While running the compressor to aerate the biomeiler pile, I noticed that the back pressure was unusually high; about 30 psi. Typically, the gauge reads about 5 psi. Yesterday, the reading was about 12 psi, but that wasn’t unusual enough to catch my attention. I looked for kinks in the hose, but found none. My next thought was that moisture may have frozen in the hose and formed a significant restriction.
I brought the air hose into the house and let it warm up between chore times. When it was time for evening chores, I removed the female quick-release coupling from the end of the hose and took it all back to the coop. Running air through the open hose resulted in a decent splatter of water droplets on the wall. I let air run through it until I couldn’t feel any more droplets coming out, then replaced the quick-release coupling and proceeded with the evening aeration of the pile.
The most-recent temperature readings from the pile were noticeably lower than those from the days before. I interpret this as the result of a decreased air volume entering the pile.
In the future, I hope to aerate the pile in a better way. I like the idea of using a positive displacement air pump, but the compression and decompression makes the air compressor prone to moisture accumulation. Ideally, I could find some sort of pump that uses gentle compression on a large air volume. Perhaps I can build a large, slow piston pump of some sort. I’ll have to add that to my to-do list.
It is good that your brain can supply options! Mine would have given up long ago.