Your thoughts please! On trash compactors.

[knitwits1975]

A while ago I was in a Sears store and I was eyeballing a brand new Kenmore portable trash compactor. The salesman, of course, really wanted me to buy it. On the one hand, my family and I generate a lot of garbage, and these seem like a great idea (at least in theory). It would probably save me in the long run on my garbage bill, and I realize that you can't crush aerosol cans. But on the other hand, I wanted to do some research on them before buying an expensive item that may become but another Goodwill statistic. Are these appliances really worth it? I will appreciate any info from anyone who has ever owned one of these.

 

[westie2]

They are good if you pay for your garbage by volume several cities in our area have gone that way. One bag per pickup (large size supplied by city). You can buy more but very expensive.

 

[pulsator]

I LOVE mine!!!!! The only bad thing about these is you can't put anything that will rot or smell in them.

 

[kenmore1978]

compactor

Depends on your situation. I've had one since 1978 and when it was new, it was more useful, since the trash cans were only accessible by going out the front door and walking down the driveway to the backyard. It's less useful now in our new house since it's in a laundry room that opens to the outside where the trash cans sit right there, so it's only a few more steps from the compactor to the backyard trash cans. Of course, to get to the backyard cans, I have to pen a door and lift a lid to throw something out, whereas often I'll leave the compactor drawer ajar while I'm cooking so I can just toss things in it and avoid the extra ssteps, the door, and lid, especially in bad weather.

 

[toggleswitch]

It's a great toy and it's nice to have a dedicated spot for the gabage, but the price IMHO is way above what it should be for the utility provided.

 

[tolivac]

Can you still get the bags for them?I haven't seen the bags for home compactors sold in years.the machines wouldn't be too useful in my area.I just take my trash to the county operated and owned
"transfer station" where you can recycle the stuff as well-you throw cans,bottles in one dumpster,cardboard and newspapers in another,yard waste in another,and appliances in a very large dumpster.They have a large Marathon Products compactor you throw regular trash into.I used to use one at a workplace I was in. I haven't seen household compactors sold in my area or even in the swap shops or used appliance places.

 

[kenmore1978]

bags

one can use regular plastic bags, though I get the paper fitted ones from Sears

 

[tolivac]

Thats good one can use plastic bags in them-I would guess "wastebasket" sized plastic trash bags? Its good Sears still sells compactor bags-but do they fit other machines other than Kenmore?Would like to know just in case I may get one to "play with"-come to think of it saw only one here-it was offered to me several years ago when I was buying a vacuum from the fellow-he was selling it for $50.Should have bought it-thought about it when the compactor topic came up.

 

[mayken4now]

get Kitchenaid.

Steve

 

[tlee618]

My nephew has a Kitchen Aid compactor in their house in Flordia and he buy the bags at Walmart less expensive than Sears. Terry

 

[toggleswitch]

Do the KA ones still have a tilt-down door over the drawer?

 

[tlee618]

Steve not they don't have that feature anymore to my knowledge. Theirs is 3 years old now and they love it. Terry

 

[kenmore1978]

KA

I suspect the newer KA trash compacters are made by WP so the bags should fit. The earlier KA's from the 70's were wider and used round containers. My Dad had one of these, with the little door above the drawer. Nice to know that Walmart carries them, too, probably WAY cheaper than the Sears ones

 

[petek]

I bought one 2nd hand when we moved out into the country in 92. It's a Kenmore and it was Avocado green. I bought some spray appliance paint and repainted it white, there were extra front color panels behind panel showing on the door..like they do with dishwashers. It's very handy, Sears carries both plastic or heavy paper, waxed, to fit them. We didn't pay much for it, probably around $50 . You find them quite often in the classifieds 2nd hand. Consider the 2nd hand route, it's much cheaper, there isn't a lot to them to break down and if you do end up not liking it you haven't wasted your money. If you love it then you might consider a new one later on but what the heck for, the old Kenmores look pretty much like the new ones.
If I was redoing the kitchen I would have a new built in installed, even if I did live in the city and weight or bag count wasn't a concern for city garbage collection, I like it that much.

 

[toggleswitch]

...used...great idea.

And I have a space for it from where I ripped out an 18" wide DW. The space is now a perfect 15".

A full sized unit was installed on the other side of the sink. (UGH) I had to move the whole base cabinet 3" over and re-plumb to get the necessary 24"

Man-oh-man the things we do to have the "perfect" appliance.

 

[Calypso Bruce]

I Have a late 70's early 80's Kitchen Aid compactor with the tilt out top door. I love it. Very convenient to use. I wish they did not get rid of this design. Plus the styling of that time made the KA's stand out.

 

[tolivac]

Were any of these home type trash compactors made "freestanding" in case you don't have room in your cabinets for it.I think that was why I was gunshy of buying that one I saw-it didn't have any side panels-so it would have had to been put into a cabinet area like a dishwasher.A freestanding one would be more convenient for me to "try"-another "creature" for the kitchen!Maybe I should try to hunt for a vintage one to go with my vintage KA dishwasher!?

 

[kenmore1978]

side panels

never seen a compactor without side panels. Ours has them, when it was in the old house it was "built-in" but here in this house it's free-standing. We ordered it in "Coffee" even though the sides couldn't be seen. It came with inserts for the drawer to match the other appliances, as did the dishwasher.

 

[goatfarmer]

Here's one on EPay for $5.50,with bags.

kennyGF

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sears-Kenmore-T...539759120QQcategoryZ20715QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Designgeek]

Some cities are moving toward charging for refuse collection by *weight*, so reducing the volume with a compactor won't help lower your trash bills.

If you have a mixed recycling program that puts all recyclables in one bin, a compactor would be good for steel & aluminum cans, and plastics such as milk and soda bottles, since those items take up space like crazy and flattening them by hand (or foot) can be an annoying task.

Also if you have a home office and a shredder, these machines can be useful for compressing the shredded paper for recycling.

The thing that I've heard breaks down easily on these machine: the long screws that power the compressing panel get worn or can get slightly bent.

If you plan to use plastic bags, use thick ones; thin ones will get punctured or torn easily.

 

[tolivac]

WOW!! Dense compaction if you put your shredded paper in it!!A shredded paper baler.also using the compactor to "Bale" the recycle items.Years ago at one workplace I was at-they had the large Marathon Hydrualic compactor(15Hp powerpak)The shredder from the "red bag" room-classified materials-went from the red bag room shredders into the compactor.

 

[petek]

Something to ponder about that recycling bit..just about everything here now has a deposit attached for recycling. Milk cartons, little juice boxes, every type of bottle regardless. Wouldn't leave much to go in the compactor.

 

[tolivac]

The recycling and deposits on containers seem to have killed off a lot of the interest and sales in home compactors.Seems like the largest market for them is in the larger compactors and balers for commercial,, industrial , and gov't use.

 

[kenmore1978]

compactor screws

"The thing that I've heard breaks down easily on these machine: the long screws that power the compressing panel get worn or can get slightly bent."

My '78 KM(WP) compactor is still going strong, though recently the mechanism that makes it revers and stop at the end of stroke has failed, so I have to hold the button in for an entire cycle. When the mahcine was new, I had a problemin that a plastic bag got wrapped around one of the screws and jammed it. In lter models WP put a plastic tube shiled around the screws to keep plastic bags from getting caught

 

[tbolt25]

old style Gladco late 1970's to early 1980's industr

I remember when I used to be in the third and fourth grades at my local elementary school, in the cafeteria they had this big double ram huge Gladco trash compactor that the students would put their trash into whenever they were done eating-the operator would start the compactor, and one cylinder-shaped ram would cycle downward, crush the garbage, bottom out, then the ram would cycle back upward, then once that ram was done a second cylinder-shaped ram would cycle downward, crush the garbage, bottom out, then cycle back upward-it was a lot of fun to watch! Our local middle school also had this very same brand and model compactor, but with a brown cabinet. Does anyone out there have any pictures of this particular trash compactor they could post or any videos of one in action? I would greatly appreciate that.

 

[deeptub]

KitchenAid 18

Along with the original KitchenAid design garbage disposers, Viking seems to have acquired the design of the 18" KA compactor.

http://www.vikingrange.com/cleanup/compactor.html

 

[deeptub]

I should add that, even if I had all the money in the world, I could not bring myself to spend $1700 on a Viking trash compactor.

T.

 

[tolivac]

For $1700,think I would just throw the trash into the can.You could probably get a used commercial one for that price.Would be more fun-Like the double ram "Gladco" compactor described in another entry.Sounds like a "precrusher" type compactor-Glosser systems and Marathon make "precrusher" compactors today.-for industrial use-On the Glosser site-they show their Precrusher crushing what looks like a washer-under the "stove" video.The Glosser unit has a stepped ram-the first part of it goes thru 3 precrush cycles-than the ram retracts all of the way and the lower step portion pushes the precrushed trash into the container.the Marathon one has a hydrualically operated gate that comes down-the trash in the chamber is crushed against it-than the gate retracts,and the ram then pushes the precrushed trash into the container.these units can have motors up to 100Hp.Lots of crushing fun.

 

[kenmore1978]

KA compactor

My Dad used to have a KA compactor, it was different in that it was wider than other brands of compactors and the chamber was round instead of rectangular. Also, one would install the bag first, then there were 3 metal "shields" that together would form a full circle. These were installed so that they were INSIDE the bag, and pulled out when it was time to empty the machine.

 

[rinso]

I agree that compactors are a must for those who have volume metered trash. That was the reason I bought my Kenmore compactor in 2001. But, when I moved to a new city where this wasn't required, the compactor became less useful. I loved it as another one of my appliance toys, but here were its drawbacks:
1. The compacted load can sometimes be very heavy and start to approach the weight and density of the sun's core.
2. Cans and other objects sometimes flipped up on top of the ram and were tedious and time-consuming to extricate.
3. Sensing microswitches were easily damaged or their mounts bent.
4. The drawer would occaissionally move forward when the ram was retracting, sometimes jamming the mechanism.
5. The aerosol deoderizer mechanism failed after less than a year of service anyway.
I never put wet garbage or glass in it, so I'm not sure how it would handle those.