Compact gear honey pump 100 l/h, reversible with speed control, SAF NATURA

01 · GEARS

It pushes the honey, it does not beat it

A gear pump is a positive displacement pump: every turn carries the same amount of honey between the teeth and the housing. There is no impeller hitting the honey, so it takes in no air, leaves no foam to skim off the tank later, and the flow comes out steady. The price of that gentleness is that it wants clean honey, strained and runny: cappings, wax and hard crystals get caught between the teeth.

02 · OPERATION

Adjust the speed and run it in reverse

The knob on the top takes the speed steplessly from minimum to maximum: slow with cold honey or to avoid splashing when filling, flat out when the point is to empty the bucket. The side switch has three positions —left, off, right— and reverses the direction of flow: when you finish, reverse sends the honey left in the hose back into the tank instead of letting it drip.

The maker's 100 l/h is with runny honey and works out at about 140 kg/h: a 25 kg bucket in ten minutes, a 100 kg tank in three quarters of an hour. The maker also puts it forward for creaming by recirculation: passing the honey from one tank to another several times a day, without beating it, spreads the seed and refines the crystal; at this flow rate it is a method for small tanks. The 5 A fuse sits in an external holder and is changed without opening anything.

03 · START-UP

Prime it, and wash it the same day

Like any gear pump it starts with the module wetted with honey: fill the suction hose before switching on and keep the source bucket next to the pump, not far below it. The module cover is transparent and you can see the gears turning, so you know at once whether it is primed or sucking air. Never run it dry or against a closed gate: without a film of honey the gears wear, and the pressure of a positive displacement pump has nowhere to go. At the end of the session pump hot water through until it runs clear and unscrew the module cover to wash the gears: honey that crystallises inside is what seizes the module.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This is the small pump of the range: at 3.8 kg and 25 cm long you carry it to the tank in one hand. The hose tails are Ø22 mm and the hose is not included.