Trash compactors

The 2010 shelf spelled this row Compacters. The machine is a trash compactor: a ram that presses a bag inside a bucket, built into a base cabinet.

The opening has to match the model. Compactors are narrower than a dishwasher and they do not share a cutout with one. The ram needs a clear path, so an off-level cabinet floor makes the drawer drag. Power is an ordinary household circuit. The practical complaint is odor, which lives in the bucket and the ram shoe more than in the motor. Bags made for compactors are thicker than kitchen liners. A thin liner splits under the ram and then the bucket has to be washed.

A compactor does not replace a disposal and it does not belong on a food-waste line into the sewer. It is a dry-trash machine. Glass and cans go in. Food scraps still belong in the trash pickup or the disposal, depending on what the house already has.