Opinions requested - Trash compactor vs cupboard space

[Jmarsh203]

The type of cruising you plan on doing would determine if it’s a valuable piece of equipment or not. If you plan on extended cruising distances with a lot of time on the hook it would be very valuable because it prob cuts down on trash space by 75-80%. If you plan on being at a lot of marinas with 2-3 day transits being the longest planned you will be fine with a regular trash can. I’d much rather have a trash compactor on a boat than a dishwasher. It sure is nice being able to be out on the hook for two or three weeks and only have one maybe two trash bags. Where as if you don’t have a compactor you may have 5-6 and you will need to take a dinghy trip with it full of trash bags.

 

[koliver]

Ours is right in the middle of the cupboard. So it's really useable space that it's taking up. The owners took out a dishwasher and replaced it with a small cupboard and a trash compactor. Still thinking.. but leaning on having more cupboards.

One other consideration I had almost forgotten: When you are out of bags, you really need to know where to get replacements. Ours took this bag: https://www.amazon.com/Compactor-Ba...1632840021&refinements=p_72:2661619011&sr=8-6
Amazon shows it as "currently out of stock"
We ran into that problem 15 or so years ago, long before the current "supply chain disruption" and found you couldn't rely on bags from the grocery store, as they were not nearly strong enough.
Eventually just had to stop using the compactor and got used to not having one, so never looked back.

 

[Alaska JD]

We’ve got an OA 42 and LOVE our compactor

 

[AlanT]

When we were living on an earlier boat we got in the habit of minimizing the space our garbage took: Folding up milk and other cardboard cartons, flattening plastic bottles etc. Now we have a compactor but it seems old habits die hard! We still flatten what we can, keep the organics separate (or put them over the side where sensible). We go about a week with just the two of us on one compactor bag. We have room to store about 5 bags in a dedicated space in a lazarette, so we are fine for about a month or more (with just 2 on board). Additional people generate logarithmically more garbage volume! We like our compactor (but we don't have a crying need for storage space either).

 

[Wonderfullife]

We love our compactor. When we first bought the boat we wanted to take it out to increase storage space. But we procrastinated, and now 3 years later are glad we did not take it out. We do not buy compactor bags, we keep one compactor bag in the unit and put Glad Force Flex bags inside it.
Keep it for awhile and see if you like it as much as we do. You can always take it out.

 

[dhays]

I don’t have a trash compactor, but if I had anyplace to install one, I would. Most of the time it is easy to dispose of trash in on-shore receptacles. However, there are places where we cruise that disposing of trash is a real issue. I’d love a trash compactor for those times.

 

[Finally Fun Again]

We found our trash compactor a Not to Live Without item aboard our trawler. It would hold so much crushed trash it would take two of us to LIFT it out! We, however, lived aboard and cruised from Canada throughout the Caribbean for 6 years, mostly at anchor. That thing crushed bottles, cans, everything. Nary a smell. Without it, we would have had bags and bags of black trash bags on the cockpit - which BIRDS attack, tear up and make a huge mess. If you are not cruising long distances or hang at marinas most of the time, then not necessary.

 

[timb7734]

I liked it when we had one on a boat, but we didn’t need more cabinet space at the time. Never had one at home before then but have since installed two. Now we have less room.

They usually have at least two settings for how compact the machine makes the trash, you may check into that. The most compact made a pretty solid brick.

 

[Muirgen Afloat]

The type of cruising you plan on doing would determine if it’s a valuable piece of equipment or not. If you plan on extended cruising distances with a lot of time on the hook it would be very valuable because it prob cuts down on trash space by 75-80%. If you plan on being at a lot of marinas with 2-3 day transits being the longest planned you will be fine with a regular trash can. I’d much rather have a trash compactor on a boat than a dishwasher. It sure is nice being able to be out on the hook for two or three weeks and only have one maybe two trash bags. Where as if you don’t have a compactor you may have 5-6 and you will need to take a dinghy trip with it full of trash bags.

Yeah, we have thought about this. I have been checking out some of those trash cans that have hand compactors built in. The trash compactor on the boat didn't compress much the time we tried it. Planning on a short trip soon, will give it another trial on that and see.

 

[Muirgen Afloat]

One other consideration I had almost forgotten: When you are out of bags, you really need to know where to get replacements. Ours took this bag: https://www.amazon.com/Compactor-Ba...1632840021&refinements=p_72:2661619011&sr=8-6
Amazon shows it as "currently out of stock"
We ran into that problem 15 or so years ago, long before the current "supply chain disruption" and found you couldn't rely on bags from the grocery store, as they were not nearly strong enough.
Eventually just had to stop using the compactor and got used to not having one, so never looked back.

Something I hadn't thought about. Thanks

 

[Muirgen Afloat]

When we were living on an earlier boat we got in the habit of minimizing the space our garbage took: Folding up milk and other cardboard cartons, flattening plastic bottles etc. Now we have a compactor but it seems old habits die hard! We still flatten what we can, keep the organics separate (or put them over the side where sensible). We go about a week with just the two of us on one compactor bag. We have room to store about 5 bags in a dedicated space in a lazarette, so we are fine for about a month or more (with just 2 on board). Additional people generate logarithmically more garbage volume! We like our compactor (but we don't have a crying need for storage space either).

I think we are going to just have to use it and see what works for us. There is a lot of ways to generate less trash.. so we just have to figure it out.

 

[Muirgen Afloat]

We love our compactor. When we first bought the boat we wanted to take it out to increase storage space. But we procrastinated, and now 3 years later are glad we did not take it out. We do not buy compactor bags, we keep one compactor bag in the unit and put Glad Force Flex bags inside it.
Keep it for awhile and see if you like it as much as we do. You can always take it out.

Thanks for the idea on bags.. very helpful

 

[Muirgen Afloat]

We found our trash compactor a Not to Live Without item aboard our trawler. It would hold so much crushed trash it would take two of us to LIFT it out! We, however, lived aboard and cruised from Canada throughout the Caribbean for 6 years, mostly at anchor. That thing crushed bottles, cans, everything. Nary a smell. Without it, we would have had bags and bags of black trash bags on the cockpit - which BIRDS attack, tear up and make a huge mess. If you are not cruising long distances or hang at marinas most of the time, then not necessary.

Okay.. maybe this trash compactor just doesn't work well. It only compressed maybe down a 1/4 and it wasn't very solid at all. Could understand if it did as well as yours.

 

[Muirgen Afloat]

I liked it when we had one on a boat, but we didn’t need more cabinet space at the time. Never had one at home before then but have since installed two. Now we have less room.

They usually have at least two settings for how compact the machine makes the trash, you may check into that. The most compact made a pretty solid brick.

I will do some checking and see if ours has another setting. Thanks