Wax melter with 100 L stainless steel settler base for steam generator

01 · HOW MUCH GOES IN

The basket decides, not the volume

The drum holds 100 L, but what decides how many loads you run is how many frames fit in the basket. And there the frame format matters more than the litres:

A Dadant is taller and wider than a Langstroth, which is why barely half as many fit. With a few dozen colonies, one afternoon's work clears the year's comb renewal.

02 · HOW IT WORKS

Steam, no flame

The generator boils 4 L of water — about ten minutes to the boil — and feeds the steam through a 3.5 m hose into the settler. Frames sit on the perforated basket: the wax melts, runs to the bottom and leaves through the 2" bottom outlet, while cocoons, brood remains and wood stay above.

No flame and no direct fire is what makes this system suitable for a workshop: no fumes, no overheated wax and none of the risk of an unattended gas melter.

03 · WHAT IT DOES NOT DO

It melts and separates; it does not sterilise

Worth stating plainly, because it is often confused: steam at atmospheric pressure does not exceed 100 °C, and American foulbrood spores withstand a good deal more. This equipment melts and separates wax; it does not sterilise it.

If the material comes from an apiary under suspicion of foulbrood, the wax does not return to the cycle just because it passed through here: that calls for sterilisation at pressurised temperature and, before anything else, notifying the official veterinary service, since American foulbrood is a notifiable disease.

04 · WHEN IT PAYS

Old combs and cappings

The blackened frames sitting in the store are a magnet for the wax moth. Melting them at the end of the season settles two things at once: you recover the wax and remove the focus of infestation.

And with well-drained cappings is where it performs best: the less honey left in them, the lighter and cleaner the wax comes out. Acid-proof stainless steel stands up to the natural acidity of hive products and cleans without drama.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This is the drum; the rest of the setup is ordered separately: