Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS => Topic started by: ShaneJ on February 22, 2012, 04:11:19 am

Title: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: ShaneJ on February 22, 2012, 04:11:19 am: Gday all,

Say if one was looking at purchasing a radial extractor, in your opinion what would be the better quality unit? The Maxant POWER-20F SEMI PRO or the Mann Lake Motorized Radial 18/9 Frame Extractor?

I'm hoping JP and Michael Bush will chime in on this one. I know you guys these.

Thanks
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: Michael Bush on February 22, 2012, 05:29:59 am: I bought the Mann Lake because it was on sale cheap at the time. No regrets and it works fine. But your question appears to be which is better quality, I think everyone would agree the Maxant is top quality... if you're going to pay to have it shipped to Australia, you may as well buy the best, I guess...

The Maxant 20 frame looks like it will fit through the kitchen door (an essential for me) and holds the maximum amount of frames for an extractor that will fit. I've never heard anyone complain about quality or service from Maxant.
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: ShaneJ on February 22, 2012, 07:16:31 am: Thanks for your input Michael. The local reseller here for Maxant said that the Maxant was a little slow to extract compared to other extractors. But I do believe he was comparing it to an auto reversible extractor like this:

(http://bindaree.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Extractor_Fritz_12_2_tuned.jpeg?9d7bd4)
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: Michael Bush on February 22, 2012, 07:52:43 am: The 20 is a radial and should extract fine with no need to reverse...
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: bwdenen on February 22, 2012, 11:28:46 pm: I am planning to purchase an extractor this year. I have looked at the Maxant, but was wondering about the Brushy Mountian 9 frame radial? It does all 9 frames radially while the Maxant only does 6 radially. Anyone have any experiance with it?
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: Michael Bush on February 23, 2012, 02:12:32 am: I wouldn't settle for less than 18 frames at a time... and I didn't. I didn't buy an extractor until I could get a motorized 18 frame one. If it's not worth it to buy an 18 frame extractor, in my opinion, it's not worth buying an extractor... just crush and strain.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesharvest.htm (http://www.bushfarms.com/beesharvest.htm)
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: Jim134 on February 23, 2012, 02:24:18 am: Maxant manufactured in the USA and Brushy Mountian manufactured in :?

BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: ShaneJ on February 23, 2012, 02:40:36 am: I did a crush and strain on 18 full deep frames just recently. Its not an easy job when you have arthritis :( I wont be doing it again.

I have to agree that the Maxant does look like a quality unit. The only other extractor I have see that looks very good is the Fritz. But the price is getting up there.
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: Michael Bush on February 23, 2012, 04:05:16 am: Uncapping will do a number on your arthritis...
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: ShaneJ on February 23, 2012, 07:17:34 am: I'm still thinking up something to help with that. One of those hot wire jigs might work for me.
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: Intheswamp on February 23, 2012, 09:38:35 am: Quote from: Michael Bush on February 23, 2012, 04:05:16 am
Uncapping will do a number on your arthritis...

From the descriptions that I've read of crush and strain it seems that c&s would be worse on the hands and old arthur...more handwork. How did you go about crush and strain when you were doing it, Michael?

Thanks,
Ed
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: Michael Bush on February 23, 2012, 10:29:59 am: I've been thinking about getting an uncapping plane.

>How did you go about crush and strain when you were doing it, Michael?

I still do a bucket full or so of the ones too soft or messed up to extract. I cut them out and squish them with my hands, but a large stick would work well for a masher...
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: Intheswamp on February 23, 2012, 10:41:47 am: Quote from: Michael Bush on February 23, 2012, 10:29:59 am
I've been thinking about getting an uncapping plane.

>How did you go about crush and strain when you were doing it, Michael?

I still do a bucket full or so of the ones too soft or messed up to extract. I cut them out and squish them with my hands, but a large stick would work well for a masher...

Thanks, Ed
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: rbinhood on February 23, 2012, 01:27:53 pm: An old apple or grape screw type press works great, place your wax in a muslin bag and screw away. You can buy one of these type press for a few bucks and it saves a lot of hand work.
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: bwdenen on February 24, 2012, 12:03:48 am: Thanks for all the input. I've been doing a combination of crush/strain and gravity. I won't likely ever have more than 10-12 ives so an 18 framer seems a bit much, but things get bigger faster than expected sometimes. I'll look around.
Title: Re: Maxant or Mann Lake
Post by: BeeMaster2 on February 24, 2012, 12:30:29 am: I have the Mann Lake motorized 9/18 frame. It works real well. All stainless steal. Has a nice speed controller. After slowly increasing the speed to max, you can flip the switch to high and it darn near dries the comb. Be sure to keep the top of the shipping crate. I put it under the extractor and put 3 short screws in it to stabilize it on a tile floor.
Jim