BBKA Forum

Chrisbarlow wrote: ↑

10 Aug 2020, 23:10

Costco - 25kg for £10.50

I use similar system to Steve. Works Fab.

That is a good price Chris..

Chrisbarlow wrote: ↑

11 Aug 2020, 07:49

@Patrick
I also have to be careful not to over do the pump with sugar or it stops.every batch I've done so far has acheived this at some point.

The sump pump i have is a beast it can suck 10mm gravel and silt through it all day long...i pour all the sugar in in one go..mark the level of the sugar and fill with water to the mark..i give it a stir with a stick and plonk the pump in/ stick the lid on the barrel and plug the sump pump in..it takes me longer to empty the 1kg bags of sugar than it does to set everything up..after that i walk away and leave it for around half to one hour which is more than enough..
I did see mould or degration mentioned in one comment but i add thymol to my 5L bottles and i still have some left over from last year with not a single spot of mould and still good to use. .

Cheers Nigel and Steve. I suspect the pump I have just isn't that great. I paid 40quid. It'll do. I've looked at the grundfos ones and they look nice

Well it's that time of the year again and I have just been to farmfoods..it's up 10p a kg from last year but I can live with 60p a kilo..I just need to stink the kitchen out making the thymol mix and then I'm good to fire the trusty sump pump up again..

If you know a guy who knows a guy....where very little helps
Ive got 2kg bags for 85p each to top up the large amount left from last year

I suppose I could use my honey extractor; take the cage out and drop a submersible pump (£40) inside. Job done.

The only practical concerns I can think of would be whether the honey gate would be difficult to control and the syrup went all over the place, and if I used thymol, whether it would linger in the extractor even after cleaning.

I wouldnt risk it and certainly not with the extractor costing more than my first three cars put together....

I usually add the thymol afterwards to the syrup containers.
Adam why not use the extractor cage as a mixer for the sugar solution?
I'm a little jealous of Steve's sump pump that will suck gravel through. My cheap job clogs up if you add too much sugar too fast. I have to add water first then add the sugar a few kgs at a time . Once it's all added and sumping I leave it for 30-45 minutes for it all to dissolve.

I wouldn’t put thymol anywhere near an extractor personally. When I do use it, it is added directly before putting syrup in feeders. I only mix syrup to use, so try not to store it. Check out those thick plastic blue barrels - you can often pick them used for free or very cheap. Stick a home brew barrel tap on it and away you go.

Interesting to see even a £80 sump pump (such as Karcher) claims to be able to deal with 20mm debris. Must be different impeller design from the old days . Impressive.

The pump I have is a industrial Grundfos sump pump I was given by a Northumbrian water board emplyee..nothing seems to fase it..I bet it will even mix concrete... ..not that I will try..

For me mixing with a motorised honey extractor puts terrible strain on the motor and electrics..tried filling my extractor up with only water one year to wash it out and it blew a 45A fuse..regarding Thymol ..that is put into the empty 5L containers waiting to be filled with sugar syrup..