I Tested the Lomi Composter for a Year to Find Out if it's Worth the Price

Have you always wanted to compost but the odorous nature of the organic waste during the composting process stopped you dead in your tracks? Maybe you don’t have the space to undertake the traditional method of composting at home. Even in hot climates, composting is a labor of love. Throw in the cold weather and freezing temperatures and now you have bins full of organic waste without solid microbial activity to reduce the materials into useful dirt. If any of these reaons ever stopped you from composting, there is still hope. The Lomi countertop composter by Pela is designed to be used indoors and reduces food scraps and organic waste by using heat, abrasion, and oxygen at the touch of a button. It can also reduce bioplastics in its “Lomi Approved” mode.

I tested the Lomi for over a year and put it through the grind to check if it was too good to be true. Read on for the full report.

Setup: Very straightforward

The Lomi unit comes largely pre-assembled. The accompanying instructions booklet has clear and precise instructions, and it was very easy to set up.

After placing the Lomi on a flat and stable surface, I opened the back air filter (rectangular box at the back of the unit) and filled it with charcoal. The charcoal comes as part of the starter kit. After closing the wingnut screws again, I placed the filter box back into its place. The ventilation strip clicks back, securing everything. Then I repeated the process with the top filter, which is located off to the side of the main chamber bucket. All that remained to be done as far as setup was concerned was to plug it in.

Design: Smart and streamlined

Made of white plastic on the outside with a lift-out metal bucket inside for keeping food scraps and composting, the packaging for Lomi is 100 percent recyclable—and all of it can be composted in the Lomi. The unit is about 16 inches wide, 13 inches deep, and 12 inches tall. The metal bucket can hold about 3 liters of waste and is dishwasher safe. One thing to note is that it needs more than 6 inches of space for airflow around it and you need to pull it away from under the counters. The lid twists to lock and unlock positions and is easy to maneuver.  

The controls are on the front of the machine and provide three different cycle modes: Eco-Express mode, Lomi Approved mode, and Grow mode. The Eco Express mode performs a quick volume reduction, Lomi Approved mode decomposes (approved) bioplastics, and the Grow mode is a low-heat long cycle that produces a good nutrient rich organic matter to add to soil.

The Lomi uses carbon filters to neutralize the odor. These carbon filters can be refilled, and the old carbon can be added to Lomi for composting. It weighs about 20 pounds, and while that’s not very heavy, it is bulky to move it around before starting the composting cycle. For some kitchens it may be too large to keep on the countertop. In my small kitchen, it took up precious real estate on the counter, so I placed it in a nook just outside my kitchen.

Performance: Effectively reduces waste

The Lomi breaks down food scraps like peels of potatoes and pumpkins, apple cores, fruit pulp from juicing, coffee grounds, eggshells, and other leftover foods that you thought you would eat—but then didn’t. It can also break down fish bones, weeds, dairy, meat, and other proteins. Lomi recommends adding only 10 percent Bioplastics from the approved list to a cycle and limits the quantities for paper towels and fibrous waste like pineapple peels and corn husks into each cycle. You also need to be mindful about the quantities if you are adding sticky things like peanut butter or sourdough discard. Things you cannot put into the Lomi are large bones, avocado pits, walnut shells, cooking oils, and non-biodegradable materials.

While testing the Lomi, I ran it daily, filling it with scraps from my vegetable garden and food scraps from my kitchen. It worked silently on some days and nosily on others, but it always turned the green waste into dried organic matter. The grinding noises mostly came on days when it had more fibrous things to break down. It broke down pineapple and mango peels into fine strips and on repeated cycles, they broke down into finer particles.

When using the Eco Express mode by itself, I noticed that the resulting organic matter was not cured enough to be used as compost in soil. It caused my test soil to mold as it was still breaking down. Using the Eco Express mode a couple of times and then adding the Lomi pod in the Grow mode produced a finer and more stable organic matter. The color of the final matter largely depends on what sort of scraps went into it. Coffee grounds and black tea leaves made it darker, whereas flowers, green peels, and vegetable scraps produced materials with greenish hues. The Lomi emits a noise that is as loud as a running dishwasher or microwave, if not louder. I had to figure out a schedule that would allow me to run the Lomi without its noise bothering me because it can run for more than 20 hours in the Grow cycle.

I loved that the whole process of reducing the scraps to usable organic material was so streamlined. With each food prep, I put the unusable scraps directly into the bucket and ran the cycle when the bucket was full as per the directions. There is almost no odor from the food scraps even after a couple of days of collecting them thanks to the charcoal filters.

Customer Service: Helpful

After using the Lomi for about 7 weeks, it had a ventilation fan error and the cooling light kept blinking continuously. I sent an email to customer support with the details of the issue and enclosed photos of the contents of the bucket, and they responded fast. They quickly offered and sent a replacement fan. The fan took about 12 days to arrive after being shipped. Once it arrived it was very easy to replace. The Lomi unit started functioning as before as soon as it got the new fan. However, that new fan also stopped working after a few days—and then Lomi replaced the entire unit free of charge.

Cleaning: Easy

The metal bucket is dishwasher safe and the outside wipes down clean with a damp cloth. In the first couple of months of using and testing the Lomi, I only had to wash the metal bucket once because I added way too much sourdough discard into it and didn’t run it for a few days. I loved the fact that I didn’t have to clean out the bucket after each use. In fact, leaving the reduced food waste in the Lomi before starting the Grow mode with a Lomi pod results in a finer and richer organic material for the garden.

Price: On the expensive side

The retail price of about $499 may feel excessive, especially if your city or neighborhood has a composting program. There is also the added cost of replacing charcoal bits for the filters and buying the Lomi pods every few months. For people who want to reduce their waste footprint and don’t have the required space for traditional outdoor bin composting or are squeamish about using a Bokashi bin or a worm bin, the Lomi offers a fuss-free way to get you composting and reduce your waste footprint if your city or neighborhood does not have a composting program.

Competition: Other options to choose from

The market has just started warming up with electric home compost alternative options. A cost-effective option is the  Vitamix FoodCycler FC-50. It dehydrates and blends the food scraps thus reducing the food volume by 85 to 90 percent. Once dehydrated, the food scraps can be left to cure for a few weeks before adding them to soil.

Longterm Testing: Thoughts After a Year

I have been using the Lomi for more than a year now. It is too big to leave on my counter so I recommend you have a dedicated spot for it. Getting into the rhythm of composting has been very easy. I keep a small bin in the kitchen to catch all the food scraps and then load the Lomi at night. The food scraps get reduced to a soil-like consistency, which I then add to the soil to cure further. It is a bit noisy, but my solution has been to operate it while watching a show or at night. My household effectively reduced the number of trash bags going out every week because we use Lomi for all the composting—and have no plans to stop.