Lomi is home!

Before we begin

Before we give you our opinion on the Lomi, let’s get some basics out of the way.

The people at Lomi sent us a unit to try; they did not ask us to write a positive review. The specs and facts are from the Lomi website. The opinions in this post are our own. If you decide to buy a Lomi, clicking on any links in this post will bring you to the Lomi website. We will make a few bucks from any purchases made through that link.

What is Lomi?

Lomi is a countertop composter that runs on electricity and is designed in Canada by Pela; the people who make compostable phone cases. It weighs approximately 9 kilos and measures 228 mm wide by 388 mm deep by 314 mm high. The outer part is recycled plastic, and the inside is metal. 

How does Lomi work?

It has three settings and works by grinding and heating organic matter creating a compost-like end product that you can mix with soil and use in your house plants or outdoor gardens and flower beds. It has two filters that obliterate smells, and you can use Lomi compost accelerator tablets to add beneficial microbes that help the composting process. Each cycle uses very little electricity; the 24hr Grow cycle using the most at 1 kWh per cycle.

What goes into Lomi?

Lomi converts many things into compost; this includes (according to the Lomi website) fruit and vegetable matter, leftovers and plate scrapings, meat, soft bones (fish), nuts, bread, pasta, cheese and other milk products, plant clippings, paper towels, etc.

Things you shouldn’t put in Lomi include oils, hard fruit pits like peach and mango, hard bones, dirty diapers, cigarettes, metal, plastic, and glass (the fact that they have to mention the last 5 is astonishing)

What does Lomi cost?

A basic Lomi costs $499.00 includes the unit, two bags of activated charcoal for the filters, and 45 compost accelerator tablets. 

You can buy replacement accelerator tablets and activated charcoal by one-time purchase or subscription. When subscribing, you receive replacements every six-months at a slightly discounted price. 

It comes with a 1-year warranty with option to extend to 3 years. 

What’s our honest opinion about Lomi?

We’ve been using the Lomi countertop composter for over a month at time of posting. We tested all three settings.
The unit is beautifully designed; and wouldn’t look out of place in any home.
According to the website, the grow cycle retains the most microorganisms with a 24 hour cycle; in small living quarters, it’s just too noisy to run at night; think bread machine or dehydrator. We stashed it in the pantry overnight; it wasn’t bad but not an optimal situation because it does produce some heat.
The compost on the grow cycle contains the most nutrients because it uses a lower temperature than the other cycles. You can see that in the resulting compost. It was different inappearance; richer, wetter and we could still identify food bits, like squash seeds and orange peel.

The Lomi-approved cycle runs from 5 to 8 hours and is used for bioplastics. compostables and Lomi-approved packaging, plus all the organics mentioned above. This was the first cycle we tried, since we had to dispose of the bag the Lomi came in and other Lomi approved packaging. It worked well; bags were indistinguishable from the rest of the ingredients in the resulting loam. 

The eco-express is the fastest and least energy-consuming cycle, and our favourite cycle of them all. It lasts between 3 and 5 hours and the results were the same as the Lomi-approved cycle, dry loam similar to peat moss. 

We tried all three cycles with and without the compost accelerator tablets, dissolving the tablet in water (as indicated on the package) and not dissolving it. Adding as much organic material as the bucket would allow, even going over the fill line. Each time, the results were the same visually and to the touch. 

Full disclosure, we added some avocado pits a couple of times; they were completely processed. We probably will not do it again because the Lomi  made some clunking sounds which led us to believe that there was a good reason avocado pits are on the no go list.

The bottom line; we love our Lomi countertop composter because of the ease of use and the resulting product. We love composting quickly and adding that compost to our house plants and balcony garden.

That said, we don’t think it’s useful for everyone.

If you have land or a yard where you can put a conventional composter, then Lomi probably won’t be advantageous. Even if you have a green bin program in your area, you might not need a Lomi, unless you have a lot of compostables and little space to store them until green bin day.

If you live in an apartment or in an area that doesn’t have a green bin program, then it would be more practical. You don’t have to throw your organics in the trash or have them stinking up the apartment and attracting flies. Plus you get all this wonderful compost to add to your house plants.

The only thing we would change or improve is the noise factor. If it was even slightly less noisy we would probably use the grow cycle more often.

At $499 plus the ongoing cost of replacing activated charcoal and accelerator tablets it’s a big investment but once you start using it, if you’re like us, you might not want to go without. 

We can’t wait to see if the Lomi compost will help our plants grow bigger and stronger.