# Wax melter in Kitchen



## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

So what is the best way to separate wax in the kitchen? Double boiler or oven.?


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Up your insurance by a million, update your will and apply for the Darwin Award in case you do not survive melting flammable liquids inside the house. The double boiler is the safer of the two options. Keep the temp down around 145 so you have a little time to panic.


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## kbenz (Feb 17, 2010)

my wife has used a double boiler several times


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

I was thinking something in the oven at 100 degree's or something.


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

OH my goodness! Wax in the oven! Double the insurance policy! What do you think CANDLES are made of! 

mike


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Wax, an oil, is very flammable. No a good idea to put it in your oven. A crock poit maybe, but not the oven. You are playing w/ fire.


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## ArkansasBK (Mar 5, 2011)

:no::no:: Solar melter outside in July and August.


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

OK. fine off to goodwill for a double boiler. I have some wax I want to get rid of before July and August. 

How do you do it in a double boiler.? I am thinking a can inside of a pot. Have an old one. Put wax in can and heat water in pot with can in it. Wax melts. 

What is the best way to filter it to get the junk out and make it more pure.?


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## concrete-bees (Jun 20, 2009)

Get an old crock pot - put wax in it and turn it on - simple no flame no problem - been doing it for years - 

so simple a caveman can do it !!!!


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

That's basically what I do. Once the water gets hot enough to start a simmer, I turn the heat all the way down on low.

You can put water in the coffee can with the wax also. The wax will float on top of the water, & most of the junk will be on the bottom.
When it cools just remove the wax from the top, & save it for future filtering when you have more.



EastSideBuzz said:


> OK. fine off to goodwill for a double boiler. I have some wax I want to get rid of before July and August.
> 
> How do you do it in a double boiler.? I am thinking a can inside of a pot. Have an old one. Put wax in can and heat water in pot with can in it. Wax melts.
> 
> What is the best way to filter it to get the junk out and make it more pure.?


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## SPRUCE BEE (Mar 14, 2009)

'so simple a caveman can do it !!!!":lpf:
Sounds like another Geico commercial in the making.:lpf:
Good luck ESB with the wax melting experiments, IFD has been notified & is on standby when you torch the wife's oven.:lpf:
:ws

SPRUCE BEE


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

I am using an old screen spoon to scoop out the crap off the top the dead bee bodies and stuff. Then there is a liquid that floats on top then the wax floats about an inch under. It clogs with wax but dunk it under and the clogged wax melts and it will scoop just fine. Pull the can and put it in the sink with cold water and it hardens up. The wax is about an inch or so thick. It is mostly yellow with some junk in it but most is gone. Have to figure out a way to make it purer 



SPRUCE BEE said:


> IFD has been notified & is on standby when you torch the wife's oven.:lpf: SPRUCE BEE


EastSide Fire and Rescue to be exact. Chief is a friend and will call first before they make the long drive out to the house. So no worries. Stove and double boiler is the way to go.


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## AramF (Sep 23, 2010)

I have personnally not tried this, but I was thinking that tying dirty wax in a cheese cloth and then weighting it down on the bottom of the crockpot ought to keep most of the gunk inside the cloth and the wax on the water surface. I do not know how permiable the wax impurities can be, but I bet the legs and bodies will stay inside the cheese cloth sack.


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

That is a good idea.

I have some really moldy wax I just tried to melt. I scooped the gunk off the top and then let it harden and I did not have anything left. Apparently the mold and wax became one. Not sure how to save the wax.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

I just use an old stock pot, one that is not already in your kitchen as a pot to cook with. I fill an inch or two of water on the bottom and then put in the wax. If the wax is pretty dirty, I'll put it inside a paint strainer bag. Turnthe heat to med or med/low and wait. The wax will melt down and when it's all melted well, remove the bag if it was used and let it drip or squeeze it into the pan, then discard. Remove pan from heat and let cool slowly. When it's all cool you can get the wax out and scrape off the bottom where the debri has stuck to it between the wax and the water. Repeating will get the wax even cleaner. It's the water that is the secret. Melt the wax in water, not by itself in a double boiler.


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## beedeetee (Nov 27, 2004)

Eastsidebuzz,

The problem that we have here on the west side of the Cascades is a lack of sun for 9 months of the year. But, I still find a solar melter to be by far the best solution for really clean wax. 

I don't pull honey supers until mid-July and extract about August 1, so I have quite a few sunny days before that to get all of my wax from the year before melted. I can melt wax on a sunny day until the middle of September. You might be a week earlier since you are farther north. Usually I can easily get all of my wax for the year melted and clean (I might run it through the melter twice), before the sun is too low. Last year was a challenge and I still have about 3-4lbs of cappings that I never got done due to complete lack of sun for most of the year.

My little melter can do up to 5lb/day. I tried the double boiler route, but when I made my melter out of scrap wood and used it the first day I just shook my head at all of the headaches that I had gone through (not even counting the danger) of melting wax over a stove. If I had more wax, I would just build more or bigger melters. No power cost either.


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## t0k (Oct 16, 2004)

something like this?!
its a steam juicer and food steamer
i've never used it to make juice or to steam food, bought it for wax

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r298/t0k_bucket/topionik/DSC000351.jpg

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r298/t0k_bucket/topionik/DSC000361.jpg

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r298/t0k_bucket/topionik/DSC000381.jpg

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r298/t0k_bucket/topionik/DSC000371.jpg

i have a bigger now (not a juicer, same principle) that holds up to 10 frames so i use this one for cappings


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## AramF (Sep 23, 2010)

Would it not make sence to maybe get a higher volt lamp and place it over the solar melter. All you really need is a heat source, so instead of the sun, get an artificial flood light and point it over the melter. The green house effect will take no time to kick in. Certainly it uses energy, but probably not nearly as much as what it takes to heat up water. I do not know what wattage would be safe to use, but 200 W seems in the ballpark.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

AramF said:


> Would it not make sence to maybe get a higher volt lamp and place it over the solar melter. All you really need is a heat source, so instead of the sun, get an artificial flood light and point it over the melter. The green house effect will take no time to kick in. Certainly it uses energy, but probably not nearly as much as what it takes to heat up water. I do not know what wattage would be safe to use, but 200 W seems in the ballpark.


Uh, I don't think so. Maybe for a tiny melter, but not the one shown on BeeSource plans.


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## HONEYDEW (Mar 9, 2007)

> but 200 W seems in the ballpark.


 Lets see the sun 200watt bulb, sun 200watt bulb :scratch:  sorry I had too


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## HONEYDEW (Mar 9, 2007)

Hey t0k, thats a pretty cool idea do you put the capping's in a cloth first or straight into the strainer part, and how much water gets in the final product


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## AramF (Sep 23, 2010)

well, maybe 200W won't work, but whatever flood lights they use to heat up the toilet seat so that your bun does not get cold in the winter morning, will definitely work. It certaily feels roasty once you sit under one of the them.  Yes, speaking from personal experience. I am just giving options for my fellow NWesteners who do not have sun but for 3 months out of the year.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Be ever so careful w/ a heat lamp for adding heat to the wax melting process. Fies have been started. Never leave it unattended.


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## AramF (Sep 23, 2010)

excellet point. that's why I suggested lower wattage lamp, but I guess slow does it is not the goal here, so higher wattage was suggested later. it is the trapping of the heat that does the work, not the heat source.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

AramF said:


> it is the trapping of the heat that does the work, not the heat source.


I disagree. I have been solar melting for over 30 years. I can not believe that you could melt any decent quantity of wax by shining a heat lamp on it, unless it was a heat lamp the size of a house. In my melter, at the end of the day, as soon as part of the catch can goes into the shade, the wax starts to harden on the top from the outsides. That wax could not be much cooler than the liquid wax next, and under it. Also, wax under frame shadows does not melt as quickly as the wax not under the shadow. The sun hitting the wax is as important as the heat in the box. 

Post a video of your heat lamp wax melter, this I've got to see.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

The wax melteras I have experience w/ have two heat sources, sometimes. The one I had was waterjacketed so the honey stayed hot and the wax stayed on top. And it had a heat element in the hood to melt the wax.

Others I have seen are jacketed in steam, w/ a port for the wax to drain from and a port to drain the honey from.

I don't know how folks are going to get the honey out of the crock pot. By the time the wax is melted into a cake and then allowed to cool, the honey will be ruined.


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## t0k (Oct 16, 2004)

HONEYDEW said:


> Hey t0k, thats a pretty cool idea do you put the capping's in a cloth first or straight into the strainer part, and how much water gets in the final product


No, i dont use cloth. I do the same wax twice so it is cleaner.
How much water depends on how fast the melting goes, but i dont see why is that important.


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