Commercial Only: Boutelje Filter Centrifuge update

[tristan]

Boutelje Filter Centrifuge

this doesn't need any introduction. its been on the market for a long time. now we have a new one installed and i thought i would do a small review. this replaces our old beetech spinfloat (pre hummer). while it worked great, it was a nitemare to run and its was getting worn. like most spinfloats...

www.nzbees.net

just a small update on this.
its running ok. however it was having issues with very thick honey.
one of the fixes was to get the back plate installed. this channels the honey coming in to the outside. that allows the wax to form properly and less issues arise.
however this changes a few things so i'm hoping to get a better plate made.

one surprising thing has been less issues with crystalline honey. especially when you set it to bypass for a while, it seams to wash a lot of it out.

one downside has been the pressure/flow/heat/separation equation is a bit tricky to work out.
we are finding that it starts to let wax through at ~4 bar pressure. we have never reached max pressure.
a lot of the time we can run all day without cleaning it out or on heavy wax days a simple quick clean out when we go to lunch.

one of the oops was the core broke and the honey went a different path, ripped out the wax and drag it out. so we had one lot with some chunky wax.

 

[James]

Hmmm .....and then another Big Hmmmmm ..... we was extracting away today ..... spinning out that beautifull white honey and I was having a think, that really extracting is not rocket science.
The two year old Lyson extractor is still turning, as too is the forty year old Penfold .... the similar vintage vane pump keeps pumping the honey to the water jacketed sump from where it is fired up to the heat exchanger by the Mono and dribbles down into the Hummer ..... and hey presto, clean honey drops into the big sump before heading up to the roof tank for Homogenisation


The only issue I have is the amount of Cow Honey coming out of the wax capping melter ..... but then white honey is not the top dollar stuff, so a couple of drums over the season is'nt too bad.

I saw a simpler operaton last week, but I don't think I'll go there tonight.
Some people spend a lot of money on their plants, some don't.

Just saying.

 

[tristan]

there is a big difference in quality of different plants. thats something to keep in mind when your struggling to sell honey.
i know some guys that have simple plants but also know the buyers do not like buying their honey.

most of the basics havn't changed.
but things like the hummer is new tech thats had a LOT of issues. there is 10 years + of beeks with issues before they got that right (and afaik it still has a few issues).

i've seen some plants that make ours look crude, but they don't do it any better or faster.

for us its been upgrades due to size but also wear and tear. the old spin float was simply getting to worn out. likewise the very good beetech extractor was failing. previous season it got welded up 3 times.
whats annoying is when new gear does not perform as good as the old gear.

 

[James]

I hear you Tristan.
Without wanting to simplify it too much ..... most extractors will spin the honey out. The science comes when trying to get the spun out honey clean in a short time.
We used to have a penfold honey seperator that was basically a mesh cylinder that the honey and cappings got pumped into and then spun. We used to pump steam in, and had to shovel the cappings out. We still have the old machine stored up in the roof.
The Hummer was a vast improvement.
I know guys that gave up with them, but I do wonder why, as ours just ticks away with little or no issue. Green to go at 8.00am, and wind her down at 6.00pm.
Ther is the odd F up when honey gets dumped on the floor, but that has'nt happend for a few years now.

You've gotta have pride in your product when selling . When opening a drum , the last thing you want to see is bees and wax on the top 15mm.
Like wise with the drums. Image is everything, and if you are putting primo honey into crappy second hand drums, you are not doing yourself any favours in a competitive market.
And of course, the all important paperwork needs to be faultless.

 

[tristan]

We used to have a penfold honey seperator that was basically a mesh cylinder that the honey and cappings got pumped into and then spun.

people still use them.
Boutelje still makes them. its a good pre filter.
however the point of the hummer was one machine to do it all.

i think a lot of the issues does depend on the setup. lack of heating the honey used to cause us a lot of issues. also having big chunks of wax causes issues. once we fixed that, the dreaded beetech ran perfectly fine.

i think a lot of it is just understanding what the machine runs best on and set it up on that.
trouble is every beek wants to do it differently.

 

[southbee]

I think if it comes to simple, we'd have one of the simplest honey house set ups. It works because we know how to work it and we take care with it. No wax or bees in our honey, never had any complaints and yes, I agree you have to have pride in your product. It's not the system which puts bees or wax in the honey it's the operator. In the end it's his job to fix any issues, no matter how big or small the plant is. Bigger only means you can put more honey through in a day, but not necessarily better.