Extractor

[Wombat]

So my buddy and I broke down and bought Dadant's "M00389 PLASTIC EXTRACTOR - IMPORTED" because it was 100 bucks new in the catalog, and we've got 3 hives...so it sounded perfect for us, and it is by far the cheapest extractor I've come across. I'll be extracting the honey tomorrow when he gets back in town...

Meanwhile, I was wondering if anyone owns this particular extractor, and what your experiences have been with it. We figured "what the hell", its 50 bucks each, and we won't have to try to track someone down to use their extractor up here and then pay to use it...and we can use it ourselves whenever we need to, on our own time.

We're pretty excited about it...obviously not top-line material, but we gotta get that honey outta our hives!

[IndianaBrown]

I just got it, and I like it.  http://www.beemaster.com/beebbs/viewtopic.php?t=5908

However the baskets seem to be designed for deeps.  Mediums work fine if you put them in slightly diagonally, (resting the top bar against the side of the basket,) but after you run several frames the corners of the frames that stick out of the bottom of the basket start to drag in the extracted honey.  If you drain the honey out after every pair of frames this would not be a problem, but I will modify the bottom of the baskets to hold mediums better before I use it again.  I don't have any to shallows to test with, but you may be able to do 4 shallow frames at a time with no modification.

[Wombat]

A helpful post, IndianaBrown - I didn't see it before!

Thanks...sounds like I'm going to have a fun time figuring out the bad translations in the booklet :)

[Brian D. Bray]

If you're dealing with translating Chinese please remember "Plastic spin thing removes centrifical force by use of honey."

[Michael Bush]

>If you're dealing with translating Chinese please remember "Plastic spin thing removes centrifical force by use of honey."

LOL I've read so many things that sounded exactly like that...

[Wombat]

Then yall might like this hilarious little website:

//www.engrish.com

I'm extracting today! Yip!

[melliphile]

Hilarious!!!  Thanx, I needed that :lol:

[thomashton]

I just bought one today. I am looking forward to getting it.

This saturday it looked like they had eaten some of their honey in the past week. that is weird as their has been a huge flow the past month. I figured that if they are starting to eat some, I better steal it fast.

[Wombat]

So I extracted a good 2 1/2 gallons yesterday, and here's my report so far...

Indy, you are definitely right about the depth of the extractor. Honey from two frames filled the bottom enough to hamper the spinning. So, drain often!

So, this is my first real experience with an extractor of any kind, commercial or otherwise, but I really like this one so far. We blew out two frames at first, and then finally figured out the correct technique for spinning out the honey. Anyway, the machine is perfect for what we need, although the racks in it are sized for deeps. It's kind of a little tricky for extracting shallows (what we did last night) - but the trick is to lay each frame down diagonally and opposite from each other (like any good centrifuge) to maintain balance. One of the blowouts occurred when the centrifugal force was imbalanced because one of the frames slipped (oops).BTW, I tried putting 2 shallows per rack since these were deep-sized, but they didn't fit. FYI. Anyway, I'm moving to all mediums after this, which should fit more snugly than the shallows.

The device comes with some very handy 600-, 400- & 200-micron strainers, and the buckets and spouts are great, and the handle works very well... definitely worth the 100 bucks. Perfect for home kitchen extraction!

Not thinking, however, we started at about 7:30pm, and it took us a while to get everything down pat and then cleaned up. I recommend doing this in the morning of your day off - NOT the night before you have to go back into school at the buttcrack of dawn, and have a few Battlestar Galactica episodes awaiting you following honey extraction. Am tired.

We've got another shallow still waiting to be uncapped and extracted (possibly sometime today), and we are getting plennnnnnnnnty of reaaaaaally good-tasting honey from our girls, with one more flow left from what I understand...

So, all is well over here with the extractor. I recommend it.

P.S. - By coincidence, a Chinese-speaking friend was at the house last night and explained that the writing on the front of the extractor translates roughly into "[Company name] Heaven Honey Machine"
:P

[Hi-Tech]

I pulled this old post back up and wanted to get more feedback. I am looking to get one of these so how about some comments from those of you have used it for a while now...

[Understudy]

I use one also. The only problem I have had is if you drop it wrong it will crack very easily. I dropped the lid and it shattered.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Wombat]

Well it's been about a year since that last post, and I'm still using it and I'm still pretty satisfied with it - For the price, you really get what you need and this is a nice starter extractor for what I've got on my property. It's easy to clean, very portable, and really easy to use... I can't count how many gallons I actually ended up extracting with this thing last summer - but it was a lot. It paid for itself in time, convenience, and actual money many times over by the end of the season.

I haven't had the cracking issue (yet), but I could definitely imagine it happening under several circumstances.

I still stick with my vote that this is a good buy, especially for someone with <10 hives...

peace
wombat :)

[Mklangelo]

Not too shabby for a hundred bucks!  I'll be surprised if I get any honey for me this fall but if I do, I'll just have to haul the frames out to the burbs to use my buddy's extractor.  He has one of those nice 6 frame radial ones with a motor.  Next year I'll buy one myself. Lot's of time to save for it.


https://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=35_72&products_id=361

[woodchopper]

Wombat, you said you had a few blowouts with this extractor. Were your frames wired and did you use pins to hold the wax in ? I was unaware that a hand crank extractor could blow out frames. Learn something everyday. Also I see fence around your hives on your website. Is it electric? Nice site !!

[Sean Kelly]

Way cool!  Thanks Hi-Tech for pulling this post back up!  I was just looking at this extractor in the Dadant catalog thinking, "should I?"  For me just having 1 hive, this might be the ticket!  I'm sold!

Sean

[Hi-Tech]

I guess I am sold too... I will order mine today... :)

[brit.thebee]

i ordered mine