What to do when traveling away from home?

[andyiii]

Ahoy fellow tumblers!

I find myself about to be away from home for 6 days.  I have 3 tumbler barrels running, which will not be complete in their current stage before I leave.  I don't want to leave the tumblers running while I'm not home, just in case of an electrical malfunction and possible fire hazard.

So, can I simply stop the tumblers and leave them sit (I'd put them upright I think), then resume them where they left off when I get back?  Or will the slurry harden up in there or something else bad happen?

If needs be, I could open them up and rinse them, then leave the rocks just sit in water for the 6 days.

Thanks,
Andy III

[Pat]

Welcome from California.
I’m not a tumbler, but there are many tumbling experts here.

Good question!

[rockanoff]

I think if you turned them off the slurry would gunk up on the bottom. Not sure if this would be reversable, never tried.

[Bob]

I travel a lot, from weekends to trips of over 20 days. I turn them off. Have never had the barrels not rotate upon restarting. No problems whatsoever.

[tims]

If you turn them off and leave them full i'd be tempted to leave them sitting on their side and not set them upright. As Rockanoff mentioned having all your grit / slurry settle to one end can cause issues, but i'd think if the slurry settled evenly across the length of the barrel it would mix easier when you started it rolling again. If the lids don't leak i wouldn't think they would dry out at all. Never tried it though just guessing!

I use an inline GFCI cord with a manual reset on my 12#, that way if i lose power it will just stay powered off til i get home. I always use the cord but have only experienced a couple short power interruptions when i was at home, and the cord did trip properly and stayed off until i manually reset it. The barrel didn't sit idle long enough to give any clues about the effects of slurry settling though. My 3# will start rolling no problem when powered up with the barrel on it so i just use a surge protector and don't worry about it. I'm not saying any of these methods are safe or effective it's just what i've done.

[pebblesky]

Seems other people covered your questions perfectly. I always dream of having a solar-panel powered tumbler, that rotates really slowly, just barely enough to prevent the slurry from condense.

[Mark K]

I have had them sit for months due to issues. Never had a problem. All it takes is one loose rock to get the ball rolling.

[sift]

Jun 10, 2024 21:00:06 GMT -5 andyiii said:

Ahoy fellow tumblers!

I find myself about to be away from home for 6 days.  I have 3 tumbler barrels running, which will not be complete in their current stage before I leave.  I don't want to leave the tumblers running while I'm not home, just in case of an electrical malfunction and possible fire hazard.

So, can I simply stop the tumblers and leave them sit (I'd put them upright I think), then resume them where they left off when I get back?  Or will the slurry harden up in there or something else bad happen?

If needs be, I could open them up and rinse them, then leave the rocks just sit in water for the 6 days.

Thanks,
Andy III

Hello, I'm new here. Your post is the first I've contributed to 

You could consider an Amazon Alexa / Google Nest device, or similar, paired with a wifi plug. Connecting your tumbler via the wifi plug would enable control of the tumbler remotely, as long as you have access to the internet. I appreciate this doesn't mitigate the fire risk while the tumbler is running but you could deactivate the tumbler after the cycle time has elapsed. Hope that makes sense.

Kind regards,
Sift.