I thought I'd post up a bit of a review about the 20 frame machine now I've finished with it for the season.
Up until this summers extraction I've used a 4 frame tangential manual extractor which did the job but a very slow system as you had to flip the frames around multiple times and the fact it was only 4 frames as well. So to get an electrical 20 frame radial was a significant jump in processing capabilities.
If you just want to hear the good bit, I would buy it again.
It's a big and bulky machine and also relatively wide, I've made a stand with castors on which helps to move it around easily (can be found here
What did you do in the 'workshop' today). I collected it from Thornes in my car (Nissan Qashqai) and had to remove one of the legs to get it to fit into my boot on its side. Getting it out on my own back at mine was a bit awkward but I rested it on two legs against my car and attached the third and had to walk it into my shed. I've just looked on the Konigin website and they say it's 40kg, it's definitely solid and the motor is a fair lump too. It is something to factor in if you have limited storage space and need to move it often.
One of the main reasons for going with the Konigin machine is the motor is mounted underneath the machine so the top it flat when you remove the lift handle of the lid. I wanted to be able to store some bits on top of it easily, it also lowers the centre of gravity as well.
The split lid, half perspex and half stainless allows for plenty of room to place frames in and remove them. The basket is very well made with substantial metal and deep cut outs to hold the top bars in place. Actually using it is easy enough, it does have 3 different extraction modes. However I just set it into it's manual mode and slowly increased the speed to the rotation until probably about 75% power. At this point the frames came out amazingly dry compared to the old manual extractor I used to use. Unfortunately I never actual timed how long a full load took to extract but it wasn't more than 10 minutes I'd say. One thing I was expecting but didn't realise how careful I had to be was balancing the frames in the basket. The first load went it go up to 50% power started to rock quite substantially, after stopping it and having shift around of the frames it was fine. This is something that would affect all extractors not just this Konigin, but it's something to keep in mind when going to an extractor with more frames.
Last Friday was the last time I used it and I ran through 25 supers in 3.5 hrs! I hadn't done more than 15 in one session with the manual which would have taken probably over double the time.
I only have two negative points so far. Firstly is having to tilt it to drain it fully out as the base is convex so the honey runs to the outside of the base. Secondly is the whine form the motor/ pulley, interestingly this hardly changes as to what power it's on.
Would I buy it again? Yes.
View attachment Konigin Extractor.MOV
