Hitting 5k is wild man. I bet you've seen every weird failure mode possible at this point, but there's always some new chip or component that throws you a curveball. Makes you appreciate how deep this stuff really goes.

Had a guy in Fresno back in 2018 who swore by using a guitar string to clean the tiny ports on old Bosch injectors. He spent a whole afternoon showing me how to match the string gauge to the hole size instead of just soaking them in cleaner. Said his dad taught him that trick in 1973 on a Datsun 510 and it never failed him. Made me realize half the battle is knowing how the fuel sprays out, not just plugging in a new part.

The 2:1 brown to green ratio is a myth if you ask me lol. I run a three-bin system in my backyard and found that you need at least 3 parts browns to 1 part greens to actually generate consistent heat, especially if you're tossing in citrus peels like we do. @finley_smith is right that citrus can mess with the bacteria, but it's more about the moisture content than killing them outright - I bet your pile went anaerobic from the extra water in those peels. Dumping in a bale of straw or shredded cardboard every other week fixed that problem for me, and the pile hit 140 degrees within 4 days. Six months of scraps isn't wasted if you just mix in some dry leaves and let it cook again, the decomp process just slows down not stops.