Ecostat 100 kit
I recently spent an enjoyable evening giving a talk to the Edinburgh and Midlothian Beekeepers Association. In questions after the talk I was asked where to buy the Ecostat heating element used in my honey warming cabinet. It’s not always listed on the website of the suggested supplier, Patrick Pinker (but is as I write this).
These incubator elements are usually purchased be people rearing chickens or gamebirds. An alternative supplier listing Ecostat kits in 50 and 100 eggs sizes is Strangford Incubators in Northern Ireland. You will almost certainly need the 100 egg size to generate enough heat to melt OSR honey properly.
Shop around before you purchase as there can be quite a variation in prices … £64 vs £93 (including P&P) for the two suppliers listed here 😯
I got mine from Thornes eventually David as I couldn’t find a supplier at the time
Nigel Coad
Hi Nigel … you’re right. I forgot they supplied it as well. I’ve also seen solution with separate heating elements and thermostats that work well. My honey warming cabinet page gets a lot of reads and I simply wanted to provide an update on places to source the element from. Thanks for the pointer to Thorne’s.
Regards
David
I’ll stick to my goulash cannon. At 100€ it’s cheaper, takes 4 hours to warm honey to enough for creamy, and 24hrs to liquefy it. And I can use it for candle making , making and cleaning wax blocks and even using it for what it was made for!
Ah ha! But I can use my honey warming cabinet for incubating queen cells and rising dough 😉
I suspect that liquifying honey takes about the same time in my cabinet, though you’ll have the advantage of better heat transfer.
Cheers
David
Due to lack of space and the fact that I only keep two colonies I am making a warmer only big enough to warm one bucket at a time (or carefully stacked jars). Will a smaller incubator element (e.g. 50 egg) do the job for this? I’m making the body of the box in a similar way to yours.
I’m afraid I can’t give you a definitive answer as the one I’ve described is the only one I’ve built. I suspect that the insulation is probably more important than the heating element. The better insulated it is the easier it’ll be to heat sufficiently with a smaller element. With a suitably insulated box and two 60W lightbulbs you can cook a chicken. The thermostat on these elements is tightly controlled so, other than the initial outlay, the running costs should be the same.
Take care with the insulation and good luck!
David
PS. Report back how you get on …