A New Burn!
It didn’t take long to assemble a second pile of yard debris to process through the incinerator, days in fact! I’d been dodging rain for a few days and wet leaves are really hard to blow around the property, so following a day of sunshine that dried the leaves out I was able to take advantage of a clear morning and get a pile ready…
It was around 11 am when I started thinking about the weather and was let down a bit when I read that there was rain due around 2 pm. I really didn’t want to get caught with a burning cage when the rain started, so I was just about to relent my pyromaniac desires for another day, specifically because I was concerned about the cool-down process and leaving my new toy out in the rain.
As I often do, I went out to the driveway for a morning stroll around the property to survey the land and realized the weather was just too nice to spend the morning inside. To heck with the rain, let’s do this…!
I grabbed my trusty Worx blower/mulcher combo and started building my next burn pile…
Caution thrown to the wind, a fresh pile of yard debris assembled for another burn, it was time to roll out the cage. Since my inaugural burn, I’ve stored the cage flat on a dolly as can be seen in the picture below:
Setting up the cage was a breeze and within a few minutes, it was stuffed to the top with about half of the total pile, give or take. I lit several leaves around the top and added the lid for safety and structural integrity of the unit (I’m hearing more and more stories of warping, so I’m going to be vigilant about using the base and lid in hopes of avoiding similar disaster).
Burning went exactly as efficiently as the last time, and I reloaded several times (as can be seen in the accompanying videos) to get through all of the leaves. I took videos of the process this time and captured the core of about an hour and a half of burning. (I’ve sped them up for you!)
Video
The Rain, The Aftermath
As the burn went on for about 2 hours, the rain clouds were heading in earlier than reported. No sense in freaking out, we were in full burn and this was a great chance to see what the incinerator could do in inclement weather.
When the drizzle started turning into more, I moved the camera under cover of the garage so I could finish documenting the burn. I’m not kidding when I say the cage burned and smoldered for at least 2 more hours, in the rain before I got tired of looking at it. I was concerned I’d have a half pile of wet, unburned leaves due to the rain but as you can see, that was not to happen. Likely due to the coverage the lid provides as well as the way it ventilates the burning slowed down but did not stop. As the kids say, awesome sauce!
As I mentioned, I got tired of waiting around to see how long the burn would go on. Feeling comfortable that a flare-up simply couldn’t happen, I went inside to do other things and looked out the window from time to time just to be sure. It smoldered on and on…(and on….).
The sun was shining the next morning so it was time to go out and assess things. I was very happy to see all the leaves gone and in a nice tidy little pile of ash at the bottom. The metal didn’t seem to suffer from the rain but I let the panels soak up the sun for a bit while I cleaned up for good measure.
I took the opportunity to try out my new Worx 20v Hydroshot to spray down the panels to wash away any debris. I also ordered the recommended Linseed oil to rub on the panels in order to prevent the rusting process, which will be the subject of another post!
Once the panels were dried out and the driveway cleared of all evidence of a burn I loaded everything up and wheeled it back into the garage until the next burn, which I’m sure you’ll hear about soon 😉
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