Front mesh plate gets blocked.

[Potts]

I do not have an aeration mesh in place
not sure how long I have not had it .Cerainly not had it for last 6 months or so
not suRe I recall ever seeing it - I had assumed it was Internal and therefore not visible
is it essential ?

[HotBin]

Hi there,
If you have any hot melt glue that is the preferred method, if not then you could use a panel pin or a very narrow nail in the four corners of the wire mesh.

[Kompostkate]

am wondering how you attached your replacement piece please as mine has fallen out.

[Kompostkate]

Hi there.... my mesh fell out! How's the best way to replace and fix it in please anybody? On a positive note .... I arrived here at the Forum when trying to find the answer!

[george57l]

Sorry, WiseOldBloak, it does not just look rusty - as I said it is 'rusted through'.
There is a hole in it. It crumbled when I did try to clean it out with a small brush.
I guess I can cut it out, but need to rifle through the workshop to see if I have an odd bit of mesh to replace it.

[WiseOldBloak]

Just cut it using extreme care.

The mesh plate may look rusty however I believe it is a galvanised. It can look a rusty colour as the brown leachate dries on the mesh. The mesh can be clean with a small amount of bleach and a small brush.

[george57l]

Just emptied my bin. Front mesh has rusted through and needs to be replaced. Seems to be fixed in place with some sort of flexible rubber mastic and it will not winkle out easily - the rubber stuff is rather unyielding! What's the recommended way to remove it? Just cut through the rubber?

EnlightenedElm - hoping you can advise.

[Christopher Whitmey]

George,
Update appreciated. I agree with your comments entirely. Any changes entirely at one's own risk!
Christopher

[george57l]

Christopher
I did speak to someone at Hotbin. Not Enlightended Elm (not in office the day I called) but a colleague.
I think we have to allow for the hypothetical case of someone removing the filter bag, perhaps experiencing rodent damage, and later claiming the thing does not work and demanding money back, or some other similar scenario. Given the possibility of this, it is entirely understandable that Hotbin reps on this forum would rightly remind people of the risks and point out the impact on any product guarantee. So I'll take Enlightened Elm's post regarding this, in just that light.
Meantime, what works for us, works, and neither of us envisage making any such demands on Hotbin, I trust! ;-)
Given the age of my Hotbin, it is possible I may have a bag with a lot of dust in it, which might tend to clog it, when damp. There was a small batch which may have had this problem. I will try a new bag in due course when I get the current load out and am ready to start another, and will report back with the results, but do not hold your breath - it may be months. But I will give it a go, even though I remain sceptical - my bin is currently at 60 degrees and the amount of vapour coming off would surely clog anything and result in it dripping back into the bin. But perhaps larger granules also heat up and evaporate from the lid - not doing this seemed to be the problem when the bag was in. We'll see.
Cheers,
George

[Christopher Whitmey]

Thanks, EnlightenedElm. Will try and call in next few days.
George

Please let us know the outcome. I've searched for 'filter AND dry AND out'. Got 32 results. Quite a few seem to solved problems by removing the filter.

[george57l]

Thanks, EnlightenedElm. Will try and call in next few days.
George

[EnlightenedElm]

Hi George571,

Thank you for your reply.

You would be more than welcome to contact us by telephone and discuss things directly. Our freephone number is 0808 168 8499 and is manned Monday - Friday 09.00 - 17.00.

We look forward to hearing from you.

[george57l]

EnlightenedElm
(third response to today's replies - but this is more of a standalone / separate issue)

I have no problem with things like flies or ants, etc. getting in. As Christopher also says above, any flies or ants that get in are welcome to it, as they will not survve long in the temperatures I am now achieving. I have tried hosing the mesh when emptying the bin, to very little effect. I was planning, next time, to take a closer look and remove, clean it properly with a brush, and then reinsert.

Not a huge issue for me at present as my current batch has so far produced *no* liquid in the bottom, and it's over half full at present. I regularly tip the bin forward slightly to check/drain - nothing at all so far, unlike older batches (the anaerobic ones noted in the other discussion, which produced liquid every time I tipped it forward, which probably caused the mesh to start to block up in the first place)

Obviously you are free to respond to my various comments in the 3 threads today, for the benefit of other users, if you need to. But I'll try and get in touch directly in the next few days, as several issues with common themes are now spread over multiple threads and it would be better and quicker to discuss directly, I suspect (and my fingers hurt! Does this forum have a private message facility? Perhaps you could message me with a phone number I can contact you directly on?)

Thanks,

George

[Christopher Whitmey]

Thanks, EnlightenedElm for your comment at 3.2 above. Yes, I've had ants & small flies at times. But never a problem. When it heats up they quit!

[EnlightenedElm]

Hi Christopher Whitmey, Thank you for your feedback.

From our experience when trialling differently sized mesh plates during the development of the HOTBIN unit and from a few customers who have chosen to retro-fit a different sized mesh themselves, there have been reports of small insects such as flies and ants getting into HOTBINs.