Trash Compactor Fun

[kevinpreston8]

(Sorry, posted this in the wrong place before!)

The "Idle Trash Compactor Phenomenon"

Ok, ask yourself a question. How many times in your life have you known someone that has a trash compactor, but it is "no longer in use". I can remember a few people with an idle compactor, and I bet many readers here do too. Now after a year of use, I know why.

We redid our kitchen a year ago with a Viking stove top and everything else KitchenAid. I wanted nothing 1/2 way in quality, so did not mind paying more. This included a KitchenAid (Superba style) trash compactor.

We really needed a trash solution. The kitchen is between the living room and the dining room. There is no backdoor or "service area" off the kitchen for a good sized trash can. The only place would be under the sink, which is jammed full of water filtration, disposal, etc. We had a small pull out vertical trash cabinet that held a small can. Our family of four generates a ton of trash! We cook alot, use alot of paper products. I was literally dumping trash three times a day. We were perfect candidates for a compactor.

So we got this KitchenAid. Sorry KA, not impressed. And I am irritated at the usability of this item. How long have trash compactors been around? Here's my gripes, which I am sure are part of many other models.

1) The top "ram". This is the piece that comes down and crushes your trash. What they don't tell you is that this piece is mushing directly into your food and garbage, and then recessing in the upper portion of the machine, with said drippings rotting on the metal face. All these years in making this, and they don't have something like a flip down plate or at least an access port to wipe this off?

2) Garbage falls in back of the bag holder, into the back of the unit. You can reach back and get it out, but you have to squeeze your arm into the narrow space between the sheet metal, which can hurt. Of course, if the unit is empty, you can lift the whole door and container mechanism up and out like a drawer, but then, where do you set it? The bottom is metal, and if you are not careful, you can scratch your floor with it. So, set down a towel. Empty your trash, pull the drawer out, set it on the towel just to get the trash piece out of the back of the unit. Or scrape your arm up doing it.

2) The design of the pull out drawer hides dirt and trash pieces on your floor behind the rubber lower edge skirt. It's hard to see it with the drawer open, and impossible to see it and hard to get at it with the drawer closed!

3) All the edges of the trash holder are sharp. To gain strength for the sheet metal, the sides of the drawer are corrugated if you will. These corrugations, of course, become loaded with dirt. Cleaning them rips a paper towel to shreads and tears at a cloth.

4) The door is fastened to the trash holder towards the bottom, but you pull from the top. It feels like the whole thing will bend. Now, of course, you are supposed to push down on the footpedal to open the thing. The footpedal is an flimsy plastic affair that is angle just right for a socked foot (I wear socks indoors) to slip right off and not shove the door open. It has so little depth too that it is hard to get a purchase on it. Ladies with longer pained toenails would certaintly rip them off (or ouch! bend back) on that pedal, so we always use the handle, lesser of two evils.

5)No matter how dry your trash is, there is liquid in there, and there will be leaks that you have to clean off of the bottom of the unit before you put the new bag in.

6) The last thing to remember, which is no fault of this particular compactor, but applies to them in general. You really can save trips out to the trash, and we can go a few days without emptying it. Of couse, the trash is now a compressed nightmare with a weight of about 6 or 7 trashbags. Fun vaulting it into the 50 gallon trash can.

I won't be doing this again in another home, or when this one breaks. However, for our situation, I don't know the alternative.

So if you wondered why people let the compactors just sit, now you know.

 

[hoover1060]

alwys wondered what one would be like...

Especially here with no garage and a trash can out back thats fallen victim to the "racoon buffet" more than once.

Of course I work 50 hours a week on slow weeks, and some weeks barely have 1/2 a 40 gallon bag of trash to set out. I don't throw food out, it goes down the disposal.

maybe someday, but then again where would I install it?

 

[scott55405]

I didn't even know you could still buy trash compactors. It seems really unfortunate after 35 years I think it is now that they haven't worked out some of these really unfortunate bugs.

I remember in Hobart days, KA offered one that had a separate little door on top you could throw things in, so you didn't have to open the big one every time. I thought that was a nice idea.

Sounds like a great solution for you in theory; sorry it's not living up to its expectation. Are you liking the rest of the kitchen?

 

[insulinpumpuser]

trash compactors

I have 2 compactors. A waste king Royal, very skinny, only 12 inches wide. My other compactor is the older KA model with the Litter-Bin door. I love that one. I once put my X's VCR in it. Side ways, not flat. I wish I recorded it. The sound was awesome and it was only 2 inches tall when it was done. PS. I NEVER put food in it. That all goes down the disposer. Tamale rappers and ALL!!!....Bill in Az.....

 

[tolivac]

I think another way to improve home compactors is go to packaged hydraulic power units-elinminating the rotating "jackscrews" that can get fouled with peices of trash wrapping up in them.The packaged hydo units are used in electric log splitters-the motor-pump and valve unit -ram in one device.Figure this could be put in a garbage compactor-and it could generate more pressure-up to 6 tons as opposed to 2 tons from regular units.The packaged hydraulic units use motors up to 2Hp instead of 1/3 to 1/2 hp in regular compactors.

 

[tolivac]

Other thoughts-yes as trash is crushed liquids and moisture inside is pressed out-how 'bout drain holes that could go to a drip tray?This is used in trash trucks-(you see the liquids leak onto the street as the trash is crushed)and in large compactors the liquids go into another container.
If you want the "ram access " to wipe down the face of the ram in home units-that door would have to be interlocked-like the compactors trash basket-so the ram cannot move when the "wipe down" door is opened or the main bin opened.The drip tray could be under the trash bin -it could slide out for emptying.
And the trash compactor builders could put a heavy METAL pedal on them to open the bin like the old fashioned pedal trash cans.The compactor I am thinking about Hydraulic system instead of mechanical-and the above improvements-would be worth the price for those who need to use compactors as their main means of trash disposal.and yes-please put only trash in the unit-NO FOODS or FOOD WASTE.Rinse out food containers before putting them into the compactor-would cut down on odors and the "sludge" pressed out.

 

[insulinpumpuser]

compactor question

My Waste King compactor has a 1/3 hp. motor and it claims it produces 6000 lbs. of force while my KA has a 1/2 hsp. motor and it claims 3000 pounds. How in the hell do they determine this stuff?????.....Bill in Az....

 

[tolivac]

Sounds like the motor in the WK unit may be geared down lower then the motor in the KA machine-Are the cycle times the same?If it is say longer on the WK unit-its geared down lower-the ram moves slower-but has more force because of the lower speed of its mechanism.The pressure is the max the motor and mechanism can put out without damage to it-this is set by the compactor maker-The jackscrew mechanisms can be damaged by too much force-could strip the nuts or the screws.Or it could break the belt from the motor to the screw drive.The compactor cycle goes-when you put something in the unit and start it-the ram goes down and compresses the waste as it reaches the max pressure-a sensor measurs the current draw of the motor-when that goes to max-the motor is then shut off-its direction of rotation reversed to raise the ram for another load.Hydraulic compactors work in a similar way-either by the current draw of the motor or by pressure of the hydrualic system-in the hydraulic system the motor turns the same direction-its not reversed-the hydraulic fluid flow is reversed by a valve to open or retract the ram for another load.