A Gardening Controversy Part 3 - The Unboxing

My Reencle arrived 3 days early. So that was a nice surprise. So what better than to share the unboxing with you all! 

After opening the box, there was a Cheat Chart for working the Reencle and the User Manual sitting on top of a large black object, which turned out to be a spare carbon filter. Taking these out, I removed the foam cover (which actually removed easily and didn't rip throwing foam pieces everywhere yay!). The Reencle machine was there, so I moved that out of the box and there was nothing else underneath. Opening up the Reencle's lid, I found the scoop and the microbe package inside the machine, so I removed those from the machine.

The machine is about the size of a small trash can. It is about the height of my knee and I am 5' 4" tall. The actual measurements are 12" x 13" x 18". There are two lids, one is a large full-size lid, and the other is a smaller automatic lid. There is a proximity sensor on the front of the machine for hands-free opening of the smaller lid. The little scoop they provide can hang on the left, right, or back of the machine. There are also recessions on the left and right of the machine for picking it up to move it.

Inside the machine is where the stirring arms are. There is also a filter at the top which can be removed in order to clean it. The back of the machine has a large, black encasement for the carbon filter, which was already applied to the machine and I received an extra in the box as well.

The microbes they supply are self-sustaining and are currently in stasis, so they need to be activated which is done by adding some water to the microbe mix. From reading the User manual, there should be no need to ever order more if used correctly. There are even instructions on how to store the microbes in case you would ever be unable to use the machine/feed the microbes for a month and instructions on what to do for short times away from the machine. 

The microbe mix has microbes, rice, and activated carbon. The idea here is that the rice supplies food for the microbes and the carbon just absorbs odor. The instructions indicate to add 1.5-1.8 L of water to the mix to activate the microbes. I used Distilled Water because this IS a culture that we are trying to grow. Tap water does contain things like fluoride that can inhibit these cultures from growing and thriving, which is not what I want to do. Then just shut the lid and hit the power button.

After shutting the lid and turning on the power, I reopened the lid to get a photo here of How you can see the stirring arms have moved the mass of microbe mix around. The machine will NOT turn the arms if the lid is open. I can also say, that before I open the lid, I couldn't tell if it was running. I couldn't hear it. Touching the sides of the machine I could feel a slight vibration, but that was it. 

My impression at this time:

The whole setup was straightforward. Plug in, add microbes, add water, shut the lid, and turn on the power button. The additional buttons on the top: dry is to help dry out the compost if it gets too wet and the purify is just to pump more fresh air into the machine to deodorize. The open button just opens the small lid automatically.  There is a censor on the front will open the lid if you wave your foot in front of it, but there is a way to lock this out, which I will have to use because I have a dog who will just run in front of that and pop the lid. So just holding the open button for a few seconds will turn off the censor. Hitting and holding the open button a second time will lock all automatic opening functions (censor and the open button). Hitting and holding it a third time unlocks all automatic opening functions. The initial mix takes 24 hours to wake up the microbes. After that, you feed it some bread or rice and see how it handles the decomposition and then slowly build up from there for at least 4 weeks. This IS a culture we are building, but I feel the time will be worth the fact that I have a self-perpetuating microbe that I don't have to buy refills for. I will be sure to share in the next update how things are going after a while of use!

Until then!

For those interested, here is the Reencle page: https://reencleus.com/collections/reencle/products/reencle-food-waste-composter?sca_ref=3223740.gI4UstVn7r

Part 4: https://www.minds.com/theminiatureprepper/blog/a-gardening-controversy-part-4-the-learning-curve-1423491155777032199