Vivo Bee V004E electric extractor

[merryn]

Hello has anyone had  experience with an electric extractor Vivo Bee V004E?  Where is it made and is it any good for 4 frame spinning?  Or are there any other 4 frame electric extractors that are decently priced in Australia?  Thank you for any feedback.

[Oldbeavo]

When you think about buying an extractor, think about where will i be with my bees in 10 years time.
A good extractor should last for decades.
First extractor i bought was a 2 frame hand crank, caught the bee keeping virus and in 3 years later bought a 78 electric. We ahd 42 hives then but new i was heading upwards in numbers. Never looked back.

A rule of bee keeping purchasing is think what you need and double it. Whether it is frames, boxes, timber etc.

[rast]

My wife bought me one as a gift this year and it worked well for this season. I do not use the legs that came with it. I bent some straps with 90 degree ends and bolted it down to the raised wooden platform my manual was previously on. I won't go back to manual now.

[Ben Framed]

I bought the motorized one a couple months ago and I really like it. I think I paid $319.00 for it including shipping. I just checked and the price is $499.99

Works well. I am not sorry I bought it. Even still Oldbevos' advice should be taken if you are planning on a steady expansion.

[Ben Framed]

As stated in on a recent topic here about extractors, I mentioned I like the home built one that was posted here by Wombat2. I have noticed he has since privatized his video showing a demonstration. However the pictures still exist.

[Barhopper]

Have the Vivo manual and electric. Modified the electric to the manual and manual to electric. I didn?t like the basket that came with the electric one for spinning 8 frames radially and the manual one already had some modifications. My only complaint is the electric doesn?t spin fast enough for me. I?m going to try to modify the reostat to try to get more rpm?s. Other than that I have had no complaints.
I do have a Dadant electric that really spins the frames.

[merryn]

Thank you everyone for your honest comments it is most appreciated.  We now have 6 hives and by all accounts this is going to be a good honey season and the manual extractor makes for hard work (after harvesting).

[Ben Framed]

Thank you everyone for your honest comments it is most appreciated.  We now have 6 hives and by all accounts this is going to be a good honey season and the manual extractor makes for hard work (after harvesting).

I would not wish to manually extract though it has worked for folks for years. As accurately stated by Barhopper, the Vivo electric 4 frame is not the fastest but it is plenty fast enough for the basket type design doing a "great" job of extracting the honey, leaving no visible honey behind.  Any faster on foundationless and they would most likely blow out on full speed if any faster, in some cases. Actually on some of my foundationless frames, I had to resort to rubberbanding the frames which comb was not completely attached to the frames on all sides, (waxed in), as done in a cutout to inhibit (blow out). Just another good reason to use Plastic foundation in my opinion. I hope this helps you.

[BurleyBee]

I tried a hand crank once that a borrowed and swore I?d never do it again.  I have the electric Vivo.  For a small scale like myself it does fine.  I plan on upgrading to a nice dadant or Maxant when the time comes.