Hello

[Pushka17]

Week old newbie here, read all the reviews and made my purchase. Upon receipt, started reading this forum and became a bit worried I'd not be able to get my bin up to temp. Well, I'm a week in and it's all going well, my external temp is in the 'green'. I've been using shredded cardboard, no paper so far as I'm working on a supply of that. The garden shredder does the cardboard just fine, rolled up into 'logs', lots of veg peelings and coffee grounds, vegan house so we have plenty, and a handful of the wood chip will each fill. Whenever I use my food processor I grab a handful of peelings and give them a quick blitz as from my readings so far smaller is better. I've also drained the leachate, as it's got hotter more is being produced. I'm going to drain it every time I feed.

[Pushka17]

Temp is still keeping up high. I seem to be draining alot more leachate than I think I should be, approx 100-200mls a day, is this normal?
How often to feed? I'm currently feeding 3 times a week but could do 4 as lots of veg peelings and soon the grass cuttings, is this too often?

[strawberry]

Hello Pushka, well done for getting the bin up to temperature so quickly, sounds like you are doing the right things - yes smaller bits seem to work best. The only think Ive found that take ages to decompose are avocado stones and the stalk end of Butternut Squash. Re leachate amounts it seems to vary a lot and although Hotbin website describes a small cup per week Ive drained 500ml after 2 days and then other times when bin is fairly full it goes down to nothing. As long as leachate is brown and does not smell bad then it should be fine. If Ive got a lot of food for the bin I will feed it every other day - as long as the stuff is still hot and composting (i.e. the green stuff is turning grey and temperature is in the green zone ) then this seems fine.

Good luck

[Pushka17]

Thanks. I seem to have more leachate after rain, following a different thread as this seems to be quite common. A recent video I watched did an experiment with an empty bin, 150mls of rain inside after 1 night of rain, that would certainly add up over a week.

[Mollysmum]

Thanks for this useful info. Can I ask how soon one should look for leachate - my mini only started yesterday!

[strawberry]

Hi mollysmum, I got first lot of leachate after my bin had been running for about week