Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I'm copying and pasting the review I used at Home Depot, because that is where I bought this compactor. However, I spent a lot of time on this review, and I love buying stuff on Amazon too, so I decided to also put my review here. The exact model I have is the black 15" Elite model, but I'm sure this review applies to just about any of their 15" elite models.
My unit arrived slightly defective. The hold feature doesn't work. So far, I've had a repair guy out three times, and he still has a part on order to try to fix it. Fortunately, the compactor works in normal mode, so this hasn't prevented me from using it. (One other switch broke within the first week, but the repair man was able to fix this on his second visit. So it was only out of commission for about a week.)
The good news is that Broan has been very nice and helpful, and has paid for all of the service visits. So, you can have confidence in their 1-year warranty, and if you get unlucky like me at least you don't have to pay for repairs. With any luck, yours will simply work right out of the box!
Because of these warranty issues I've had to deal with, I can't give this a 5-star review. If it arrived in perfect working order, I would have been happy to give it 5-stars.
But I can still confidently give it 4-stars. I love this compactor. I'll list the positives, and then address some of the negatives I've read about it in other reviews:
Positives:
Excellent horse power. This unit crushes glass bottles with ease. In fact, it is so powerful that I decided to stop crushing my glass to a pulp. Now, I use the first glass bottle "popping" as the sign that my trash is full, and I take it out to the can. By doing so, this has been a great indication of when it has compacted enough for my tastes. (I haven't even come close to overworking this thing).
It looks stylish. I love the black color, and it matches the rest of my appliances. As a free standing unit, it looks great and gets the job done.
Excellent capacity. We can fit three days worth of garbage in this thing, including gallon milk jugs, formula containers, etc. (I have two very small kids. We were going through a full kitchen sized bag every day.) I was having trouble fitting all of the trash small kids can generate in a week (diapers, formula containers, milk containers, etc. etc.) in the single curbside receptacle. Now it is very easy. Two of these bags per week is about our new average. That is amazing. I think we are getting about a 4:1 compression ratio, which I think is great.
Addressing some unfounded criticism:
This unit, freestanding, does indeed tip forward. BUT, once you install the inexpensive front kick plate ($15), this problem goes away. The user manual makes it painfully clear that for a freestanding installation you MUST use this kick plate. This trash compactor has been rock solid ever since I installed that kick plate. I can't get it to tip forward very easily even when I push down on it. Yes, it was very annoying to have to order a second part that I feel should have come with the unit, but I'm not going to knock off any stars over it. Now that I've added this item, I'm over any annoyance I had from needing to place a second order. (I did actually order this kick plate from Amazon, as it turns out.)
Trash bags are expensive. Yes, they are. BUT, the generic compactor bags that are sold at Wal-Mart work just fine, if you stretch them just a bit. Oh sure, the company warns you against doing so, but seriously, it is a plastic bag. For about a quarter of the cost, I'm happy to make do with an off-brand bag. Their official bags are great, and easy to use. I just wish they were more affordable. However, the workaround is so easy, I can't really consider this a legitimate downside. I've even considered using Glad Forceflex bags, which I'm sure would work.
Not enough compacting power? One review said that stepping on trash would work just as well. This isn't true at all. I certainly can't crush wine bottles just by stepping on them, but this trash compactor laughs at glass bottles. I have to empty the trash as soon as I hear glass breaking, or the compactor would turn them back into the sand from which they came. PLENTY of horsepower. It was very difficult for me to fit all of our garbage into one trash can every week, but now it is easy. (And before I had this unit, I was OF COURSE standing on the trash can smashing it down with my body weight. No way I could do as good of a job, not to mention how silly I looked.)
Legitimate complaints: It really isn't as convenient to throw stuff away as with a normal kitchen trash can. You have to open the door, pull out the drawer, and make sure your kids aren't going to tackle you when you are bent over. (Happened to me once, I scraped my arm.) Also, there is no way I want my kids throwing stuff away in here until they get older.
However, my wife and I worked around this minor inconvenience very easily by buying a small trash can (bathroom sized) and placing it nearby. Our daughter knows that this is "her" trash can, and as it fills up we can throw the little bag inside the compactor. This solution actually worked so well that even we tend to use the little can out of convenience. Then you get the best of both worlds, and you can contain organic items in a smaller bag to be compacted later. Works great, and now that we are doing so I don't even consider the compactor to be a hassle. The usefulness more than overcomes any potential inconvenience caused by needing to open a door and slide out a bin.
Oh, and if I haven't mentioned it yet: this thing is FUN. Maybe it is because I'm a guy, but smashing things is kind of satisfying. You feel like your kitchen is that much cleaner. And my little daughter loves watching it go. She runs into the kitchen every time I hit the button to watch the light change from red to green (and she laughs if something pops).
I recommend buying one if you need to smash trash. Like I said, I would easily have given it 5-stars if I wasn't dealing with warranty issues.
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