the Shelter Institute...they are a very cool timber framing company that is also a school and a shop. You can go there and learn how to design, build, plumb, wire, and finish your own house. It's pretty spectacular.

Anyway, skepticism and all, we completed Step 2: Choose a System and I was completely ready to write today about Fred Horch's Step 3: Collect Organic Materials.

However, instead, on April 5th, I am going to go out and shovel a foot of snow and try to clean up all the falling branches that very nearly killed my brand new Sun-Mar 200.

In the meantime, for your reading pleasure, here's a fun link to a blog that gives you an astonishing number of ways to reuse your coffee grounds. (Kate goes way beyond composting. Try scrubbing pans, fridge deodorizer, playdough, a Halloween "beard"?...and that's just scratching the surface!) And here's one from Mom Is Teaching about how composting & other dirty hands-on fun can be a great way to teach science to kids.

Stay tuned for Step 3 next week.

THIS IS APRIL 5TH, PEOPLE!:
Missed anything in this series? It's easy to catch up:

Step 1: Make it a Priority
Step 2: Choose a System
Interlude: Nature Tried to Kill My Composter
Step 3: Collect Organic Material
Step 4: Mix the Materials
Step 5: Moisten the Mixture
Step 6: Wait
Interlude: The Lightbulb Change
Interlude: The Yogurt Change
Interlude: The Sponge Change
Interlude: The Leftover Change
Interlude: The Napkin Change
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part One
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part Two
Sun-Mar 200 Compost Update
Sun-Mar 200: Starting All Over Again
Step 7: Use Your Compost
Step 8: Sun Mar 200 Garden Composter Review