8-Metre Flexible Heating Cable with Digital Thermostat

01 · HOW TO FIT IT

Turns low down, probe against the wall

The cable is wound round the vessel with the turns concentrated low down, where the honey sets and where it has to come out. Eight metres covers vessels up to 76 cm across. The thermostat probe has to sit in contact with the metal: left in the air it reads the temperature of your workshop instead of the vessel, and the thermostat cuts out when it should not.

02 · THE TEMPERATURE THAT MATTERS

The thermostat reaches 80; honey should not

The digital control runs between 30 and 80 °C, but that figure belongs to the device, not to the honey. To decrystallise without spoiling the product you work at around 40-45 °C and give it time: past that, HMF starts to climb and diastase to fall, which are precisely the two figures a honey is judged on in an analysis. At 263 W this is gentle heat: count in hours, not minutes.

03 · WHAT IT IS FOR

Decrystallising, filtering and bottling

Around a ripener it keeps the honey fluid so it comes out of the gate without a fight. On a settling tank, slightly warmer honey filters a good deal faster. At the base of the extractor it improves the run-off at the end of extraction, and on filling buckets it holds the temperature while you bottle. Same cable for all four jobs; what changes is where you put it.

04 · WHERE NOT TO PUT IT

Metal yes, plastic it depends

It is meant for metal vessels — stainless above all — which spread the heat across the whole wall. On plastic buckets that are not heat-resistant it is not used: the spot where the cable rests deforms before the honey notices anything. And do not wind it round an empty vessel or switch it on dry.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It comes with the digital controller and probe — a capillary of about 80 cm — and runs on 230-240 V. The vessel, obviously, goes separately.