Heated Uncapping Tray Questions

[Midland Beek]

1/ Doesn't the melted wax taint the taste of the honey?

2/ Will these things handle comb containing granulated honey? Like granulated OSR honey with the big sugar crystals and cement-line consistency.

Thanks for any help.

 

[enrico]

I have never used one but I melt my cappings with a heat gun and have never noticed a taint!
E

 

[oliver90owner]

1) I would have thought it was not not designed for 'overheating' honey (in excess of the melting point of wax, but just enough to make it flow away from the cappings which would be retained at the screen, so a honey separator rather than wax melter? That is how I would use it, not as a wax melter as Th*orne suggest.

2) It is an uncapping try, so only catches cappings - not a great deal of point if the frames cannot be extracted. Better to do it in a warm mash and strain system, I would have thought.

Not sure what you are wanting to do with it. Th*rnes have a thermostatic variant costing 400 quid It says quote: Temperature range of 0 - 120ºC

How the h*ll they are going to get the water temperature that high I don't know!!

 

[Finman]

1/ Doesn't the melted wax taint the taste of the honey?

2/ Will these things handle comb containing granulated honey? Like granulated OSR honey with the big sugar crystals and cement-line consistency.

Thanks for any help.

melted wax changes the aroma of honey. Same happens when you use too efficient smoke stuff like tree needles and cones.

When you have crystallized honey in combs, don't brake them. take cappings off, then spray water.
Put them into hive.
Next day take the combs and spray water again inside the cells or soak combs into warm water.
After that sugar granules are so diluted that bees can handle the rest.

.

 

[ian]

Hi

Are you asking because you are thinking of buying one. I picked up a second hand Thornes model in a load of gear and it was no way up to the job. To hot directly under the element and to cold at the edges. Some pro model capping/comb melters cost £1000s, you get what you pay for.

Ian

 

[mbc]

Hi

Are you asking because you are thinking of buying one. I picked up a second hand Thornes model in a load of gear and it was no way up to the job. To hot directly under the element and to cold at the edges. Some pro model capping/comb melters cost £1000s, you get what you pay for.

Ian

Dana's api melter is the classic example.

 

[Midland Beek]

I am going to have to do something with my 250lb of mostly set honey (still in comb) at some point ...

 

[victor meldrew]

Hi

Are you asking because you are thinking of buying one. I picked up a second hand Thornes model in a load of gear and it was no way up to the job. To hot directly under the element and to cold at the edges. Some pro model capping/comb melters cost £1000s, you get what you pay for.

Ian

A little ingenuity , and you can introduce a simmerstat into the mains lead . This will allow adjustment of water bath temperature.
The heat distribution will be looked after by convection currents !
First thing I did with mine!
VM


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[itma]

I am going to have to do something with my 250lb of mostly set honey (still in comb) at some point ...

Interesting problem.

But a heated "uncapping tray" is unlikely to be part of the solution.

Do you have any potential outlet for that volume as "cooking honey"? (which is what you'd have after properly melting the comb+honey to enable separating them)

 

[VEG]

I used a heated uncapping tray once. It melted the wax and honey.They both then run out into a container. The honey definitely had a caramel taste after. I have not used one since.

 

[oliver90owner]

(which is what you'd have after properly melting the comb+honey to enable separating them)

Which is why I sugested warming, mashing and straining. OK, for comb with no cocoons but not for frames that have been brooded in.

 

[itma]

Sorry, by "properly melting" I only meant "completely melting", not "complete melting is the proper way to proceed".

 

[Hombre]

The idea surely isn't to melt the wax to release the honey, but to warm the honey so that it leaves the wax, which hopefully will melt after the honey has drained.

The tray will be hot enough to melt the wax, but the honey should rapidly leave the wax and be in the wax separator before it has reached any significant temperature.

There is a design for an uncapping tray shown in "Honey By The Tonne", Oliver Field, but it would be difficult or expensive to approximate the surface.

The Apimelter has a fan blown grill type elements above the wax and a gentle heater below to facilitate the release of the honey. The wax provides a thermal barrier over the honey which should largely have been recovered by the time the wax is ready to flow.

This would be facilitated by an open, loose mix of honey and cappings and not overloading the melter so that it is able to drain away into a cooler environment relatively quickly. So steep angles and lots of opportunity to drain are probably the order of the day.

As Itma says, melted properly, not necessarily completely or in the same instantaneous time frame.

 

[Madge]

... Which is why I sugested warming, mashing and straining. ...

How would you warm whole frames of granulated honey (like OSR) prior to mashing and straining, O9O?
Kitta

PS: Thinking about it now - do you put cut-up chunks of comb in the heater box and then mash and strain?

 

[Hombre]

Stick the boxes of frames into a warming cabinet, but don't make it too warm or your frames will collapse.

Some use cabinets that can take a stack of boxes and use 1 2kW fan heater and a temperature controller for the job.

2kW too big? Nah, just lots of capacity to raise the temperature to the controlled point fairly quickly. A bit like as Subaru waiting to go at traffic lights, rather than a Renault 2CV!

As O90 suggests, a capping tray is not an Apimelter - the price isn't the same either?

I believe that some people buy a cappings tray but also want it to be a general wax melter. I think that there is a niche in the market at the price of a heated cappings tray that will also handle a bit more general wax melting, and to a degree it probably can be, but it is all down to how much wax you are trying to melt and the amount of patience you have. At the moment, convenience costs!

 

[victor meldrew]

Long wait for the Renault 2cv it was made by citron
VM


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[crazy_bull]

Api melter is your friend on this one, within a day you'd have 250lb of runny filtered honey in buckets and probably 8 kg of wax.

No damage to the honey or wax, heated uncapping trays are not very useful for anything other than handling small amounts of cappings as you un-cap, when I had one unless I had it mega hot (scorch the honey hot) it didn't remotely keep up with the volume of wax and honey produced.

CB

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Long wait for the Renault 2cv it was made by citron
VM

And a bit of a lemon it was too.

Dusty

 

[Midland Beek]

Api melter is your friend on this one, within a day you'd have 250lb of runny filtered honey in buckets and probably 8 kg of wax.

Is there an 'Api-Melter Dating Service'? If anyone with an Api-Melter in The Midlands wants my small mountain of mostly set honey in comb - in return for a modest payment - do let me know because it would save me a lot of faffing around, and I've just fitted new floor covering in my kitchen!

 

[itma]

Is there an 'Api-Melter Dating Service'? ...

Absolutely nowhere near you, but there is a member of Dover BKA that offers a run (up to 24 frames) of her "Danish Wax Melter" (!) for about a tenner. Bring your own honey containers and something for the wax. Runs overnight.
Maybe some similar arrangement near you?