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My wife generates more garbage than anyone I've ever seen, bless her heart. When I was single I could have filled the garbage can the truck picks up once a month.

Some weeks the can will be so full the lid won't close and also the bed of my Subaru Baja will be full of trash, I'll have to make a special trip to the dump, otherwise the can will be full the day after it's emptied and it's just a viscous cycle! I have to store excess garbage in the bed of my truck in my garage, otherwise the raccoons tear it all over the yard.

I've also resorted to burning garbage then shoveling the ashes up and putting it in the trash can. Some of the garbage is cardboard boxes from stuff she orders. Normally I just burn cardboard so it doesn't take up valuable space in the can but this year it's been so dry I have decided against it. And I've tried to break down cardboard boxes.

I've also placed the can next to the fence at the bottom of my driveway to make it easier for raccoons to open the lid and crawl in it to tear the trash to shreds so I can get more trash in it!

So I've been considering buying a trash compactor. Then I priced a new one between $500 and $1000. Yikes!

So I got to looking on Craigslist and found a four year old GE profile for $65! Some guy was doing some remodeling and replaced it. I had to drive 100 miles to get it but it was worth it.

So Thursday we moved it into the house and I plugged it up, put in a bag, tested it and threw in a full 13 gallon bag of garbage. So I started throwing more garbage in it. Everyday I kept saying to myself, "How much trash can this thing possible hold, it's been a week?!"

Well, this morning after working the night shift, I was almost asleep when my wife sends my daughter downstairs to wake up telling me mommy needs me.

So honey tells me, we have maggots crawling out of the trash compactor!

The bag was about 90% full. I tried to lift it out but it would not budge. So I pulled the drawer out and took it outside. I taped the top of the bag shut with duct tape and tried to turn it upside down to see if it would fall out. Well it didn't.

I had to bend the tabs off the rear of the basket with a screwdriver to loosen the bag up a bit. Once I did that, the bag fell out and was really not that heavy, maybe less than 20 lbs. I think it was where we had filled it up with too much and was putting pressure on the side of the basket, not really a weigh issue. I was not anticipating that. I figured once the bag was full. it would lift right out. Boy was I wrong!

I don't know how many gallons one of those trash cans holds (the kind the trucks pick up with an arm and dumps) but I'm guessing 75 gallons maybe? So I got an entire can (if not more) of garbage into one single cube.

OK some questions.

I "sort of found" an owner's manual to a GE compactor on the internet but it didn't mention anything about when to change the bag before it made it impossible to lift out.

How much garbage can you put into one of these and be able to get the bag out? Maybe try half full and if it is a bit difficult, go ahead and lift it out before it get's worse?

Flies should not be able to get into the machine so I'm assuming perhaps the flies laid eggs in the first bag I threw in there which later hatched into maggots a week later. Please don't think I live in a dirty house. We keep our house clean but it's about near impossible to keep house flies out especially this time of year being cool at night.

Looks to me like the basket should have some way to open one of the sides in case to take pressure off the bag so you can't lift the bag out, rather than bending those tabs on the back of the basket to take pressure off the bag.

How can you prevent flies from laying eggs in the garbage? Spray it with Lysol every now and then?

If you pull the drawer out it will tilt to the left or right to allow you to remove the bag. Read the manual for your compactor. Lysol or something. I think they also sale a can you can connect somewhere inside for the same thing. Once again read your manual.

Do not forget to clean the plunger every once in awhile it get filthy.

Ours isn't a GE but it has a lever to release one side to allow tilt out. We keep a aresol can of Raid or equivalent to give it an occasional squirt that will inhibit most bugs dwelling there.

To burn paper and boxes, cut both ends from a 55 gallon drum and set it on 3 equidistant bricks. This allows a draft and the burn is quick. Avoid burning all plastics. All ash that goes out cools quickly and isn't really much of a fire threat. Burn early in the morning when the dew point temperature is usually higher.

traynhle86 said:

Although i doubt that this clown is bright enough to know it, pillow biter is an expression which refers to the man on the bottom in an act of anal intercourse.

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HUH? Can't find that statement mentioned in anyone's posts?

SeniorCitizen said:

Ours isn't a GE but it has a lever to release one side to allow tilt out. We keep a aresol can of Raid or equivalent to give it an occasional squirt that will inhibit most bugs dwelling there.

To burn paper and boxes, cut both ends from a 55 gallon drum and set it on 3 equidistant bricks. This allows a draft and the burn is quick. Avoid burning all plastics. All ash that goes out cools quickly and isn't really much of a fire threat. Burn early in the morning when the dew point temperature is usually higher.

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You are correct sir!

I did not even notice it. I discovered mine has a lever and sure enough when moved, the basket want's to tip out sideways.

I did not noticed that mentioned in the on-line manual.

Thanks.

Whoever it is has been posting weird stuff on a lot of forms I was just ignore.

turbofiat124 said:

You are correct sir!

I did not even notice it. I discovered mine has a lever and sure enough when moved, the basket want's to tip out sideways.

I did not noticed that mentioned in the on-line manual.

Thanks.

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You're welcome. Glad I could help.

BlazNT said:

Whoever it is has been posting weird stuff on a lot of forms I was just ignore.

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It looks as if site monitoring may be nearly non existent and I don't see anything to click on to report that kind of activity by very ill people.

Triangle in lower left hand corner of post.

BlazNT said:

Triangle in lower left hand corner of post.

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Thanks

Thought that might be a slow moving farm machinery sign for some foreign country.