# Spinfloat steam injection



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Does anyone inject steam into their spinfloat against the exterior of the drum? 
If so, do you notice improved performance?


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## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

Interesting idea. My guess would be that the heat transfer would be negligible. 

Having the spinfloat in a dedicated "hot room" would probably be more beneficial. That's what I do for down times of several days and minimizes/eliminates any crystallization. I haven't tried it for extraction. It might be a good idea.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

The thinking is the steam would keep the drum hot, and retard granulation 
Might help later on in the flow when the day's nights cool down and the honey runs thicker


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

The unit we purchased in the late 60's came with a water spray nozzle that mounted near the wax chopping blades. We saw no difference on or off, so we left it off. 

I would be concerned about where the condensed steam ended up. Will it go in the honey? 

What problem are you trying to solve?

Crazy Roland


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Ya I have a water jet on the knives. It works nice as it keeps the knives from gumming up and keeps the cutting area clear. I wired and plumbed in a solenoid to open only when the out flow pump runs.

With the steam, a neighbour rigged his unit up to blow onto the outside of the drum all day (unless honey was high in moisture) to keep the drum "hot" and prevent that slow granulation along the edges which gum the baffels up. He cleaned his spinner out once or twice last year. I clean mine every Sunday.

Wondering if anyone else does this .


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## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

How often did he clean his drum before he hooked up the steam? I find it difficult to believe the steam would make much of a difference. The amount of heat stored in the steam seems insignificant when compared to the mass of the metal and volume of honey going through. In addition there is a lot of heat energy being added to the drum by the honey. My guess is no granulation occurs during use, but rather during periods of inactivity.

I rarely clean my drum more than once a year. Last year i had several 4-5 day stretches of inactivity and the amount of crystallization at the end of season was insignificant. During any prolonged stretch of inactivity I kept the spin float above 30 C.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Mine is granulating up so that a clean out every Sunday is needed, we run it everyday except weekends 

Ya good point on the steam. 
These steam injectors are $1000 plus


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

Allen, do you move the entire unit into your hot room? Is it not bolted down? We also clean ours weekly.


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## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

My "hot room" for the spinfloat is a 3 sided room with a false ceiling in the extracting room. The ceiling and the walls are insulated. The opening faces the extractor and can be closed very quickly and easily with plastic sheet and the temperature can be kept high during non-extracting. 

The last couple years I have cranked the temperature in the extracting room to plus 30C on weekends with heaters being directed towards the spin float and extractors. Even fall presents very little granulation difficulty this way.

The little room around the spinfloat is an echo chamber. That is my one complaint about the setup.


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## cmiedema (Feb 24, 2017)

We have our spin floats in the extracting room. Have no steam and no problems with them as long as the honey coming in has been in the hotroom for a few days. We run two water jets on our knives when we push through lots of honey. notice the wax is allot dryer with the water jets working well.

we've got a boiler and the electric running our heat exchangers, find that the boiler can keep the temperature allot more stable then the electric heat elements would.


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