The countertop kitchen The composter is a lovely idea. Instead of a smelly bucket full of vegetable scraps and coffee grounds breeding fruit flies on your counter or attracting rats to your backyard, you could simply put it all into a nifty electrical appliance, and at some indeterminate point in the future you’ll have an abundant supply of nutrient-rich compost to use in your garden.

Unfortunately, none of the most popular electric kitchen composters do exactly this. Although some of these devices are marketed as “composters” and have instruction and app booklets detailing all the ways compost can be used, the vast majority of kitchen composters simply shred and dry food scraps. You’ll greatly reduce waste production and it won’t smell anymore, but if you’re hoping to put egg and banana peels into a machine and it will magically come out with the kind of compost you’d buy at the garden centre, that’s just not going to happen.

That said, you can Mix small amounts of these grounds with potting soil in small proportions or use them as a feeder for a “real” compost pile. But again, most of these machines are intended to reduce the volume of food waste in the home. This is, in itself, a legitimate goal, as discarded food makes up 24 percent of municipal solid waste, resulting in the release of methane, a destructive greenhouse gas, which decomposes in the landfill.

Or maybe you would just like your food scraps to be odor-free and shelf-stable before adding them to your green waste bin to make municipal compost or compost in your backyard. In any case, despite critics’ cries about greenwashing and corporate astroturfing, these devices certainly have value. They make people more aware of food waste. They don’t consume a huge amount of power (in my tests around 1 kilowatt-hour was typical). And my top pick, Reencle Prime (8/10, WIRED recommends), even produces some near to make fertilizer.

Also, be sure to check out our guides on the best indoor gardening systems, the best gifts for plant lovers, and the best smart bird feeders.

Updated July 2026: I’ve updated my review of Reencle devices to address an issue with broken vanes, added long-term test notes on the Reencle Gravity, included new information for the Mill and GEME Terra II, and ensured up-to-date links and pricing at all times.

Better overall

Relight

Prime electric composter

As I mentioned above, none of these machines produce truly ready-to-use, biologically stable, fully decomposed compost, but Reencle comes the closest to creating what you would get out of a traditional compost bin or pile. Popular in South Korea years before it appeared in the US, Reencle arrives with a starter bag of Reencle Compost Starter 1.0 (which you can purchase separately for $65) containing activated charcoal, wood pellets, glucose, and a trio of proprietary thermophilic microbes ready to devour. There is also a pre-filled carbon filter that inserts into the back.

Reencle Gravity (left) and Prime (right)

Photography: Kat Merck

The Prime is too big for a kitchen counter, but it conveniently doubles as a heated trash can. The lid is opened by a sensor at the bottom or a button on the control panel and organic matter enters. That’s all. There are no bikes, tablets or auxiliary hubs to worry about. Even the app is totally optional. Within hours or days, depending on the item, the remains decompose into a material resembling a cross between dirt and sawdust.

The smell is not always pleasant, but it can usually be mitigated by using the Dry and Purify buttons on the control panel or by adding what, in composting lexicon, are called “browns”: dry, carbon-rich materials, such as bread or shredded paper.

Photography: Kat Merck

The Reencle also tends not to stink when fed its preferred diet of 1.5 pounds of scraps per day. Unlike other machines, it also accepts meat and dairy. For larger homes, there’s the Reencle Gravity ($649), which is a couple of inches taller and can accept 3.3 pounds of waste per day. I also tested it and found it to be significantly quieter than the Prime; It’s not that the Prime is noticeably loud, just about 30 decibels. The Gravity is nearly silent, which is a nice plus. However, I found that over time, Gravity’s content became anaerobic (read: smelly) much faster than it did with Prime. The larger volume seemed to retain more moisture. If you opt for a Gravity, I recommend having plenty of kibble on hand (old bread, paper crumbs) to maintain microbial balance or adding a few extra hand-shaking sessions per day with the included scoop.

When the volume reaches the fill line on each model, it is time to take out the ground coffee. At this point, you can mix the soil with potting soil at a 1:4 ratio and let it cure for three weeks (I used a large tub in my garage). Afterwards, you can use it for both outdoor and indoor plants. I have used the resulting mixture with positive effects both indoors and outdoors.