Carl Fritz® cappings centrifuge, honey-wax separator

01 · 85 °C IS THE BASE, NOT THE HONEY

And the difference matters a great deal

The heated base thermostat runs from 30 to 85 °C. That is the range of the appliance, not the margin of the product: the hotter and the longer, the more HMF and the less diastase, so honey is worked warm, not hot.

The working band is the usual 35-40 °C. The 2,000 W element is there to get you up there quickly and hold it, not to turn the thermostat up because the mix came in cold. If the honey goes to analysis, this is not a nuance.

02 · IT HEATS ITSELF

And that is what sets it apart from the big machines

High-throughput cappings centrifuges only hold temperature: they ask for a separate heat exchanger, plus a pump with an inverter. Here the heated base is inside.

That is why a 300 kg/h machine costs far less than a 1,300 kg/h one with its full system. They do not compete: they are two different steps of honey house.

03 · 300 KG/H ON 370 WATTS

The motor uses less than the heating

The motor draws 370 W at 230 V, less than many household appliances; the consumption is in the 2,000 W of the base. Speed adjusts by hand from 0 to 300 rpm, which is how you match it to the flow and to the consistency of the cappings.

That adjustment is the real craft of the machine: dry cappings and dense honey want more turns; a warm, fluid mix wants fewer. There is no right number — you find it with the harvest in front of you.

04 · IT DISCHARGES HIGH, INTO THE DRUM

And that is why no pump is needed

At 123 cm of overall height with the outlet at the top, honey falls by gravity straight into the drum. It is the exact opposite of the problem with big extractors, where the tap sits thirty-odd centimetres off the floor and nothing fits underneath.

Diameter is 93 cm inside and up to 110 cm outside. It goes wherever suits at the extractor outlet.

05 · CLEAN HONEY IS NOT FILTERED HONEY

Worth not confusing the two

What comes out on one side is honey separated from wax and on the other dry cappings. That saves the transfer, the cappings settling tank and a good part of the coarse-filtering work, which is a lot.

What it does not save is the settling: the honey still goes to the maturer to clear like the rest of the harvest. We would rather say so than have you find out at bottling.

06 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It goes at the extractor outlet; it does not replace the maturer.