SAF Stainless Steel Solar Wax Melter with Adjustable Legs

01 · WHAT IT MELTS AND WHAT NOT

Cappings and light comb yes; cocoons and spores no

With sun from spring to autumn, the closed box heats up and the wax of cappings and light comb melts and runs through the insert into the tray, clean of the coarse dirt that stays above. What it does not do: wax bound to the cocoons of old comb does not let go with the sun’s heat, and the temperatures of a solar melter sterilise nothing. For old comb, brood wax or material under health suspicion, the steam melter (1826, with the generator 1286); the solar one is for harvest wax and for keeping the workshop clean without spending a watt.

02 · THE BOX

0.8 stainless and a 10 mm twin-wall polycarbonate lid

Box, insert and tray in 0.8 mm stainless steel, which does not warp with heat nor pit with the acids of wax and propolis and cleans with hot water. The lid is a 10 mm twin-wall polycarbonate sheet, with air chambers that hold heat better than plain glass, and has handles to open it without burns. The perforated 60 × 60 cm insert takes whole frames, in the order of ten Dadant or fifteen Langstroth per load: the wax melts and drips to the tray, and the frames come out clean to be rewired.

03 · THE LEGS

Table height and tilt by season

Four steel legs with screw fixing adjust the height between 82 and 88 cm, and with them the box is tilted so the lid faces the sun: steeper in spring and autumn, with the sun low, and flatter in summer. Loading and emptying at table height is welcome when several batches follow each other. Supplied unassembled, with insert, tray, lid and legs.

04 · HOW IT IS USED

Facing south, loaded in the morning and emptied in the evening

Facing south and loaded first thing, on a summer sunny day the wax starts running in a few hours; empty the tray in the evening, before the wax sets stuck, and let the block cool slowly so it settles. The tray takes a little water underneath so the block releases by itself. In winter or under cloud it does not melt: it is a seasonal device, and what is left goes to steam.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

The melter is supplied unassembled with insert, tray, polycarbonate lid and four legs; steam and moulds come separately.