# Is there a sideliner bottling system out there?



## GaSteve (Apr 28, 2004)

I'm looking for something between the $20 bottling bucket and the $2400 Dadant Fill Master. The bucket works ok, but my arm cramps from working the gate after the first bucket or two and the "dripless gate" does drip after a while -- epecially if the honey is very warm. I'm sure the Fillmaster works superbly, but there must be a middle of the road system out there somewhere.


----------



## greenbeekeeping (Feb 13, 2003)

Sure. You can buy a bottling tank with a bottling valve. I have several Kelley heated bottling tanks. Here are some from maxant which are very nice. 
http://maxantindustries.com/bottling.html
How much honey are you bottling?


----------



## Jim Fischer (Jan 5, 2001)

You need a spring-loaded ball valve operated with a foot-pedal.

Many ball valves have a hole drilled in the open/close arm for
your kludging pleasure, but it does not take much engineering
to set up a spring to pull upwards, and attach a pedal that
can pull downwards, so get creative.

Why do those bogus "honey gates" even exist?


----------



## GaSteve (Apr 28, 2004)

The Maxant system appears to still require manual lever operation to fill a jar. I probably wasn't clear, but what I'm looking for is a cheap easy way to meter the honey. Push one button or pull one lever and the right amount of honey comes out. The foot pedal/ball valve might do the trick if rigged with a timer. I have seen some small pumps that could be turned off and on with a programmable timer switch -- i.e. 1 lb jar = 5 seconds, qt jar = 15 seconds, etc. Not sure how precise it would be though. As long as the tank is above the jar, the pump won't have to "pull" the honey.

>How much honey are you bottling?

I usually bottle anywhere from 80 to 150 pounds at a time.

>...your kludging pleasure

I do take great pleasure in kludging. It should be an olympic sport.


----------

