Automatic reversible extractor 8 frames / 16 supers LEGROC

01 · TANGENTIAL IS NOT MORE FORCE

But it is more effective per turn

In a radial extractor the frames sit like the spokes of a wheel: both faces empty at once, but the honey has to come out along the cell. In a tangential one the face runs parallel to the wall and empties one side at a time. Reversible means the baskets swing round on their own to do the second side: tangential without flipping by hand.

That is why it performs on dense honeys such as eucalyptus or holm oak. One warning: Calluna heather honey is thixotropic — it gels in the comb — and no machine gets it out by spinning; it has to be stirred or pricked first.

02 · UNIVERSAL, AND THAT IS THE PRICE

The comparison with the machine next to it

It takes Layens, Langstroth and Dadant Blatt in the same baskets, and that is why the sum works out as it does. In our range, the 8/16 reversible of the CLASSIC line that takes only Dadant and Langstroth costs €2,876.03: seventy euros more than this one, and no Layens.

And the universal CLASSIC 8/16 is €3,198.35, almost four hundred above. If you work Layens, this is the cheap one of the three, which is not how it usually goes.

03 · 8 FRAMES OR 16 HALF SUPERS

Which is what the name means

The drum is Ø 950 mm and carries eight baskets. Each one takes a body frame or two half-super frames stacked: hence the 8/16. They are not two capacities, it is the same machine loaded two ways.

The body is 304 stainless steel with a 1 mm bottom sheet, and the baskets are made in one piece, with no welds to open up over the seasons. The methacrylate lid lets you watch the cycle without opening.

04 · TWO OUTLETS: 2 AND 5/4 INCH

And it helps to know what 5/4 means

Two stainless valves come as standard. The 2 inch one is 50 mm, the bore of the big line: pump, clarifier, filter. The 5/4 is read in quarters — five quarters — and is an inch and a quarter, 32 mm, for a thin hose or a bucket.

Check which of the two fits what you already have before buying hose: changing bore halfway down a line is paid for in adapters and in flow.

05 · FOUR CYCLES, THE FIRST ONE SOFT

It is the only way not to break comb

The digital programmer has four configurable cycles, and that is the function that really gets used. With heavily loaded frames you start slowly to shed some of the honey and only then raise the speed: start hard and the weight bursts the comb against the basket.

New comb and cold honey are what breaks most. The motor is 0.37 kW with a reducer at 220 V — single-phase, it plugs in anywhere — and runs without vibration, which is what makes that soft first cycle possible.

06 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Genuinely universal, single-phase, and two outlet bores.