Bottling/Jarring My Honey:
I’ve always found filling jars to be a bit of a pain and quite messy. After seeing a “smart weighing machine” at the BBKA Spring Convention I took the plunge and ordered one. Like the labelling machine I ordered it directly from China as it was the same machine I could get from a UK supplier but for 1/2 the price. The machine took 6 weeks to arrive but the supplier took care of arranging the shipping and paying the duty and taxes on my behalf.
The key components of the machine are stainless steel and really well built. Again there weren’t any instructions to speak of and I had to resort to YouTube videos to work out how to put it together. The machine is supplied with all the components you need and includes a few spares, which was bit confusing as I wondered if I had missed attaching something. The only item not supplied is the compressor you need to provide the power for the piston to push the honey out of the tank into the jars. I was fortunate that I already had a Hyundai 550W 8L silent compressor that I could use. I needed to fit an Euro hose quick connector (2 quid from Screwfix) to replace the Japanese style one supplied with the weighing machine and I was ready to go.
There is a good instruction chart supplied that details how to tare and calibrate the machine to dispense the right weight of honey and after a couple of test fills I was ready to start. The weighing scales supplied are accurate and the machine dispenses the desired weight of honey +/- 2g which is as good as I get manually filling jars. The great thing about the machine is that once it reaches the correct weight it switches off and there are no drips – so it’s very clean to use. I use 3 different size jars – 454g, 340g and 227g and its very easy to switch between the three.
Would I recommend the machine :-
Overall I’m really impressed with the machine – setting up is easy and the tank holds upto 50Kg of honey and I can bottle about 100 jars in an hour. I haven’t used the automatic fill option but do find the foot switch nice to use as it gives me two hands to switch jars and cap the filled one.
The machine is also very easy to disassemble and clean – and you can store the parts back in the tank so it doesn’t take up too much space.
Here’s a short video of the machine in action:
