clean wax with slow cooker 2023

I switched to a round slow cooker (crock pot) to clean the crushed honeycomb and this led me to simplify my crushed comb cleaning steps using a colander.

• crushed honeycomb - link for bee yard and kitchen activities
  
• after several days of straining, I rinsed the crushed comb in warm water
• selected a colander of the same diameter as the round slow cooker lid
• line colander with cotton fabric and I mounded with rinsed crushed comb 
• added lid and joined cotton fabric edges with 2 bull clips
• removed the colander and added 1 cup of water and lid to the slow cooker
• be safe and melt the wax outdoors
• set slow cooker on high for 1 3/4 hours
• turned off the slow cooker and let it cool undisturbed to room temperature with the lid on

ChatGPT generated haiku 

Crush, strain, honey's flow,
Slow cooker's gentle embrace,
Clean comb's sweet glow.

crush and strain 2021

Here's my crush and strain experience so far this year:

bee yard activities:

• inserted a triangular bee escape beneath a deep box and next day removed 8 fat deep frames 
• halfway (8 steps) between hive and Storage Tote brushed small number of bees from the frame
• one deep frame donated to "May 10th" swarm and remaining frames taken indoors
  

 kitchen activities:

• attached (with blue painter's tape) brown paper on floor and cabinets
• placed food safe 5 gallon bucket on brown paper and attached combcapper
  
• plugged frame into combcapper and cut capped comb from frames with paring knife
• crushed comb with 2 inch Plastic Joint Knife attached to a pole
  
• filtered crushed comb with small mesh fabric strainer and bottler stack - yielded 3.4 gallons (12.9 liters) of honey 
• in 3 cycles, I used 1 cup of water, coarse cotton fabric and a 5qt round slow cooker set on high for 1.75 hours to catch wax impurities which resulted in 1.54 lbs (700 gm) of wax

wax blocks 2019

After crush and strain, I rinsed the wax with warm water. Crushed wax was melted outdoors in a large thrift store slow cooker. I used one cup of water and cotton fabric to catch wax impurities. I set the cooker on high for nearly 2 hours and left everything to cool for another 4 hours. I repeated this cycle 3 times. Click on the photo and have a look at the tidy elliptical wax blocks.

clean wax with slow cooker

I retired my solar wax melter and use a slow cooker exclusively to clean wax.  For safety, I operate the slow cooker outdoors and place concrete pavers beneath the hot appliance and wood table top. After crush and strain honey extraction, wax from thirteen frames are rinsed in warm water and cleaned in two slow cooker batches.   I added half the wax and two cups of water to the large oval slow cooker. Shown is cotton fabric and blue tape which suspend the wax above the water bath.  After two to three hours on the high setting, I turn off the slow cooker and leave all components (lid, cotton fabric and wax impurities) undisturbed until the slow cooker has completely cooled.