We love the made-in-Canada countertop composting appliance
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Lomi is made in Canada (Kelowna, B.C. to be specific) but is loved beyond our borders as a wonderfully efficient way to reduce organic kitchen waste volume (think carrot peelings, eggshells, soggy vegetable clippings, leftovers and coffee grounds) by up to 80 per cent.
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The popular kitchen appliance takes the ick out of composting by transforming kitchen waste into garden-quality fertilizer for indoor or outdoor plants. I’ve tested the Lomi and here are my thoughts.
Summary: Lomi is a Canadian success story and an eco-friendly and easy way to deal with the gross task of composting and adding some dirt to our garden. I tested the original Lomi 1 model, but the newer Lomi 2 is available for $599 USD.
Price: $685
Where to buy: Amazon
You might be interested in the Lomi if;
- You hate collecting the compost because it gets stinky, slimy and gross
- You don’t fancy the flies that sometimes find a way into the compost bin under your sink
- You don’t want to go back to getting-the-worms-to-do-the-dirty-work kind of composting
- You want to lower your carbon footprint by being less of a debaucherous human
- When you say you want to contribute something to Mother Earth, you don’t mean copious amounts of trash
- You like funky technology that makes your little home just a little more eco-friendly
In the box
- The Lomi
- Activated carbon for two different filters on the machine to help snuff the stink
- A pack of 45 LomiPods which are “a proprietary blend of probiotics that improve the speed of degradation the reduction of smell and most importantly help create the most healthy end product to add to gardens/lawn planters”
- A paper instruction manual means you don’t have to consult a website or video to get started. This is very much appreciated by the team here at Shopping Essentials
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The cardboard packaging in the box is, you guessed it, compostable if you break it down into smaller pieces and introduce it slowly, as in about 10 per cent of the total compost at a time.
What it didn’t come with? Enough composting material for me to run the Lomi through a few rounds. My neighbours were more than happy to oblige by dropping off their kitchen scraps and were fully impressed by how the fancy bit of technology took a full bucket of Lomi-approved waste (more on that below) and turned it into something far less offensive.
What does Lomi do?
The countertop composter that does an ugly job but looks pretty good while doing it — it’s a sleek white-ish matte machine — breaks down organic waste into fragments that can be mixed with existing compost, added to your green bin with other compostable materials or if you use the right mode on your Lomi, used as soil that is packed with nutrients and organic content.
Setting it up
It’s not hard. The most challenging part might be finding a spot for your Lomi. Depending on how often you use it, you could keep it in a pantry and pull it out once a week to do its job. Mine fits on my counter and although it is pretty enough, I really don’t fancy hogging counter space when not in use. I’d like to save that for more important things like dirty dishes and meal prep.
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Some specs:
- Lomi is 22 lbs with an off-white, matte-finish
- It is 16 x 12 inches
- Three processing cycles; drying, mixing and cooling
- You can hear it operating, but it’s like a low hum, and we kind of like the sound of work being done, especially when it’s not us doing the work
- Two filters require carbon pellets (that’s our fancy word) which need to be replaced once, maybe twice a year
More about the processing modes
These vary based on how long you want to wait and what final result you want.
Eco-express — Three to five hours. Offers quickest results with low energy consumption.
Lomi approved — Five to eight hours. This mode is for bioplastics, compostable commercial goods and packaging that is Lomi-approved. You can find more on their website.
Grow — 16 to 20 hours. When you are operating in this mode, it runs at low heat “to preserve the microorganisms and bacteria most helpful to soil.”
What Lomi likes to be fed and what you ought to trash
It likes a diverse diet, so a mixed assortment works well and gives the best results.
You can add everything from fruits and vegetables to leftovers, plate scrapings, meat scraps, soft bones and shells, coffee filters and grounds, tea bags, nuts, bread, pasta, rice, cheese yogurt, plants, flowers and yard trimmings.
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Do not add hard animal bones, cooking oils, fruit pits, soiled diapers, cigarettes, metal, plastic, glass, foil wrap, styrofoam or pet waste.
My experience
I filled the bucket to the maximum line, added one of the LomiPods and closed the lid on the stink. When I hit start, I didn’t realize it defaults to Eco-Express mode when what I really wanted was a little something something for my hungry houseplants. That’s fine, I had to try every mode anyhow but just a word of caution.
By the way, the bucket where you chuck it all is made from aluminum with a non-stick coating and is dishwasher safe.
It hums along, not quite as loudly as my dishwasher or microwave and quietly enough you can listen to music or have a Zoom meeting nearby. A few times, it gurgles and grumbles as it digests the contents but when it’s done, it’s a sight to behold.
In Eco-Express mode, I started with a big mess of egg shells, cooked quinoa, half a grapefruit, vegetable peels and pieces and some fruit that was well past its prime time.
When I excitedly opened the lid several hours later, there was what I would describe as a small amount of mulch-like sawdust at the bottom of the once two-thirds full bucket. Dry, clean and virtually scent-free.
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The grow mode delivers something softer and richer and ready to help my houseplants become even more luscious and lovely. It’s best to do this one overnight because it is the longest mode. The Lomi-approved mode can process bioplastics (the site has more details) like Uber Eats containers, forks and knives.
For those concerned about how disruptive running a Lomi might be, the noise level is less than 60 decibels For reference, a normal conversation is about 60 decibels and a lawn mower is about 90 decibels.
It’s easy to clean by wiping the exterior with a soapy cloth and the bucket is dishwasher safe.
Others’ take on the Lomi
Reviews are by and large fantastic. The makers say they have sold more than 85,000 units, sharing plenty of customer reviews, here. One happy purchaser calls it “their best friend,” which we think may be a bit much but other than that, we kind of agree on all the applause.
We did find one critic scoffing at the technology saying it is counterintuitive given it takes hours of electricity to do its job. But (we did the math) and using anywhere from .6 kWh to one kWh, (that’s during each hour of its longest mode) is hardly significant given the average Canadian uses about 1,000 kWh a month.
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A bit about Lomi
The minds behind the Lomi began in 2017 with the Pela Case, the first biodegradable phone case. In April 2021 the Lomi took off. Khloe Kardashian, out of the blue, (ie, she wasn’t sent a sample to review) dubbed it the Gift of the Year, says Gareth Everard, Lomi’s chief marketing officer.
Last year the Kelowna-based company which created the kitchen gadget after tonnes of research and development done by hardware engineers, software experts and soil scientists, pre-sold nearly 50,000 units, mostly in Canada and the U.S., the bulk bought by Americans.
Why is it called Lomi? It is cute, approachable and evocative of EVE from the film WALL-E. It also plays the words ‘loam’ and ‘soil.’
Why is it so popular? “I think people really like the reduction in mess and the no stink,” Everard says. “The thing that is really redeeming and heartwarming is how much impact people are saying the Lomi has on the volume of garbage. They reduce the number of bags they are bringing out to the curb.”
Where to buy: Amazon
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