Plastic Honey Settling Tank 28kg

01 · WHY YOU LET IT REST

What does not belong rises on its own — hence the tap at the bottom

Straight out of the extractor, honey carries foam, air microbubbles, specks of wax and bits of capping. None of that filters well warm and none of it is worth straining twice: just leave it still. Because all those particles are less dense than honey, in 24 to 48 hours they rise and form a layer on the surface while the clean honey stays below. That is why the tap is at the bottom: you bottle the honey underneath and skim the scum at the end. With dense honey or a cold room, give it longer — settling works with temperature, not against it.

02 · CAPACITY AND SIZE

28 kg, and still a bucket you carry one-handed

28 kg of honey, 21 usable litres: the usual size for anyone running 5 to 15 hives. It stands 36 cm tall and is 29.8 cm across at the top (27.3 at the base) — the figures to check against the clearance under your extractor's gate, or the height of the shelf you will bottle from. It is light and has a handle, so it goes from extractor to room, from room to a larger tank, or straight to a market stall. If your extraction regularly exceeds 50-60 kg, you will need two of them or a bigger tank.

03 · THE TAP

Tighten it before filling, and tilt the bucket at the end

The gate valve has an internal threaded fitting, and there is one step not to skip: tighten it fully while the tank is empty. With 28 kg inside the hydrostatic pressure is real, and a half-tightened fitting will weep all night. The other thing to know is that the tap does not sit flush with the base: a few millimetres of honey always remain below its mouth. That is not a fault, it is how any side-mounted tap works — at the end of the run chock the bucket on the opposite side and nearly all of it comes out. Set up high, the whole thing bottles by gravity, with no pump and no decanting.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is high-density polyethylene approved for food contact: it gives up no odours or flavours, which matters with delicate orange blossom or acacia honeys. Clean it with hot water. The airtight lid is not an extra: left open during settling, honey takes up ambient moisture, and that pushes up the moisture content of the batch.