I know that Naked Beekeeper does not want to hear what the big boys think or do, and someone else banged on about the same old 'in it for maximum profit' nonsense. (You only maximise the profit if you do the bees to THEIR best advantage, and thus there is little difference between us, its just us who have been lucky enough to scale up).
However, I do have a lot of relevant experience in using plastic, and used to be the importer for Pierco.
First point, sorry PolyHive, but lots of the big boys use them, and like them. The one piecers are what they like best, and in areas with strong honey flows they are easy to get drawn.
The snap together ones that you put wax sheets into I would not touch. Have seen the bees dislike the plastic verticals and you ending up with three free hanging panels of comb. Also the hollow internals are a wax moths (of both species) heaven. Not hugely concerned about SHB, but been into that in other posts.
Have also used the full sheets, both as designed in Langstroth and cut down in BS.
There ARE issues with getting them drawn properly in the UK, and especially Scotland. If conditions are not optimum then you end up scraping a lot of rubbish comb off the midrib. Its easy as you can do it with the hive tool whilst working, unlike with normal wax, but its still a real pain. The bees prefer wood and wax. In supers above the excluder the bees tended, except in heavy flows, to reject them and go to swarm cells rather than work the plastic. (These are all the wax coated ones btw before anyone asks) The timing of giving them the plastic foundation is quite sensitive, much more so that the traditional materials.
They DO result in a flat rigid comb (once correctly drawn) that can be good for many many years. The lack of communication holes is not an issue that has given problems. We experimented at the start by cutting holes in the full frames with a disc cutter to see if it gave any advantage, It did not, and the bees filled a good number of them in, but messily as they did not want to follow the plastic line.
They extract easily with no blow outs. If crystallised honey on them you can just rip it off with a hive tool and give the frames right back to the bees.
These are the positives.
Now the bad news, that has cost me mega bucks in the last three seasons. The frames and sheets are not steriliseable. The very most recent ones are now being made from a material than CAN go through boiling, or hot caustic, but the vast majority cannot. We got EFB, so over 10,000 full frames and as many sheets fited into wooden frames had to be scrapped. Fine up to that point, but you then encounter disposal rules, and all these frames cannot be burned like wood and wax can, they have to go to a licensed disposal site. Thats cost me almost as much as the cost of the replacement frames. Its a bit of a financial heartbreak seeing that lot go for destruction.
In a setup where the brood combs require replacement on a regular cycle the plastic situation becomes rather problematic. Hence we have reverted to all wood and wax, but set up with prewired frames to make the replacement and renewal process easy and relatively cheap.
The extra difficulties plastic presents would make me recommend that the inexperienced stay with wood and wax. The quality and robustness of well drawn full plastic frames makes them a great thing once drawn, but getting to that point is not as easy as with the traditional setup. The disposal issue is probably not a big deal for a hobbyist as they can get their number away via the domestic waste/recycling route.
