We absolutely love our food cycler!  We've been backyard composting for about 15 years and were generally tired of the whole process and the work involved.  Now I just pop the bucket into the machine every couple of days before bed and, like magic, there's fresh 'mulch' waiting for me in the morning. We've only had it a month or two, in a vegan household so nothing but fruit and veggie scraps in there, but so far not a single problem with things sticking or 'burning' in the bucket and no bad odors at all. It's pretty quiet, quieter than I expected by reading some reviews.  Vitamix products have always had great quaility as far as this family is concerned and that opinion is only confirmed by our experience with the food cycler.