RACING® honey extractor 4 Langstroth frames

01 · EXTRACTION

A wire cage for four frames, and you set the pace

The inner cage is stainless steel wire: it holds the frame across its whole face and lets the honey through without trapping it. Four frames per load, or four supers if you work shallow boxes. Being hand-cranked, you set the speed yourself, and that works in your favour on new wax: start slowly and build up, because a comb breaks on the initial pull, not at the end of the cycle. Spread frames of similar weight on opposite sides so the cage does not wobble.

02 · COMPATIBILITY

Langstroth and supers; neither Layens nor Dadant brood

It is worth being blunt here, because it is what we are asked most: the RACING works with Langstroth frames and with supers, four per load either way. It does not take Layens or Dadant brood frames: those are a different size and the cage is not built for them. If your apiary runs Dadant, the model you want is the FUEGO, with its universal cage.

03 · CONSTRUCTION

Stainless steel, acrylic lids and legs that come off

Stainless steel body with a conical base that runs the honey to the 40 mm gate, and manual drive through a top-mounted worm gear. The crank is a safety crank: always turn it clockwise, pressing it slightly towards the shaft so it engages, and if you let go it does not spin with the cage. There is no brake: the cage stops on its own, and braking it with the crank can break the gears. The acrylic lids let you watch the inside as you spin, which is how you catch a comb starting to give way in time. The three iron legs are removable: fitted, they leave room for a bucket under the gate; off, the extractor goes into a car boot without a fight.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

At 525 mm across and 610 mm tall, the RACING needs its own spot in the honey house — measure up first if you are working in a tight space. And if you are torn between this and the three-frame models in the same range, the question is not price but format: the three-frame models share a body with the small ones, and the RACING is the first that genuinely earns its keep over a long day.