3-frame electric tangential honey extractor LYSON BASIC

01 · THREE FRAMES, AND WHICH ONES FIT

The Layens goes in, and not in every basket

It takes 3 Layens, Langstroth or Dadant Blatt and US frames, or 6 half-super frames of 48 × 16 cm. The combination of Ø 500 mm with a 610 mm drum height is exactly what leaves room for the Layens frame, which by height stays out of many tangential baskets.

It is a small capacity, and that is worth knowing: three frames a batch with a turn in between sets the pace of an afternoon, not of a fifty-hive season.

02 · TANGENTIAL: ONE FACE AT A TIME

You have to turn the frame, and in exchange the comb survives

In a tangential the frame rests flat against the mesh and only the outer face empties, so you take it out and turn it round. That is the price.

What you gain is that the comb does not tear: with dense honey or with brood wax that already has years on it, resting flat is what stops the force from breaking the frame. That is why tangentials are still the choice for brood-chamber frames.

03 · WHERE THE BASIC RANGE SAVES

Nylon valve, painted legs, 3 mm lid

The body is 0.6 mm stainless steel and the lid is removable clear polycarbonate 3 mm thick, but the drain valve is nylon — DN40, the inch and a half of the honey line — and the legs are painted steel. That is where the BASIC range trims the price, and it is better known sooner than later.

The legs carry soft PVC feet that damp the vibration when the frames do not weigh the same. They help, but they do not replace loading in balance: that stays the beekeeper's job.

04 · THE CONTROL IS A SEPARATE PART

And that is good news the day it fails

The control is manual, by dial, and it sits in its own box. The maker offers the analogue replacement control naming this model specifically, so a fault in the control does not turn the extractor into scrap.

The motor is 80 W at 18 V with a 230 V supply: it goes into any socket and asks for no installation.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

A starter extractor, with the good and the bare of being one.