Hain Automatic Honey Loosener

01 · FOR HONEYS THAT WILL NOT COME OUT

Pricking is not uncapping

An uncapper cuts the layer of wax that seals the comb. This machine does something else: it drives needles inside the cell to break the structure of the honey and let it flow. They are two different operations solving two different problems.

So the pricker does not replace the uncapping bench: it is used as well, and its place in the line is just before the extractor. What you gain is being able to spin a honey that would otherwise have to be pressed, with everything that means in broken comb and in work.

02 · EVERY NEEDLE ON ITS OWN SPRING

The detail that saves the frame

The two plates close automatically and the frame moves slightly so the needles find each cell instead of forcing it. And every needle is mounted on its own spring.

That is what prevents the damage: if a needle meets hardened propolis or the wood of the frame, it gives way instead of bending or splitting the comb. On a machine that goes through thousands of cells a frame, that individual suspension is the difference between working fast and working while breaking things.

03 · WHICH FRAMES FIT

The limit is 442 × 270 mm, and that number decides

It is adjustable and takes Dadant, Langstroth and shallow frames, and in general any frame no larger than 442 × 270 mm.

It is worth doing the sum before buying: by height, a 30 cm Layens frame falls outside that limit. If the apiary is Layens, this is not the tool.

04 · 4-5 FRAMES A MINUTE

Line pace, light-bulb consumption

It handles four to five frames a minute, which is the cadence of a honey house working in series: it keeps up with a large extractor without being the bottleneck.

And the consumption surprises for the size: 40 W at 230 V. The work is not done by power, it is done by the geometry of the plates; what does weigh is the machine, 59 kilos on 118 cm of height, so its place is decided once and not moved.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

A professional honey-house machine for one specific problem.