Cappings melter SIPA® 2 in 1

01 · THE TWO CYCLES THAT MATTER

Recovering honey, or melting wax

At 40-50 °C the honey drains off the cappings and the wax stays whole. It is the long cycle, up to six hours — typically overnight — and it gives you honey that is still honey you can sell, plus drained cappings to process separately.

Above 65 °C the wax melts: it rises and floats, the honey settles to the bottom and they separate on their own. You gain convenience and lose honey grade — because that heat is paid for by the honey.

02 · THE CEILING FOR HONEY

40 °C, and it is a legal parameter

HMF rises with heat and with time, and it never comes back down. This is not a nuance of quality: it is a figure measured in the lab with a legal limit, so honey that has been overheated stops being sellable as what it was.

That is why the slow cycle at 45 °C for six hours is the one used by whoever sells the honey, and the melting cycle the one used by whoever is after the wax and writes that honey off — for feeding colonies, for instance.

03 · WAX DOES NOT WANT 110 °C EITHER

It melts at 62-65 and darkens well before

Beeswax melts between 62 and 65 °C. Anything beyond that does not melt it better: from around 85 °C it starts to darken and lose aroma, and brown wax is worth less than pale wax.

The top of the thermostat range is there for fast decrystallising and for dirty work, not for the wax you intend to sell. With clean cappings, 70 °C is plenty.

04 · THE OTHER USES

Decrystallising, melting old frames, work bench

The same body decrystallises honey in buckets, drums or jars — heather, lavender, rosemary — with nothing touching an element, because the heat travels by air. It also softens frames of thick honey before uncapping.

It melts old comb into block wax, and with its 118 cm working height it doubles as an uncapping bench. Black comb and propolis leave it dirty: many people keep this machine for clean work and send old comb to the steam melter.

05 · WHAT IT ACTUALLY USES

It depends on the cycle, not on the rating plate

The maker quotes around 3.5 kWh per cycle, but the element is 2.5 kW: the real cost is how long it has to stay on. Holding 45 °C in a vessel with 1 cm of insulation is not the same as climbing to 110 °C.

It sits on braked castors and carries a removable inner sieve, so it moves around the honey house and cleans out without dismantling anything.

06 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is hot air with a thermostat: the machine does what you ask of it, and the temperature you choose decides what comes out of each side.