Honey sump tank 80cm

01 · HOW IT SEPARATES

Four compartments and time

The honey comes in at one end and moves from compartment to compartment. On the way, the light particles — wax, bits of capping, wings — rise and stay on the surface, while the heavier ones settle to the bottom.

What does the work is not the plates: it is the time the honey spends inside. A full bench separates better than one the honey runs straight through.

02 · THE TAP THAT GOVERNS

The extractor's, not the bench's

Hence the commonest mistake when setting it up: opening the extractor wide. If the extractor empties faster than the bench settles, the honey crosses without separating and ends up overflowing.

The flow is regulated at the extractor and the bench is left to work. It sits under the tap, and with the legs on its height goes from 20 to 39 cm.

03 · WHY IT IS NOT A FILTER

And why that suits you

Honey regulation defines «filtered honey» as honey from which foreign matter has been removed to a significant extent, with the loss of pollen that entails. It is a category that has to be declared on the label and that gives up naming the floral origin.

A settling bench removes coarse dirt by flotation and sedimentation, not pollen. That is why it can be used without touching anything your label says about your honey.

04 · IF YOU ADD HEAT

An immersion heater heats by contact

An immersion heater can be fitted so the honey flows better, but it deserves some judgement: a heater does not warm the whole, it warms what it touches, and the honey against it takes far more heat than the rest.

Above about 40 °C honey starts paying for it in HMF, which is a legal parameter. Low power, and not left running unattended.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is the honey's first stop out of the extractor, not the last filter before the jar.