Jar Filling Machines

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Black Mountain Honey said:
Yes - I have the Lyson impeller style filling machine. Its a fantastic machine but does have its flaws.
1. The impeller very occasionly drips. Especially if not dispensing. Its a minor issue.
2. The mechanism to get the jars into the correct position is very finely tuned. Takes a bit of trial and error and it the beginning to get it working, but once calibrated it works well.
My view is that its not perfect but a good, solid time saving machine.
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Thanks for the feedback, Laurence.
Nantmoel: how does your Swienty compare?
 
ericbeaumont said:
Thanks for the feedback, Laurence.
Nantmoel: how does your Swienty compare?
Click to expand...

You can program the machine into a not drip mode, when it fills the jars it reverses the motor to prevent drips, it never dripped for me when it was not in use, The mechanism for the jars was easy to use, adjusted it for my 12oz round jars and it worked like clockwork. Fast and very efficient.
 
You can program the machine into a not drip mode, when it fills the jars it reverses the motor to prevent drips, it never dripped for me when it was not in use, The mechanism for the jars was easy to use, adjusted it for my 12oz round jars and it worked like clockwork. Fast and very efficient.

Nantmoel - How long does it take to set up for accurate dispensing of the first jar please?
 
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I personally don’t generate enough for a filling machine, but I helped a friend who had one and in the end they sold it as we were getting far more accurately filled jars, which were lidded and labelled with no increased contamination risk in the same time with a lot less hassle.
 
Would that be keeping a modern way ;)
 
Bit of a bump:

Thinking of investing some of this year's harvest into a filling machine as it must be the most monotonous task in beekeeping.

As mentioned above:
https://www.modernbeekeeping.co.uk/filling-machines/dana-api-matic-1000or with the turntable
https://www.modernbeekeeping.co.uk/filling-machines/dana-aptimatic-filling-machine
However, currently, Abelo has a sale on so they have a few interesting options.

First of all, is a manual machine which is the cheapest overall option. It has a big limitation in that its max capacity is 150ml which is just shy of filling the 227g jars that I use. I've yet to see any videos of it in action as the product is new.

https://www.abelo.co.uk/shop/honey-processing/manual-honey-dispenser/
Next step up is the Optima. According to the Lyson site it can do 350 jars 500g per hour depending on the viscosity and car do jars from 50g. HONEY BOTTLER (STANDARD) OPTIMA – PACKED IN CARTON BOX - Łyson sklep - artykuły, sprzęt pszczelarski, akcesoria pszczelarskie

https://www.abelo.co.uk/shop/bottling-and-pumps-machines/bottling-machine-optima-line/
They also have a machine with a turntable but its more expensive than the Swienty option and also has a severe limitation as it can only do jars from 250g.



I'm leaning towards the Optima machine however the convenience of the dana turntable machine would be nice; either way I'd need to figure out how I'd "feed" it but any insight is appreciated.
 
I ended up going for a Dani API Matic 1000 dispensing head & a 100cm turntable. The dispensing head is superb, no issues with at all. I’m pleased to have gone for the larger table as being a one man operation the extra space gives me time to sort as I’m going along. Empty jars go on to the turntable, unit fills, I remove and stick the lid on and then stack on a trolley. Between loadling jars, fitting lids, grabbing more lids, moving full jars it’s a busy operation.
Set up is easy, same programme used in the main, I alter the anti drip setting between set & liquid but that’s it. Connecting tank, priming unit, hitting the go button 1/2hr, stripping down & cleaning 1/2hr. Jarring 300lb of honey into 12oz jars by hand - I dread to think……….through this set up, circa 350 jars in under an hour. There is residual honey left in the tank at the end which I run into a rectank and then use to fill 1lb jars and other oddities. It is possible to stop the unit & alter jars sizes mid way through but it is a bit of a pain so far simpler just to do a one size run.
Anyone considering going down this route plan ahead, try to get to BeeTradeX or visit Abelo and see these things in the flesh - if going large may be worth joining BeeFarmers & benefit from their discounted terms with the likes of Swienty/Carl Fritz.
 
this is wortha look at a fraction of the price of a lot of other machines £595 from thornes 1633267502893.png
 
We have the Swienty unit your looking at and it's a joy to work with, we do over 1400 jars per day with it.

If you are ever in Cheshire call in to Modern Beekeeping for a look at the Swienty machine in action.
 
I will add that their is little setup to the machine to calibrated but it' very simple with weighing a few jars to make sure it's in tolerance.

We fill jars from 1.5oz to 1kg and even small without the turntable. very accurate and fills each jar perfectly every time.

The jar stop is acetate and easily adjustable for size.

There are allot of options for speed and anti drip if you need them however I have found that this isn't the case.

The filling head comes off easily with two thumb screws, many parts are available should you ever need them however I have done allot of jars and never needed to change anything.
 
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hallshoney said:
this is wortha look at a fraction of the price of a lot of other machines £595 from thornes View attachment 28601
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I bought one of these earlier this year. I think it's pretty good. Obviously it doesn't have an automatic jar feeder. It fills a jar in < the time it takes me to screw the top on the previously filled jar - so the process is:

Remove filled jar;
Place new jar on scale;
Press Tare and Fill;
Screw lid on filled jar; and
repeat.

It fills the jars either bang on target weight or 1g or 2g over.

We get quite a lot of apples from our orchard and I intend trying to fill bottles with juice using this machine. There is a gasket supplied with a much smaller hole than the standard one which will restrict the flow, so I'm hoping that will slow it down enough to get accurate filling with the much thinner liquid.
 
Repwoc said:
I bought one of these earlier this year. I think it's pretty good. Obviously it doesn't have an automatic jar feeder. It fills a jar in < the time it takes me to screw the top on the previously filled jar - so the process is:

Remove filled jar;
Place new jar on scale;
Press Tare and Fill;
Screw lid on filled jar; and
repeat.

It fills the jars either bang on target weight or 1g or 2g over.

We get quite a lot of apples from our orchard and I intend trying to fill bottles with juice using this machine. There is a gasket supplied with a much smaller hole than the standard one which will restrict the flow, so I'm hoping that will slow it down enough to get accurate filling with the much thinner liquid.
Click to expand...

That's quite interesting; I had written the Thornes option off as I had seen no reviews or feedback however the price is very appealing.

How many jars can you do in an hour? How long does it take to set up and clean up afterward?
 
Angry_Mob said:
That's quite interesting; I had written the Thornes option off as I had seen no reviews or feedback however the price is very appealing.

How many jars can you do in an hour? How long does it take to set up and clean up afterward?
Click to expand...
Once the initial assembly out-of-the-box is done (which in hindsight isn't difficult but the instructions aren't entirely clear), setting up is pretty simple. It fits neatly on a standard kitchen worktop - the tank and stand behind with the scale in front. Assemble and attach the pneumatic valve and tighten 2 x thumbscrews. Connect air line from compressor. Plug three cables into the scale (power, foot switch and pneumatic valve), and that's it. 10-15 minutes at most. Tip honey into the tank and calibrate - takes a few seconds, then you're away.

Cleanup is also straightforward. The pneumatic valve is removed from the tank (one thumbscrew) and disassembles into two easily cleaned parts (another thumbscrew). The tank is washed out with water like any other honey tank. 10 minutes?

I haven't timed how many jars an hour. The actual fill time is 5-10 seconds (it gets slower as the tank empties because it's gravity fed). So the bottleneck is screwing the caps on - I probably do 3 jars / minute but with practice might achieve 4 / minute. So 180+ jars/hour - if you put enough honey in the tank to keep going.

The tank will hold at least two buckets of honey, maybe three. I've only put in one at a time so far.
 
Repwoc said:
It fills the jars either bang on target weight or 1g or 2g over.
Click to expand...
Now that is very interesting! After filling 300 jars in the last couple of evenings I am a bit p****d off standing with a honey tap in my hand so was trying to justify the cost of a machine.
I reckoned I overfill my jars on average 5-10g so if I save 5g per jar @ 1.5p/g that's 7.5p/jar x approx 2000 jars/year = £150.
I'd recover my cost purely on honey saving within 4 years. Then there is the saving in time, boredom and stiff back......... tempting!
 
I must be strange; filling the jars is the part of processing honey that I enjoy most. I hate removing the supers. I hate even more the uncapping and spinning of the frames. It's only once the honey is in the settling tank, that I start to enjoy the process and filling jars is the best part followed by sticking labels on, boxing up and of course, selling.
 
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