K****tar Wax Melter

[busybee53]

I have just got one of these and have been having a bit of an experiment with some old wax just so that I could get the hang of how it works.

Surprisingly the instructions which seem to have been translated from German say it can be used to heat sausages, prepare drinks, cook soups and preserve fruit/vegetables etc.

As this is a relatively expensive piece of kit I would like to make full use of it. Any advice/tips from anyone who already uses one please?

 

[VEG]

Yep use it for either wax or food not both.

 

[itma]

There are (at least) two different products.

One (the Melter 2) has two taps.
Having put wax directly into the thing (to be tapped out at the upper tap), clearly you wouldn't be thinking of using it for food.

The other one I know of is basically a tea-urn, though possibly with a better thermostat).
If you are using it as a heated waterbath, with the wax in a bowl/bucket (Kochstar offer a suitable, and expensive, stainless item) - then you might think of using it, as you might a tea urn, for other tasks like pasteurising bottles of apple juice or bulk quantities of mulled wine ... There are easier ways of heating normal quantities of frankfurters!
From time to time Lidl sell a "Jam maker" that is suspiciously similar to the basic Kochstar (though a fraction of its price). It doesn't actually make jam, but is intended for preserving bottled fruit. People use them for allsorts, from sous vide cooking to beer brewing ... like they might use a tea urn ...


/// Sausages other than frankfurters - some continental sausages (Boudin Blanc, Mortadella?) are boiled, and are bigger than most normal pans. I suppose you could make Haggis in such a thing - you've got until Burns Night, the 25th Jan!

 

[oliver90owner]

Yep use it for either wax or food not both.

Send it back for a refund, buy two lidl jam makers (one for wax and one for food) and have enough change to buy a couple of hives.

 

[Norfolk]

I do own one with only the one tap and must confess it is basically a very very expensive tea urn.

 

[DulwichGnome]

I have a Melter 2 and it worked well right up to the point where a bit of dirt blocked the upper tap. I now use it as the last stage of filtering, loading it up with about 6-10Kg of 'clean' wax, wrapping it in a blanket and leaving it for a couple of hours to melt and settle. I then tap off 200g into tubs and use them to make candles. After that I leave the blanket around it and let it cool over night, the left over block is about 1-1.5Kg and is black at the bottom.

Mike.

 

[Hachi]

Yep use it for either wax or food not both.

Send it back for a refund, buy two lidl jam makers (one for wax and one for food) and have enough change to buy a couple of hives.

Easier said than done chap, I've been looking for one for over a year now. They never come to a lidl near me.

 

[Arfermo]

My Burco boiler does mine. Rigged up a 6" deep aluminium platform in the bottom for the water. On top of that I put a container to catch the wax which drips from up above through the muslin filter held in place with 2 ft square marine ply with a hole in which is the dia of the opening in the top of the Burco. Secure the muslin with a super, lid and weights and hey presto.

 

[VEG]

My Burco boiler does mine. Rigged up a 6" deep aluminium platform in the bottom for the water. On top of that I put a container to catch the wax which drips from up above through the muslin filter held in place with 2 ft square marine ply with a hole in which is the dia of the opening in the top of the Burco. Secure the muslin with a super, lid and weights and hey presto.

Can you post some pics please

 

[Arfermo]

Can you post some pics please

Hi Veg,

Will try my best for some pix.

The aluminium platform is comprised of several pieces of homemade interlocking bits of scrap ali obtained from a local firm on a trading estate that will chop metal of various sorts. I got a plain 2mm steel sheet from them to go in where the varroa slider tray goes in so that I can use my Varrox from beneath the OMF without disturbing the cluster or frying any bees. They had binfuls of scrap ali that I raided. Won't bother with pix of top parts as beeks will have their own ideas about refining mucky wax.

Arfermo

 

[Arfermo]

Pic for Veg. The frame dismantles for fitting in the bottom of the Burco and touches the sides at 6 points for stability. On top of the framework goes the plain piece of ali and the wax collecting container rests on that. End of ... hope this is OK.

 

[VEG]

Cheers got my head around it now

 

[busybee53]

Thanks for the replies. Am now looking for a cheaper option than getting the very expensive (£70) insert to contain the wax and then it can be for food and wax...I like the pic of the steel stand for inside. Mine came supplied with two bits of wood to put under any container you want to use. No one seems to have told them that wood floats. So did the first container I tried but that is not their fault.

 

[REDWOOD]

Easier said than done chap, I've been looking for one for over a year now. They never come to a lidl near me.

Try their main webpage they may be willing to send you one
http://www.lidl.de/de/Weitere-elekt...T-Gluehwein-/Einkochautomat-digital-mit-LCD-1

 

[bontbee]

Try their main webpage they may be willing to send you one
http://www.lidl.de/de/Weitere-elekt...T-Gluehwein-/Einkochautomat-digital-mit-LCD-1

I am on the hunt for a wax melter and tried this website, (thanks Redwood). Unfortunately my German is less than non existent and I couldn't find anything resembling a jam maker....but then, I don't know what I'm looking for, either. Does anyone have a pic of their Lidl marvel? (Just in case this hen's tooth appears locally?) Thanks

 

[domino]

How does the jam maker work for wax, is it as easy as just putting the chunks in and turning it on?

 

[wessexmario]

when using any of these food heaters, it's often best to use it as a bain-marie, having a container with the wax in a bath of warm water.
(unless you never want to use it for anything else!)

 

[itma]

I am on the hunt for a wax melter and tried this website, (thanks Redwood). Unfortunately my German is less than non existent and I couldn't find anything resembling a jam maker....but then, I don't know what I'm looking for, either. Does anyone have a pic of their Lidl marvel? (Just in case this hen's tooth appears locally?) Thanks

Because they (amazingly) didn't sell too well (a 'jam maker' is a poor description of the thing) Lidl UK didn't offer them last year. Will they at some point this year? (Rhetorical - no-one knows.)

You can find use Lidl ones on eBay - for more than their cost when new! Sometimes they are listed under their Lidl brand name "Silver Crest".

However, for anyone wanting a brand new Stainless Steel (single tap) Lidl-style tea urn for wax melting (or whatever you might be interested in doing), it might be worth considering these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281561839339?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
I reckon they must all come out of the same factory ...

Thorne sell an expensive stainless bucket that fits these things, but I recall RAB commenting that honey buckets do fit ...

 

[itma]

How does the jam maker work for wax, is it as easy as just putting the chunks in and turning it on?

It is basically a tea urn. Use it any way you might use a tea urn ...

The Kochstar 2 has a second (higher up) tap so that wax can be 'tapped off' independently of the water, but the tea urn itself does no filtering.

 

[bontbee]

Thanks itma. That looks very similar to the Kochstar listed on Abelo's site http://www.abelo.co.uk/shop/kochstar-27l/

so what was the price of the Lidl version??