Interesting product. This is not a review but a question: I am curious to know the cost of ownership in terms of the expendable supplies for a year (additive packet, filters). Can’t seem to find much info on their website or the Internet.

I’ve worked in horticulture/agriculture for years and I’m skeptical about how this machine could compost food in 24 hours. Composting happens when bacteria breaks down organic material. This process takes time. The material first needs to be populated then the bacteria needs to grow then break down the material. Think about how long it takes to grow a culture in a lab and that’s under optimal conditions with medium specifically designed for the purpose of growing that type of bacteria or fungi. Coir and baking soda are not bacteria. I’m sorry but I just don’t see how this could work.

You can no longer pre-order it says the program is closed. But it says will be available at 1199 instead of the 699 during the preorder. But sounds like it is still not completed despite the fact the website shows summer of 2017 and it is spring of 2018.

I was not trying to give 5 stars but the star rating will not let me change it.

It seems so simple in the video, doesn’t it? It seems to turn all of those moist, kitchen scraps into (what looks like) dried coffee grounds and then drops them into that little container without ever getting a speck on the sides!! Neat and tidy, huh?!

The only problem is believing that it will really be able to do what they’re saying it will do as easily and efficiently as they want to make it appear. Why? Well, compost is formed from ingredients that maintain a C/N ratio somewhere between 25:1 and 30:1 . . . which is just a technical way of saying that you have to have more of the dry, brown, carbonaceous matter than moist, green, nitrogenous matter to make compost because the compost comes primarily from the digestion of the carbonaceous material with the nitrogenous matter providing the protein and reproductive wherewithal of the bacteria doing the decomposing. And kitchen scraps are heavily into the moist, green nitrogenous end of things.

I think they’re gonna try to use that additive to get the carbonaceous part, employ the aerator to keep the whole thing aerobic (and not stinky), and provide electrical heat to dry it all out because there won’t be enough mass for bacterial activity to provide it, but I question how effective that will really be, how much harm it will do to the planet, and what it’s gonna end up costing you — over and above the initial $1200 purchase price.

My advice? Wait and see! It appears to be a l-o-o-o-o-ng way from being ready for prime time!!

Ship my best are now selling them off for under $40 and I’m still not buying because I can’t find price or availability of the product you have to mix with it or the carbon filters to ireadicate smells.

I can see that it generates the heat to dry everything out and blades to chop it all down. I’m trying to find out about the clean up too.

If anyone can help I’d be grateful because I think the concept is great.

This is advertised in some places as a Whirlpool product. Why is it not on the Whirlpool site? If it is over 800% funded what is going on? Time for people to get back their money because by now it should be available. Also it is on FB advertised for $59. Beware. This stinks.

I’m a product designer and have noticed something very interesting – although this was crowd funded and initially Whirlpool branded, it is now available at several sites for – sit down for this; $40.00 Yep, that’s right, $40. I’ve tracked the seller activity back to Korea and Taiwan, which I would guess are the shops that handled the tooling for the various parts when it looked like this was a real project. I thought about ordering it just to see if it would actually arrive, but the reviews above have me guessing that a sort-of working unit would indeed arrive but that it might not work for long and that I’d never find any Zera packs & filters to keep it running. I’m guessing those shops are just trying to make back the investment that probably wasn’t paid for by Whirlpool once the project was killed. Here’s where I found it; [URL removed: ###skying.icu/products/###]

I went to order one of these after seeing it on Facebook, went through all the process of form filling but came up blank when proceeding to check out. It would have been nice for them to put something up to say they no longer available or whatever the reason it wouldn’t continue

As the food scraps have been added over a week it is quite possible for the recycling process to be only 24 hours. The additives are coir (coconut fibre) and baking soda to provide roughage and speed up composting process which makes sense. The coir would possibly soak up much of the liquid from the compost (wonder if shredded paper would work as well). Most of the bacteria needed to decompose the scraps is already on the skins. I am keen to get my unit and use it. Currently I put my scraps (no meat) in a small bucket and tip into a large compost bin every week – think this unit will be a much more efficient way. Not sure how the compost ends up dehydrated – maybe the chopping up with blades during the processing aerates it to dry. Curious to experiment with unit.

Just bought one for xmas 2018 for $39.99, marked down from $109.99
Absolutely thrilled with it for $40… but would have considered it criminal theft at over a $1000

Who set that ridiculous initial price? I feel embarrassed for anyone who wasted that much money for such an effective but still very, very simple unit.

It does work as advertised… just not worth more than a hundred bucks… TOPS.

I love the idea and the convenience however seems like everyone else has produced like items and they still don’t have a release I think they may never come out with it not worth spending money on something that has yet to release already 2 years later. I see that someone has purchased one would love to know where can’t find it online any where

I have been using the unit for over a week now. Works well but why can’t you add the resulting product mixed in the soil? The filter is soooooo hard to get out. The bag of additive got stuck so that the packaging was left in the unit. The mixture did fall into the bin. One last thing, the resulting mixture is like a powder. Not sure it will work in a spreader. Tried it in a small hand held unit and it never came out. Seems that the mixture was not dry enough.

The wait is over. Drum roll please. Received mine 3 weeks ago. I have run over 6 loads. Everything you can imagine from the usuals to tea bags and meat, citrus, dairy, and even food packaging that says compostable. I have taken pictures, videos, documented everything. It’s amazing. Actually I would say it’s shocking. It literally breaks all the composting rules that many of you said could never be broken. It does in 24 hours what doesn’t seem possible. I followed the directions, the guidelines, the additive, small medium and large loads. Citrus, meat, dairy, literally all kinds of stuff, moldy, wet, dry, and it worked…like magic. Like the kind of magic that can’t be real. I grew up on farm. I have composted for 50 years. This defies logic. I am not lying or trying to sell these, but I have to say it was way beyond worth waiting for. And it’s soooo funny to read all the nay sayers, all the doubting, all the skeptics. No this not a joke or something you buy for cheap. Those of you who bought something else are sadly mistaken and you are well aware you were taken in by someone nefariously riding the Zera band wagon. It’s real, it works, and what you end up with is the richest, fluffiest compost imaginable for mother earth, the worms the plants, the vegetables, the fruit trees, the flower beds. The only setback was I over filled it and hand to move some of the finished product around in the main compartment after letting the unit cool down for a day.

I would give the Zera 4 stars but the customer service 1 star. I love the food recycling though it is NOT compost! You have to add it to your compost. But it does do a remarkable job of turning all food waste into almost a cocoa powder looking product. Don’t put a whole banana peel in there, despite the video they show. Anything fibrous like that has to be cut up into smaller pieces or it tangles in the blades. I’m not giving it 5 stars because I’m having trouble with the dust filter. It doesn’t snap in place and came loose during a cycle and ground up. The dust filter is not one of the products listed online that you can buy a replacement for. I emailed them twice and finally was able to reach someone by calling the headquarters of Whirlpool. But it still took a month to get a replacement so I couldn’t run it for a month and the food in there was rotting all that time. The stench was unbelievable when I finally got the new filtr and ran it. Stunk the next time too, but now seems better. But the dust filter is very loose and I have to be so careful not to knock it off when adding food. I’m still afraid it will come off again and I won’t notice until too late. Wish they would let you order replacement online. I ordered new airfilter after the rotting episode and got email that it had been shipped a week after I’d actually recieved it. So Yeah, a 1 star for customer service.

I’m going to change my rating from 4 star to 1 star. It’s stopped working and this would only be my 5th time running a cycle. The troubleshooting guide is not telling me what is wrong. I unplugged it and plugged it back in a few times trying to reset it but it is frozen. Says control is locked and the cycle is complete but I havent run it yet. It won’t run and it won’t lock the lid so it can run. Another stinky mess. Don’t buy this.