It doesn't need to get hot to make compost, and the volume of a tumbler is probably too small to retain much heat anyway. The rule of thumb is at least a cubic yard for a hot pile, and that's with the bottom insulated by the ground.

If your batch is deficient in N though, it will take a long time to get compost. If it seems like the straw is not breaking down, you can add more greens. Are you putting your kitchen scraps in every couple of days?

One problem with a tumbler is that compost takes awhile to 'finish', i.e. the long cool curing stage after initial breakdown. Where do you put new stuff in the meantime? As soon as you have one pile (or tumbler) you need a second one. A cheaper option is to empty it into a wire cage or bin and let it cure awhile while you start a new batch.

I've not had a lot of luck with using wheat straw in any of my tumblers. It might get hot for a very short period (couple of days) in the large tumblers and then pfft, nothing. I remember reading something about too much lignin or something like that in straw. In any event it doesn't work well for me in tumblers for thermophilic composting.

And as Tox stated tumblers generally do not have enough volume to create a lot of heat.

Lloyd

This post was edited by pt03 on Sat, Jun 14, 14 at 12:48

How wet was the mix?
Tumblers are too small in volume to generate much heat even if the mix is close to optimal, and more often then not I have found the mix in tumbler composters was too wet.

It worked well last summer, I made several batches that I am now utilizing in the garden. I will add some more greens and see what happens.