Swienty 3 frame radial - anybody used one yet?

[twb]

I am looking at the Swienty 3 frame radial pancake style extractor.  If any of you have used one could you share how it worked and weather it is worth it?  I am thinking it may be a good way to get into extracting at a reasonable price while I build up my honey customer base so I can justify purchasing the 6 frame radial that I really want.  The Swienty is in the Betterbee catalog.

[Erik T]

I haven't used one but I want one due to space considerations.  I've noticed that the one in the better bee catalog doesn't seem to be the same as the one on swienty's website.  The one on swienty's site appears to be better constructed.

[Kris]

I got the Swienty World honey extractor http://swienty.com/default.asp?pid=1&id=108600, available from Better Bee for ~$250) and tried it for the first time.  It is different from the extractors that are familiar to us in that the frames are laid flat inside the extractor so that both sides of the frame are radially extracted at the same time.  Three deep frames can be extracted at one time.  While the extractor is hand cranked, this is not a major inconvenience because once you crank it up to speed it takes little effort to maintain that speed due to the large rotation radius.  It took me about 5 minutes (it was cold) to extract 3 frames.  Frames were extracted cleanly.  In fact, I found that if I cranked it too fast the centripetal force would compress the combs against the top bars of the frames.  The top cover of the machine is made of clear plastic and light enters easily so you can watch the extracting progress.  All of the components of the machine were easily disassembled for cleaning.  The large diameter of the machine makes it a little unwieldy to carry around because you have to walk sideways to see where you are walking.  You also need long arms to reach around it to pick it up, so this might be a problem for small people (I am over 6 ft (1.85 m) tall).  Some things I would suggest for improvement are (1) an instruction manual, (2) an eye bolt on the bottom to hang the machine on the wall for storage, (3) thumb screws or wing nuts in place of the phillips head screws that secure the crossbar to the body, (4) different packing tape – the adhesive on the packing tape they use is very difficult to remove.  I found 100% isopropyl alcohol to be the best solvent for removing this adhesive.

Advantages:
Low cost
Fast
Easy to use
No electricity required

Disadvantages:
Unwieldy to carry around
No instruction sheet

All things considered, I really liked the Swienty World extractor.  I prefer it over the Dadant extractor that many of us currently use.  Now all we need is a fast, easy, inexpensive decapper!

BTW, the picture in the Betterbee catalog of the Swienty World extractor is of one of the first prototypes.  Go to the Swienty website listed above to see the one actually sold.

[twb]

Thankyou for your thoughts on the Sweinty extractor.  I thought nobody had ever used one.  I would probably get one but Betterbee no longer carries it due (they said) to damage when shipping to their customers.  Seems like an easy one to remedy doesn't it?  I want to have a supplier in th U.S. or I could get one on the Internet directly from Sweinty.  I guess I will probably go with the Dadant 6 frame radial. Now I must decide if I want the hand crank or the electric model.  I sure like the price of the Sweinty though.  Hey, want to sell yours? :)  Oh, it would probably get damaged in transit wouldn't it?  Thanks for the response.  I am glad it worked out for you and I hope you get many years of service from it.

[Chela]

Nicely summed up Kris,

Just bought one and will give it a run in a few days when i get to my bees.

Btw, carefull not to drop the lids as the plastic/pesrpex shatters  and the stainless rod at the end is really a thin tube which damages easily - i learnt this the hard way.

Chela

[qa33010]

   I have one and used it and enjoyed it.  It's right now parked behind my recliner in the livingroom (shed is full) and only one person noticed it, my daughter.  You're dead on Kris with the suggestions.  The only addition I may have would be to make the feet removeable or, maybe, better yet foldable to the sides (unless the unit is already strong enough to hang by the legs as they are from a bolt) to doulble as hangers.  Hopefully I will have topbars to try next year, since this is what it was originally designed for.

    Shipping was no problem.  Though it seems pretty durable, with the size there may possible warping problems later.  I'll wait and see.  But I really like it. :-D

[twb]

If I may be so bold, qa33010, from where did you purchase your extractor?  Betterbee while they still carried them or direct from Swienty or somewhere else?