Fascinating - take out that bag of charcoal

[Redheadpeter]

I've had my hotbin for longer than I care to remember and it's been a love hate relationship. It's had a mix of foof waste, grass clippings, shredded paper and bulking agent (wood chip to you and me) and other than the times it has had grass clippings it struggled to get to a good temperature. As a consequence the stuff that came out the bottom was not perfectly composted and was always wet.
But reading this forum today I see people saying that taking out the charcoal bag helped (I didn't even know it had one!). Well not only was my charcoal bag sopping wet the bag had splot. So I scaped it all out and left it to dry (though god only knows how I would ever get it back in.
Three hours later the temperature has jumped 15 degrees without any extra material being put in and when I lift the lid steam gushes out, which I guess means drier compost.
I see dire warnings about the death of warranty, but it seems to me it works awhole lot better without it!

[Redheadpeter]

And two days later it is steaming away, the external thermometer says 55 degrees (the internal one broke some time ago) - it's a complete transformation by doing something so simple. And no noticeable odours

[Plaisted562]

Charcoal??!!

[yorkshirepudding]

I was having a nightmare trying to get it up to temperature after a few years of good performance. Was on the verge of giving it away, had had to throw some out as was not composting.but taking out the charcoal bag saw the temperature rise noticeably in a short space of time. Even going away for 4 days, it was still up at 70 degrees on our return. It does smell pretty bad however without the filter. I'm drying it out but not convinced that it won't just get saturated again and kill the heat.

Plaisted562 Charcoal bag in underneath the top panel with the vent and thermometer in. you can lift it up by pulling up from the back. Remove the bag and then replace the top panel.

[Jamesmac]

I did the very same thing,removed the charcoal which was soaked,I have another tip which hotbin will not recommend and that is to get a compost ( corkscrew Turner ) used in standard compost bins,and with a bit of care you can get down to the bottom of bin pull up and aerate the compost,instead of emptying it all out the hatch and beginning again,one year on and mine is always really really hot,no wet stuff at the bottom,just use the gadget carefully and no damage done,hope this helps someone about to give it up,they truly work well after a bit practise,got a second one of a friend who gave up to soon.

[Garyb]

I did the very same thing,removed the charcoal which was soaked,I have another tip which hotbin will not recommend and that is to get a compost ( corkscrew Turner ) used in standard compost bins,and with a bit of care you can get down to the bottom of bin pull up and aerate the compost,instead of emptying it all out the hatch and beginning again,one year on and mine is always really really hot,no wet stuff at the bottom,just use the gadget carefully and no damage done,hope this helps someone about to give it up,they truly work well after a bit practise,got a second one of a friend who gave up to soon.

Thanks for the tip, James!