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Hachi

Queen Bee
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Damn! A lot more than I ever thought I'd have
I have four of the T's strainers that do get blocked easily when extracting my honey. That said, they are useful and I wanted to pick up a few more in the sales this winter and was disappointed I couldn't see them in the sale.

What do others use?

I'm at the stage now where I'm filtering reasonable amounts of honey and was wondering what you good people use. Does your filter "Block" easily?

What alternatives are there as whilst the T's dbl S/S strainer is good my first bought are starting to rust. :nono: and I'll be looking for replacements shortly.
 
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What do others use?

I'm at the stage now where I'm filtering reasonable amounts of honey and was wondering what you good people use.

Electric honey pump and pump the honey through filters.
 
Your stainless steel is starting to rust?
I got a set via eBay from China. There are different meshes which stack so that one can just pour the mush into the top and filtering takes out large, smaller then even smaller particles. Works well and never clogs (touches wooden head). Has sliding support bars so fits most containers.
 
What's wrong with the plastic double strainers? Cheap enough and do a better job than the stainless IMO.

I find they block quickly. Maybe we shouldn't be obsessed with fine-filtering honey. I have a notice in my sales box 'Coarse filtered only. Likely to contain specs of pollen, wax and propolis'
 
:judge:
I find they block quickly. Maybe we shouldn't be obsessed with fine-filtering honey. I have a notice in my sales box 'Coarse filtered only. Likely to contain specs of pollen, wax and propolis'

My punters like the 'unfiltered' stuff. So I've always used a kitchen sieve to strain it.
If you have the right sort of cappings to use a hot air gun then there wont be any significant wax in the honey so no blockages.
 
There are so many types of stainless available and the only true food grade stainless is the one they make knives from. The food safety are not particularly fussy what stainless is used only that what ever application of food processing it's used for it shouldn't corrode or rust. I would be sending mine back it it rusted




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There are so many types of stainless available and the only true food grade stainless is the one they make knives from. The food safety are not particularly fussy what stainless is used only that what ever application of food processing it's used for it shouldn't corrode or rust. I would be sending mine back it it rusted




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You will not much more high grade or more pure stainless than what the tig welders use for building parts of offshore platforms, me and many other lads ruined a good amount of stainless piping one year by borrowing the welders grinder to cut some carbon steel which in turn contaminated the stainless when the welder was prepping his joints, the good old days.. lol
 
The other thing that can influence flow through a sieve is the temperature of the honey. Has it been sitting around since it was extracted and cooled so that it's too viscous to flow quickly through the sieves?

CVB
 
Or scraping off the debris on top of the uppermost stainless steel filter between extractor spins....I find that helps a lot.
Methods of uncapping have a major effect on amount of debris arriving at coarse filters. The Lyson "top hat" filters are good as the debris settles to bottom whilst the sides still filter.
 
I don't use the metal sieves.

I scrape the cappings on the honey with an un-capping fork. This makes small flakes of wax that go into the honey in my extractor. The honey from the extractor is drained through a DIY sieve which uses the mesh that tangerines are packed in. The mix of honey, air bubbles and residual wax debris is stored in lidded pails.

When I pack my honey, the pails are warmed in a warming cabinet for 48 hours. The wax floats on the surface and quite a bit can be skimmed off. The warmed honey is filtered into the bottling tank through a DIY sieve which use some fine nylon cloth. The bottling tank goes back in the warming cabinet for 24 hours for the air bubbles to surface.

This is all multi-step but seems to give a good end product.
 
I scrape the cappings on the honey with an un-capping fork. This makes small flakes of wax that go into the honey in my extractor.

Have you tried sliding the uncapping fork under the cappings and lifting them off. You'll save having to skim the wax off the surface later on.
 
... The Lyson "top hat" filters are good as the debris settles to bottom whilst the sides still filter.

What do mean with a 'top hat' filter, BF? I've looked at the Lyson filters, and there is one where the sieves are positioned vertically in a barrel, with two outlets - a lower one and a higher one. Is that a top hat filter?
 
It looks like a nylon top hat when it's placed on a stand. Basically think of a top hat that is all filter, except the rim. As the bottom clogs the sides will still filter honey.
Not sure whether they are made by Lyson or not, saw some at Abelo's the other week when I was picking up some National feeders. Meant to get a couple but forgot.
 
Oh, thanks. They're called 'cylindrical' strainers. They also have 'conical' ones (like a wizard's hat). I suppose they both work as you've described.
 
Oh, thanks. They're called 'cylindrical' strainers. They also have 'conical' ones (like a wizard's hat). I suppose they both work as you've described.
Only knew them as "top hat"....no wonder I can never find them in catalogs....cylindrical it is..Thanks.
 

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