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Smart Cara – the smart solution for your food waste

As much as you may love food (and cooking), waste is the dark reality that we all have to live with. British people waste as much as one-third of all food they consume, and the numbers only get darker if you probe further. Smart Cara gives everyone the chance to do the best they can with their food waste, turn it into compost for your soil. The best part is, the food disposal device gets rids of odours and does not create much noise while doing its thing. The compost produced is also dry, almost a bit like corn flakes, making it really easy to handle and spread.

Smart Cara – Features

  • Turns any food (including bits such as bones) into dry compost.
  • Ensures food is odourless within it, as is the compost.
  • Reasonably noiseless operation – generates a simple hum.
  • Runs in about 3 hours.
  • Uses up about 2 kWh in a month in standby mode, about 1kWh per operation
  • Dimensions: H 35 x W 27 x D 30 cm, 9 kg

Look and feel

At over a foot tall and a foot deep, this is by no means a small unit. It weighs 9kg, and the first impression you get is that the device is rather big. Various images will show this on a work surface, but I struggled to fit this in my (very tiny) kitchen. So, I found a place for this in my garage. Luckily, all you need for this is an area with a mains socket. Ideal location for this would be the cupboard under your sink, if you have the room.

Twist open the top and you find the drying bin, which has a rotating arm inside it. The arm is not sharp, but is part of the grinding process, so is a heavy build. In order for the thing to go in properly, ensure you align the three screws with the right slot.

The top itself has vents built into it and twists on and off easily. If you are struggling to close it, the simple answer will be the bin not sitting in properly.

The top contains 3 LEDs to indicate whether the food is drying, being ground, or just standby. There is also a power button which allows you to start the food disposal process.

The sides are clean, but the back contains some vents and a slot that can be opened to expose a couple of filters. These can be changed as and when needed, generally every 3 months.

Setup

The biggest part of the setup is finding a suitable location in your home. Once you have, you are pretty much good to go. All you need to do is take off the protective covers on your filters, and the device is ready to use.

Ease of use

All you need to do is dump any food waste into the bin, and as it gets full, just run the processor. To do so, just hit the power button on the device. It really is that simple.

Once done, you will find a compressed amount of compost ready to be used for your plants and garden. Use as needed.

It needs to be always on

In order to keep the device running properly and odour free, you have to keep it plugged in constantly in the mains. This will take around 2 kWh of power. When plugged in, you also hear a very gentle hum from the device. This is probably the air filters deodourising the food.

Operation – is it noisy?

I really thought it would be. It wasn’t. The hum gets louder but that is about it.

How useful is it?

Okay, the big question. Is it a gimmick or is it useful?

Well, if you eat food, and have a garden, I’d say this should be on your essentials list. Not only does it get rid of any bad smells from food, it compresses it, dries it, and then gets it ready to go contribute in your garden. This is pretty much the best way to process your food!

More information

More information on the Smart Cara device can be found on their website.

It is available from various online retailers such as Amazon and starts from £399.

Verdict

A must-have for anyone who hates waste. At £399 and the huge size, it may seem like an investment, but it will definitely pay for itself.

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