Vitamix FC-50 - Convenient Home Food Processor and Recycler - Kitchen Countertop Compost Bin Alternative - Electric Waste Disposer - Odorless Garbage Disposal - 2.5L Capacity

I'm not adverse to having a garbage disposal and after we just did a remodel on a 17-year-old home that we have owned I found in the garbage disposal wastewater line 30% blockage minimum from the garbage disposal and we use a very high-end disposal and always have. We've also treated our pipes with toxifying chemicals to keep the pipes clear. When we remodeled the kitchen I did not want to have another garbage disposal because when I rerouted the piping I noticed that heavy blockage in my pipes and was perturbed at minimum. I don't like all those chemicals going into your water supply and I don't care what a water company does you can't get it out. We were more than content in our new sink with its little basket to just dump that in the recycling or compost pile. And here we go with the food cycler from Vitamix. I think Vitamix is definitely leading the way here. We basically take all of our cooking goods and instead of throwing it in the trash or in the garbage disposal we just have the unit sitting next to the preparation area and it has a charcoal filter lid that rests simply on the top. We are a family of three currently and that amount of food prep is what gets cycled every night. If we have a heavy prep day we may do two cycles. I really appreciate this product because the volume that would go down my sink or in the trash can is cut by 100% in the sink and 96% minimum in trash because it dehydrates it grinds it and leaves it like a loose sediment. It even does small bones but they are still in their form so we just run those into the trash. If we run a batch of non-animal related products we can take the remnant at a 10 to 1 ratio with soil and amend our soil and use it to consume in our bodies but if we use eggshells or cheese or something like that then we do not consume that in our bodies and at the same ratio use that for our flower planting. It is so nice to know that my pipes are clean and our waste is minimalized. I'm not being a snotty person or anything like that it's just that having a farm/rancher mentality you tend to take care of everything that is before you and you waste not if you want not. Farmers and ranchers are good stewards of the Earth and that is a bit of a bias and an approach. And to have a product like this is awesome. The underlying question is would I buy another one and I would definitely buy another one and I hope that some of the pricing will get a little less than a quality food grinder under the sink. I guess a question would be do we miss having a garbage disposal and the answer is resoundingly no. We have already adapted not even in a month of use and people are amazed that it's 4-Hour cycle. Let's say we have some friends over for breakfast and we have a heavy processing day. Once the food is fully been prepped and the plates have been cleaned after the food has been eaten into this device we may run it right then because about 4 hours from now it'll be ready and it could be a little more than that depending on volume. What do we do if we have another meal in between we then simply leave one plate with that preparation remnant and after dumping the original run will add the next remnant and then into dinner and of course start the cycle of nightly running. This product is well made, extremely simple to operate and a blessing for us. I think another nice thing is not hearing a garbage disposal run or that putrid smell that emanates and that you have to constantly clean. That is a small benefit that I was not expecting. Lastly, we are very mindful of our sink/drain management and what goes down that pipe. It has to end up somewhere. If I put something that is not necessarily great because of a habit or what I've been trained to do and it affects your water supply then I have not been a good neighbor to you and I have caused you an extra layer of toxicity that your body does not need. So there you go, I hope you enjoy the purchase and maybe you have to wait for it to go on sale like we did and I am asking Vitamix to get a little bit lower price on that thing. But I would definitely save a little money and buy it. We try to pay for things in advance and wait until we have the money to pay for it as to not create a vicious cycle of credit and more so indebtedness. Thank you Vitamix for a well thought out product and you got full thumbs up from us. Blessings to you all.

I started composting my kitchen scraps earlier this year, using a food dehydrator that I already have along with my food processor to grind down dried scraps and it has worked fine except it's a 20 hr + process. This appliance performs all the tasks and does it easily and quietly without adding too much heat to my living space. Don't use animal bones or parts, DO use all vegetable matter and egg shells. DO cut down large pieces like corn cobs or avocado skins into small pieces. Basically the smaller the better. For me, the smaller unit was a better fit than the larger unit and the included collection bucket stores up to 1 week of scraps from regular daily cooking of vegetables and fruits. Comes with a filtered lid to keep down any odors. Dry cycle then mulch then cool down and complete takes just under 8 hrs. When complete, a dried mulch is produced which is excellent for adding to my composting bin outside. Little worry of attracting rodents or animals. Size fits on a countertop on my wet bar in basement so I can transfer the collection bucket from my kitchen to the device easily and engage. Unit came with an enclosed card encouraging joining the Vitamix "Rewards" program but when I went to the named web site address, it said the program was discontinued. Not a good look Vitamix! But I still like the unit. Recommended.

I was saving eggshells & grinding them down (in my coffee grinder) to add to my garden's soil. I was also saving used coffee grounds, 'drying' them in the oven, to add to my garden, too. Both jobs were messy and time consuming. I've also saved veggie scraps to make vegetable broth - also time consuming and the scraps hog a lot of space in our freezer. I wanted an outdoor composter to put in the yard, but my husband was concerned about rats and so he vetoed that idea. So when I recently read about this countertop composter in Kiplinger magazine, I was sold. The Unit There were a LOT of stickers to remove from the unit. I had a hard time especially with the stickers that were on top of the tube things at the back of the machine. Since I could not figure out how to remove the tubes (in order to fully remove the stickers) there are still some pieces of sticker at the back of each tube but they don't cover the 'hole' so I think it's fine. When putting together the unit, I didn't understand how the caps were supposed to set on the tubes. Then I realized that the tubes emit steam, so it only made sense that the 'open' end of the caps face me / face the back panel since the back panel has vents once you pop it back on. When the machine was running, you could feel 'some' heat coming out of the back but I don't think it was enough to peel wallpaper. So this would probably be safe to place relatively close to a wall. The power cord is THREE pronged. We have a two-pronged outlet where I was planning on plugging this composter in, so I had to use an adapter, and it was a tight fit. What I Put Inside Two bell pepper caps & bottoms, about a half of a white onion, about two cups of ground-up eggshells, some celery stalks & leaves, and about two cups of used coffee grounds. I did fill the bucket just a bit more than I should have, but not by much. How It Worked After turning it on, the machine ran for a total of seven hours from start to finish without me having to do anything. The first cycle ('drying') took an hour and a half. Then it automatically switched to the next cycle ('grinding' mode) which lasted the longest amount of time - about four and a half hours. Then the machine put itself in the final mode ('cooling') which I'm guessing was around an hour (I had noted the start time of the cycle but then I got busy, and an hour later when I checked it, it had turned into to 'standby' mode which meant that the process was complete). So it might have only had to cool for a half hour, or for forty-five minutes, I'm not sure. Performance The machine was whisper-quiet. I had it running in the kitchen, and from the next room over I could barely hear it. It doesn't get overly hot / put out a lot of steam from the vents in the back. The surface of the machine does not get hot. The Results I am amazed! The slightly-overfull bucket full of moist veggies, soggy coffee grounds and some eggshells magically turned into garden-ready compost! It was fluffy and bone dry. I transferred the compost to a gallon-size freezer bag, and it filled the bag only about 1/4 of the way. Thoughts We get snowy winters where we live, but I can still use this year-round. I have a 5-gallon bucket with a lid and I think I'll 'stockpile' the compost in there until Spring each year. I can't believe how easy this machine is to use, and what wonderful results it produces.

I loved the idea of composting my food scraps without actually having to build a compost bin. Anything to reduce what goes into a landfill PLUS makes a great plant fertilizer so I bought one. It does a great job of doing what it claims - grinding food up to and including small bones which make great compost btw - until the scratch proof coating on the bucket gets scratched then you’ll be replacing the basket. That took about 9 months for me but in fairness I run this thing through some hard core work. What it’s good at: anything dry and anything not TOO wet. So starches are great though have a low fertilizer rating but standard fruits and vegetables are a solid choice as well. This thing kills rinds and peels like a hit knife through butter. 6 hours is a fairly typical cycle time and then you’ve got compost-ish. Where it struggles: sticky. If it’s sticky or gummy - DONT DO IT. You’ll be cleaning that bucket for hours. If it’s too wet like melon leftovers - same advice. Too wet becomes too sticky. Pro tips: buy a vacuum sealed container for the compost because usually you’re going to have a basket full of food going in and a half cup max of output so it takes awhile to get enough to spread as fertilizer. A good $20 container is a great way to save enough to make your trip to the plants or garden worth it. Next, it’s not loud but it’s a little bit of an obnoxious background hum and whir so I recommend putting it in a room you won’t hear or care to hear it for 6 hours. Also if your unit has been running for more than 6 hours and isn’t finished - YOURE DONE and about to have a mess to clean up. That means it finished the cycle but whatever you loaded it with was still wet or gummy and it’s trying to dry it out more. That ensures your load get cemented in place and once that happens you’re soaking this basket for hours with repeated soak and rinse cycles to clean it. Overall it’s a really wonderful product and I’d spend the $400 all over again given the choice. 9 months of use has taught me a few things that I wish I had known in the beginning but the owners manual, like most owners manuals, became less useful once the lawyers got ahold of it so start out easy and figure out what mix of foods works best for you. Btw coffee ground are a great addition to the loads. It’s like adding a cleaning agent to the bucket. Tends to coat the walls and help stickier foods from getting too clumped. Also it will grind up those annoying recycled paper napkins and filters in SMALL quantities and again…less moisture is good.

I love this. It has helped eliminate the fruit flies in my indoor worm bin. I love how everything comes out dry and ground up and not smelly, making feeding my indoor and outdoor worm bins easy. I no longer have a smelly mess to deal with from a container of scraps sitting on my counter that I then have to clean out. It also has resolved problems of the worms bins getting too wet.I like that I no longer have to cook eggshells in the microwave and then grind them up, now I just throw them in the FC-50. Also, there is NO smell! Lastly, the price was excellent and you get Vitamix quality. This is just perfect for my DH and I; however, if you are a bigger household, you may need to buy a larger size, or just run it more often. One last thing, you can run shredded paper in it along with your scraps. I put a thin layer of shredded paper in the bin and when it is almost full of food scraps, I add another thin layer. This helps with excess moisture and helps compost paper scraps.

To say that I’m impressed with this product would be an understatement. I’ve had it for just over a week and have used it every day. I’ve used a variety of food waste including coffee grounds, leftover meat scraps, citrus, vegetables, eggshells, bread / bagels, fruit, even some leftover cat food. It has worked wonderfully to “compost” all of it. I live in a rural area - yes…skunk, opossum, raccoon, fox, and bear. So, having a traditional outdoor compost setup just won’t work out. We have weekly garbage pick up but I was looking for a way to reduce some of that. Granted, it’s just my husband and me but I do a lot of cooking and 99% of the items I use are fresh and not processed / premade foods. I will say that the food “bucket” that you use for your scraps is on the small side so if you prepare your meals, as I do, with a lot of fresh ingredients and you have a family of four or more, you might not be as thrilled. On the occasions that I have more than I can process at a time I can run 2 cycles a day or just keep the scraps in a ziplock win the fridge until the next day. There is no foul odor. The filters do what they’re supposed to. The lid for the bucket works to contain odor as I fill it up during the day. Can’t even smell the onions or other strong odors as it sits on my counter. Once the composting is done, I dump it into a plastic bucket that I keep outdoors and when that gets full I will dispose of it on our property. There is no smell to it so it won’t attract any critters. Some folks have commented in their reviews that it’s noisy, foul smelling, it leaves a goopy / sludgy mess, or that it takes too long. It’s not loud, it doesn’t smell, you have to use common sense as far as what you put in to process, and who cares how long it takes. It’s not like you have to sit there and keep it company. The bucket has some type of lining / coating that’s almost like a nonstick surface. Cleaning it is a breeze. I simply wash it out by hand though it is dishwasher safe. The unit is a bit heavy to move around, though not impossible, so find a place that will be convenient so you don’t have to relocate it often. It isn’t huge but does take up counter space so find a location that works for you. My only negative is that though Vitamix has been around for many years, and certainly is a reputable company, the FoodCycler is made in China. Not happy about that. Overall, the unit is robust and well made. It is easy to use and works very well.

We are too old to turn compost piles and bins but hate putting food scraps into the waste stream. LOVE this! We run it at night so we don't have to listen to it but it is absolutely not noisy and on a heavy scraps day, running it during the day is fine. It has a few amusing little groans in the beginning as it starts out...probably pieces of things getting ground up. It is important to not go above the fill line or you will make a mess inside the housing that you have to clean up. The bucket is not hard to clean if you pay attention to the instructions. Some reviewers complain about hard to clean places and scratching the finish. I use a hard plastic shrimp deveining tool (from Amazon) and it gets into the narrow places. Especially easy after soaking the bucket for a bit. Bought a 10-gallon paint bucket with a lid and we put the almost daily dried compost into it. It weighs nothing compared to fresh food scraps / material. We're about ready to mix it onto a pile of dirt in the back forty and make enriched soil. Be very careful and don't put peach pits (or any big seeds) into the bucket. it really doesn't like it and you will hear terrible noises. You have to stop it and remove the offending pit. Elder error! paper coffee filters are fine. we just tear them up a bit. we cut lime/lemon halves into smaller bits so they don't get stuck anywhere. with a little attention to what it does and how it does it, this thing is magical and solves the problems we had with composting. Pricey, yes, but after a month, I believe it is worth the piece of mind because we are reducing what goes into the waste stream and methane gas production, still getting good stuff for the gardens and topsoil. Yes, it uses electricity and we are good with balance of things making life easier for our 74-80 year old selves. I imagine apartment / city dwellers will love this. It lives in our appliance garage and we pull it out to operate. Little bucket lives under the counter until ready to get processed. Under the counter cabinet has trash, recycle, and the paint bucket for the dried results. LOVE it! I'd give it a 6-star if I could.

As organic gardeners, we have composted for decades. However, we now live in an arid region where hot or cold composting is extremely challenging. It takes months or even years to produce compost and one must consistently add precious water. Therefore, we needed a better solution to deal with our kitchen produce waste! Having looked at a number of kitchen “composters” we decided on the Vitamix FoodCycler FC-50, purchased in June of 2022. The machine is elegantly designed, quite heavy/sturdy (19 lbs without the bucket, 21 lbs with), and it is very quiet. The FoodCycler is easy to set up and works well IF one balances the proportions of food scraps. We eat a lot of produce, therefore we typically have enough to run the machine daily. Roughly chopping/dicing up produce scraps works rather well for us and takes a load off the grinding mechanism. Highly fibrous produce or really sticky items should not be placed into the FoodCycler. There is no odor if the filters are working properly. Our “change filter” light did not come on until after having used the unit for about 6 months. However, we did notice some odor a while prior to the light having come on. A full, 2-liter bucket of raw scraps takes roughly 4 hours to process and yields about 2 cups of finished, dehydrated product. Photos attached of 1) raw produce, 2) composted produce, and 3 colors of composted citrus, mixed produce and some with coffee grounds. Technically, this is NOT actually compost, since the finished product is sterile and has no living microbes. However, that can easily be remedied by mixing the dehydrated scraps with soil, at about a 5 to 1 ratio, and worm castings if one does not wish to purchase the “foodilizer tablets.” The Vitamix FoodCycler does produce some heat and moisture. Therefore, it would be best to place the machine into a laundry room, porch, garage or greenhouse. A food pantry would not be a good place for the FoodCycler! The manual is small and written in excellent English, however, the print is practically microscopic. Downloading the PDF manual works well, as one can adjust the print size. Yes, the unit does have a carbon footprint. That said, few things in modern life do not. One can weigh the cost of electricity against the cost of purchasing compost. We find the convenience of daily “composting” of kitchen scraps in our home well worth it. This is especially convenient in winter. Therefore, we would highly recommend the Vitamix FoodCycler.

I have been eyeing a different brand for awhile now. Feeling guilty about all the food waste I throw away. Living in the city I can’t compost. I was on the fence regarding, ordering. After research I found the Vita mix food recycler!!! No waiting months and I have complete confidence in vita mix brand owning a vita mix machine for over 21 years & never had a problem. With also the confidence I have in Amazon I jumped in. Order with next day delivery. I couldn’t wait to use this machine. That night my bucket was full and off I went to push that button. Like a kid in a candy store. I was so excited to open the lid after the cycle finished. This machine IS AMAZING. I am telling everyone about it in Canada and the USA. Where has she been all my life! I want to point out, this thing is so quite I had to keep going to the machine to make sure it was working. I am not sure why peeps would say it’s noisy lol. But it’s NOT! It does a great job and now I can blend the fertilizer into my gardens. Almost everything but bones, nuts and pits will go into it. I would not hesitate in buying this, Go for it! You will never feel guilty again for throwing away your veggie scraps. Either for yourself or a gift you need this in your life. So stoked I jumped in to buy this vitamix food recycler I named her “Cler” and she is a member of our family now. Thank you so much for developing this machine. Thank you to Amazon fir your continued excellent service!!

We've had this nice little appliance for 6 weeks and can now, confidently, say that it's well worth it. I got it on sale for $299 which made it much more attractive than the more expensive "other brand". I also prefer the cubic shape because it slides into spaces nicely. The inner bucket is 2L. I worried that it would be too small but I think that I like that because I really wouldn't want moist, organic waste sitting around very long. That said, there are days when I do have to run it twice. Outside of those days, every other day is the norm. Extra bucket, would be nice but not for $100. I just use a bowl until I can get the bucket back. Suitable foods - we put veg and fruit scraps, rice, breads, egg shells. The odd bit of cheese ends up in there too. I will rough chop banana peels and avocado seeds. Fibrous things tend to get stuck between the paddles and inner bucket wall. Onion peels do not seem to break down so I will use scissors to cut them up going forward. It is a fairly long cycle, so we try to keep to off peak hours or weekends. With regards to smell, there can be a bit of an earthy/funky smell but it's not smelly like bad food. If the weather is not bad, I will put it out in the gazebo. On bad weather days, I put it on top of the stove with the rangehood fan on. It is easy to use - fill the bucket, line up the arrow on the bucket with the arrow on the unit, tuck the handle down, put the lid on, lock it and press the button. Output - after 6 weeks, we have about 3L of output and our green bin is about 1/3 full by garbage day which comes around every week. It's mostly cat litter and meat bones.

This process takes longer than I had hoped, but is far quicker than composting. I had recently moved and a garden is in my plans. Everytime I was tossing food that could be compost I was feeling guilty. Yet living in a new neighboruhood and uncertain of the vermin I wasn't sure I wanted to start a composter with winter at our back door. So I bought this to make the most of my food scraps and also to eliminate the food odors from my garbage can. I really wish the government offered some incentive to run the machine as I'm still nervous what this might do to my hydro bill. I have run four cycles at this point and they take roughly a little over 5 hours per cycle. That's with me varying what I placed into the cycles. Btw, I strongly suggest you follow their advice and don't process too many sweet foods such as banana peels. Banana peels in particular didn't break down as far as some other foods. The stickiness and the moistness affect the speed of the processing ( according to their guide ) and the cleanup. Sticky sweet foods cake on and make clean up more difficult. My first cycle had nothing sweet in in and the contents just dumped out and a wipe with a damp cloth was all it needed to clean. Banana peels on the other hand make you have to soak the bucket. I love the concept of being able to just add this into my garden, although many of the benefits of compost are cooked out. It still can be safely added to my garden though. Of course some foods are not recommended if using in your garden. Things such as chicken bones if processed will not benefit the garden. I've been keeping all the processed food items in a container with a tight fighting lid. There is very little odor to it when I open the lid, yes I took a deep whiff to check. Overall I'm happy with the concept of the product. A part of me wishes the bucket would hold a bit more as I'm a bit of a foodie and make lots of food waste. I'm also a lite anxious to see what my hydro bill will be. But hey I'll run it during cheap hours and be super happy to keep stuff out of the landfill. Also since using my foodcycler I haven't had the same issues with the local rodents trying to get into my garbage can.

Everyone needs one of these. This composter works great, it only take about 4 hours for the cycle to finish. No smell and the dirt comes out fine. It is a good machine for the price. True to description.

The wife loves this unit . Bought it to replace the Original version . Everything except onion skins and corn husks .