Review : Titan Compactor Bin from Joseph Joseph

It’s been a while since I did my last review so today I’m sharing my experiences of the Titan Compactor Bin from Joseph Joseph (affiliate). As you may know, I already own the Stack Recycling Bins from Joseph Joseph (you can read my review of those here). So for me pairing my stack bins with the new Titan Compactor bin made total sense.

Thanks to the recycling bins, I am now able to take my recycling rubbish out a lot less frequently which is a real bonus and I was hoping that the Titan would provide the same benefit. I mean, it’s not the end of the world having to take the rubbish out, but living in a first floor flat, it means that I have to leave the girls in the flat alone while I run the rubbish down the stairs.

As we all know, it takes no time at all for kids to get up to mischief and potentially hurt themselves. So the less frequently I have to do this the better. So I had high hopes for the Titan.

And I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. Firstly, I really like the shape of the bin. Being rectangular it fits nice and neatly back against the wall. It’s probably no wider than the circular bin I was previously using, but the angular shape definitely makes it feel like you’re saving space, even if technically you’re probably not. It just sits nicely against a flat surface, and next to the stack bins beside it, and for that reason, it just looks a lot nicer and neater.

Secondly, it has a fingerprint-proof stainless steel coating, which is a godsend when you have two sticky little toddlers running around. The lid on our previous bin had a mirror finish and if I didn’t polish it and keep it clean, it looked really grubby and smeary. I don’t have this problem with the Titan Compactor bin though. We’ve been using it for just under a month now and I haven’t had to wipe the surface at all to remove sticky fingerprints. It miraculously looks as good as the day we received it. This is one of the things I like most about it.

Like the smallest unit of the stack system (the one we use for food waste), it has a replaceable carbon odour filter integrated into the underside of the lid to help reduce any unpleasant smells emanating from the bin. Whilst we don’t put food waste in the Titan Compactor bin, the packaging can sometimes be a bit smelly so this little addition really helps. It’s really easy to replace and to remove for cleaning too.

The only thing I would say about the filters though is that I have been unable to find any information as to how long they actually last for before they need replacing. It would be helpful to have a rough idea of their lifespan as I’ve just been guessing.

The bin liners that come with the Titan Compactor bin (IW4) are custom designed especially to fit the Titan’s 30-litre cavity. They are extra strong and don’t tear or rip, which was one of my main concerns. I was afraid that all that pressure of compacting would damage the bin liner, but after many compaction attempts, I can honestly say that there has been no damage to the bags.

The design of the compacting mechanism is very clever. It has four rubber flaps, and this is where you secure the bin liner. You simply slide the liner between the flaps and the rubber means that the liner is firmly held in place and doesn’t slip. Once the liner is in place and you have rubbish that needs compacting, you simply lift the handle on the front of the bin 90 degrees and then proceed to push the handle down into the bin. The two sides of the compaction mechanism come together to exert pressure on the rubbish in the bin. The mechanism ensures that only the inside of the liner actually touches the rubbish so there is no chance of getting your hands dirty. Even when you remove the liner for disposal, there is no chance of any nastiness on the outside of the bag.

According to Joseph Joseph, the compaction system and foot pedal have been tested over 100,000 times and are engineered to withstand repeated downward force. I was a little bit apprehensive the first few times I tried it, especially when the bin contained some more sturdy plastic packaging but it seems to hold up really well.

It may only be a 30-litre bin, but it can apparently hold up to 90 litres, three times its capacity, after compaction. I have no way of knowing if this is actually true as I didn’t measure the amount of rubbish that was contained in the bin before I emptied it, but what I can say is that I am only on my third bin liner in a month. I am almost certain that I got through more than that with my previous bin which was also a 30-litre bin. I was changing it at least once a week, if not more often.

So the Titan Compactor bin has been a resounding success on that level. It also means that we don’t need to buy as many liners. For the past few years, we have been buying the specific liners designed for our bin. They are much more expensive than the cheap black liners you can get, but they never rip and never slip down inside the bin, so the extra money is worth it in our opinion. There is nothing worse than rubbish spilling everywhere after the bag has split. So it’s an added bonus that we don’t need to use as many of these costly bags now.

The final feature that I really like on this bin is the extra large foot pedal. It’s much easier to use than the smaller ones on the circular bins. I guess because of the angular shape of the bin there is more room for a larger pedal. It feels more sturdy as well. Oh, and the lid actually stays up while you change your bin bag which is a nice feature.

Just in case my explanation of all these features isn’t clear, there is a little video below where you can watch the Titan Compactor bin in action.

So what do you guys think of the Titan Compactor bin*? Do you like the idea of being able to compact your rubbish without actually having to touch it?

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Disclosure: This is a collaborative post. Joseph Joseph kindly supplied the product for the purpose of this review on the understanding that if we did not like it we would return it and wouldn’t feature it on the blog. All the opinions in this review are our own and we stress that we only collaborate with brands and companies that we genuinely like and believe that our readers will like too.