I've used it for several months (essentially 1 season) in a tightly-packed suburb and it worked very well. The only learning curve was selecting the proper cover material, what I found worked well was free mulch from the city, that I then sifted using a 1/2" hardware cloth so the smallest bits were taken inside to cover deposits, and the larger bits stayed outside and used in the
compost pile as each bucket was emptied.
I made a wooden box to attach a toilet seat to and contain the bucket as shown in Joe's book using a single piece of plywood. Staining the wood stank far worse than it ever smelled while in use! Only the first time I used it did I notice a smell, as I learned the proper cover material to use and how much to use each time. After that I only smelled the mulch indoors. Outside I can smell it a little as I'm pouring a bucket on the pile, but after covering it properly there's no smell there either.
The compost pile is just that, nothing fancy- 4 t-posts in the corners, simple fencing wrapped around it (like a 4' roll of 2"x3" material from a big box store) and I tie 1 corner so that I could open it the following year to shovel material out to use in the yard. The pile started with a bunch of weeds I pulled so maybe 2 feet thick, and some extra I kept to add around the edges so the bucket was poured in the middle and weeds were my version of straw when comparing to Joe's videos. When I bought the 3rd edition I also got the thermometer and it would read in the 120-130F range the day after a deposit, and drop down to maybe 110F after 5-6 days when the next bucket was added. So it was definitely hot enough with just 1 person using it, and would have been hotter I expect with more people.
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