Sun-Mar 400 Garden Composter

Easy Way to Compost Kitchen Scraps

This innovative outdoor composter is based on a brilliant concept: put yard and kitchen waste in the top, remove finished compost from the side.

This is one of the best designs on the market if your goal is to make compost from your kitchen scraps and garden waste. The Sun-Mar 400 Garden Composters can handle a large, steady stream of waste, producing compost continuously. Every week you can put gallons of waste in, and (once the unit has filled up) get quarts of compost out. It's truly amazing how much material you can put into these units--and keep out of your local landfill.

Inside the unit are two drums: new material enters the outer drum, eventually fills it up, tumbles into the inner drum, then comes out the side as finished compost. The 400 model is suitable for handling lots of kitchen scraps and reasonable volumes of yard waste; if you don't produce a lot of kitchen or yard waste consider the smaller Sun-Mar 200 Garden Composter.

As with any composter, you'll need to balance "green" (i.e. rich in nitrogen) kitchen waste with "brown" (i.e. rich in carbon) sawdust, shredded leaves or coconut coir. By volume, be sure to add at least as many browns as greens. If the materials in your composter are steaming hot, smelling earthy, and tumbling freely, you're doing everything right. One thing to keep an eye on is the moisture level of the inner tube. As material works its way into the middle of the unit, it tends to dry out. You can either squirt a garden hose in every once in a while, or just harvest the dry balls of material and let them soak in a bucket of water before using them as regular compost.

These composters are heavy-duty plastic that will never rust or corrode. Plus, they are very easy to put together, since the drum is a single molded piece. Be careful, though, about the exposed gear on the 400 model. It can give a nasty finger pinch if you crank the handle while someone unsuspecting has a hand on the end of the drum. Best to make sure everyone else is away from the unit while you're turning the handle to tumble it.

Online reviews seem overly harsh compared to our personal experience. We've tested a lot of composters over the years, and the Sun-Mar Garden composters are stand outs for their sturdy construction and unique design. Although called "garden" composters, they really are best described as "kitchen waste" composters because they do a fantastic job of converting a steady stream of kitchen garbage into a much smaller stream of useful compost. If you are tired of your neighborhood canines, crows and other critters dining on your compost heap, the Sun-Mar Garden composters are worth considering.

Product Features

• Fast way to make compost outdoors during warm weather.
• Add new yard waste and food scraps at the same time you are harvesting finished compost.
• Solid construction keeps out pests and provides years of service.
• Crank handle and gear shaft aid in turning the drum.
• Sturdy base has wheels so you can move the unit on a sidewalk or driveway (useful if you put it away for the winter).

The Sun-Mar 400 is a large capacity continuous composter, featuring a crank arm to aid in rotating the barrel. All the advantages of the Sun-Mar 200, with a larger capacity. Capacity: 14 cubic feet. 36"H x 42" L, 28" deep.

Please note that the Sun-Mar composters ship out freight from Sun-Mar's warehouse. It will make no difference to the shipping whether you choose UPS ground or Priority Mail when you are choosing shipping options during checkout.