Warming buckets of honey in a Burco Boiler

Hi Folks,
This is the first year I have had enough honey to store in buckets. I have acquired a burco boiler which belonged to my mum and have read a few of the posts about warming honey in burco boilers, but am not sure whether the bucket should be placed out of the water or in it. Thanks for any replies.

If its a boiler, isn't it going to be difficult, whichever method you use, to avoid excessive heating of the honey?

Would you put a jar of honey into a saucepan of boiling water?

Water has far higher heat capacity than air. Think simply here. Do you hands get colder faster in air or water at zero Celsius?

Presumably these posts you have read have covered the temperature requirements.

RAB

Boiler. Don't let it boil. Use a thermostat!

I wouldn't be boiling the water to heat the honey bucket , but heat water to the required temp.

Place a framework, stand of some kind (bricks with piece of flat board on top) in your boiler, low enough for the bucket to sit in the water to within a couple of inches of the top of the bucket, keep an eye on temperature and stir honey fairly frequently as it starts to liquify, a small electric paddle stirrer sat across the top of the bucket is a good idea to keep the honey stirred and consistent temperature.

Thankyou Hivemaker, much appreciated. Where theres a will theres a way.

I tried turning a Burco into a ban marie with the aid of a trug, so I could render down some wax. The trug split. Still chipping the wax of the patio.

SteveJ

SteveJ said:

I tried turning a Burco into a ban marie with the aid of a trug, so I could render down some wax. The trug split. Still chipping the wax of the patio.
SteveJ

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Works well by putting 4 or 5 inches of water in the Burco boiler, and then the wax, ladle out molten wax into molds.

That's how we do it too - honey softens swiftly - Good Luck

Make sure that the bucket has a tight fitting lid! Honey is hygroscopic and will suck in a lot of water using this method if it can.

FreeFall said:

Make sure that the bucket has a tight fitting lid! Honey is hygroscopic and will suck in a lot of water using this method if it can.

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May force the lid off, and difficult with a mixer on, how much % wise will moisture rise over say one hour? i have never observed any rise in moisture content at all, not even over several hours, but the opposite does happen, and the moisture % actually goes down.

great info folks, thanks a lot.

Hivemaker. said:

May force the lid off, and difficult with a mixer on, how much % wise will moisture rise over say one hour? i have never observed any rise in moisture content at all, not even over several hours, but the opposite does happen, and the moisture % actually goes down.

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It's not happened to me but there is a member on here that told me that he experienced this, the result being that the honey was only fit for feeding back to the bees or making mead. My OSR honey sets like concrete and takes a couple of days to go liquid if I set the thermostat to 40 degrees C. Never had a lid blow off.

Have people used this method? I used to put a 30lb bucket in my (small) oven but the new buckets with their extra quarter or half an inch in height are no good.

I have a Burco and it would greatly help if I could even get the honey softened so I can transfer it into other (smaller) buckets for the oven.

I use the infamous 'lidl jam maker' which was on sale a few years ago... basically a cheap burco.
This has a grill to keep the bucket away from the heat source.

Don't trust the thermostat. I use a vivarium thermostat for accuracy.

Water holds heat better than air, but as long as there is enough room for water to circulate, it does.
For rock hard honey, I leave for 3 days at 36º.... some times a little longer . This allows the honey to be stirred.
The type of honey depends on how fast it 'defrosts'. Once I am able to stir, I bump up the temperature to 40 and stir every hour or less depending on how thin the honey is.
For rape honey, I then follow the instructions for soft set.

Slightly off topic, but wax rendering mentioned.. so..use the sun
I got a poly box from a tropical fish supplier.. free, cut most of lid away leaving a frame. Stuck onto lid a Perspex sheet.
Inside box I have a receiving tray (with aluminium foil in)
An old loaf tin, hole in base at one end, inside a muslin cloth. The decent wax (not brown rubbish) is placed on muslin.The loaf tin is tilted. Lid on box, full sunshine, wax drips through. No cost involved and lovely clean wax in tray.

You could put bucket of honey in solar extractor

Burco, yes -with thermostat ticking over and a brick on the element to keep away from plastic bucket.

peteinwilts said:

I use the infamous 'lidl jam maker' which was on sale a few years ago... basically a cheap burco.
...
Don't trust the thermostat. I use a vivarium thermostat for accuracy.

...

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Worth noting - big tea urns have powerful heating elements - 1800 watts for the oldest Lidl jam maker, similar sort of thing for the various Burcos.

You need a pretty heavy duty relay on your thermostat to switch that much current.

The nice little STC1000 digital thermostats (sold for aquaria and vivaria amongst other things) incorporate a relay that is rated to switch 5 amps (roughly 1000 watts).
This is plenty strong enough for switching a normal light bulb ( 40, 60 or 100 watts) but is not going to last long at all if asked to switch 2000 watts for a tea urn.

Check the load your heating element represents.
Make sure it is below the limit for your thermostat!