Duel Drum Warmer
Introduction
Sooner
or later (usually sooner) your honey will sugar and you'll need to return it to
it's liquid state. In order to accomplish this I've designed and built an
enclosure that will warm two 55 gallon drums at a time. As a public
service, the following plans are made available.
For those of us who pride ourselves in marketing "Raw" honey, this warming process needs to be well controlled or some (if not all) of the honey will rise above an acceptable temperature. The most popular (and cheapest) way is to use band heaters. With two heater bands and a thermal blanket I still found that the process took a week and heated the periphery of the honey while the center of the drum stayed crystallized. Many people build a temperature controlled room; a great idea if you have the space and money.
My solution was to build a warming cabinet (box) suspended from the ceiling. When I wish to warm a drum or two I place the drum under the warming cabinet, lower it and power it up. There's nothing simpler.
Methods
The
box is made of 2X2 corners with Lauan sides. The corners are attached with
2" angle braces. 1" foam board is glued inside. It measures
64"X35"X45". The whole thing weights about 50#. In the picture on
the left the cabinet has been raised a foot off the floor. On the right
you can see the inside with the foam board glued inside the 2X2 frame.
Also visible is the fan, temperature controller probe and wire to the honey
temperature monitor.
The
cabinet is suspended from the 10' high ceiling with ropes passing through two
pulleys to a shelf on the wall and down to a winch. The winch is the
smallest (cheapest) one originally designed to drag a boat onto a boat trailer
(available at any hardware or boat store). The picture on the left shows
the cabinet fully raised. I'm 6' tall and can walk under the cabinet
without crouching (just barely). The picture on the right shows the boat
winch mounted on a 2X4 supported by the shelf and ceiling. The cabinet is
more awkward than heavy and goes up and down easily.
The
cabinet is heated by two 450 Watt enclosure heaters from Grainger (part number
3HK17). These were $86 each.
The backing was made with scraps of Lauan behind a piece of aluminum flashing
available at any hardware store or lumber yard. The fan also came from Grainger and was $31.70 (part number
4WT49). The heaters are controlled with a TIP temperature controller part
number OAKCON001 costing $149.95. That's the grey unit on the left that's
been set at 120 degrees (not shown), has been on for 6 hours and 4 minutes and
is presently reading 118 degrees in the cabinet. The temperature probe
that is in the honey is a battery operated Taylor unit available at many
hardware stores. This is the unit on the right reading 100.2 degrees in
the center of the honey drum and 66.6 degrees in the room; it's suspended in the
honey through a hole in a drum lid (picture below and to the right).
Summary - This Duel Drum Warmer gently and uniformly heats the honey until is is liquid. I recommend warming the honey at 100 degrees for a day or two then raising it to 120 degrees for 24 hours. You can raise the cabinet and stir the honey once or twice before and during the 120 degree phase and you're done!