CARRERA Ø640 radial electric extractor, 18 supers

01 · RADIAL IS NOT FASTER PER CYCLE

It moves three times the frames without stopping

Worth saying without dressing it up: a radial cycle can take as long as a tangential one, or a little longer if you run gently to look after the comb. The advantage is not on the cycle stopwatch, it is in what goes into each cycle.

A full load is 18 frames that come out ready in some eight to ten minutes. The same volume in a six-frame tangential takes three loads and, on each one, turning the frames by hand. At 200 or 300 kilos in a session, that is where the hours appear.

02 · 48 × 16 IS THE FRAME WITH LUGS

Not to be confused with the comb measurement

The basket takes half-super frames of roughly 48 × 16 cm measured over the lugs, which is the frame's physical envelope. Measure the comb and you will get about 42 cm across: same part, measured differently.

It is set up for Dadant or Langstroth half-supers. For full frames, and certainly for Layens, you need machines of another format.

03 · A 6/4 INCH TAP: THAT IS DN40

The same line as the rest of the honey house

The conical bottom leads to a food-grade plastic gate valve of 6/4 inch, which is exactly DN40, the inch and a half of the house honey line. Maturers, hoses and fittings of that size go on without adapters.

The drum is food-grade AISI 304 stainless — 0H18N9 in the Polish designation — which stands up to the acidity of honey and to hot-water washing. Overall height is around 113 cm, with the legs leaving the tap above a bucket or a 25 kg drum.

04 · WHERE TANGENTIAL STILL WINS

Cold, dense or starting to crystallise

With fluid or moderately dense honeys — rosemary, orange blossom, wildflower, ripe sunflower — the radial has plenty in hand. With very dense, cold honey or honey already crystallising, it does not: a tangential lets you work each face harder and gets out what the radial leaves stuck in the cell.

For thick but still fluid honeys it works well to start two or three minutes at low speed, let the more liquid fraction come out, then build up gradually. It cuts comb breakage and unbalanced baskets.

05 · THE LID BLOCKS THE MOTOR

But the drum keeps turning

The 4 mm acrylic lid lets you watch the process and its interlock stops the motor starting with it open, which matters when there are helpers in the room in season. As on any extractor, that interlock cuts the motor but does not brake the basket: before reaching in, wait for a full stop.

This is a fixed-room machine: at Ø 640 mm plus legs it wants about two metres by two to work comfortably, and a radial basket takes a little more cleaning than a plain drum. European build under CE, with 24 months of manufacturer's warranty.

06 · BEFORE YOU BUY

A step up to a honey house, not a starter machine.