Professional Uncapping Tank - 40"

I got the uncapping tank and assembled it. Everything went together very easy. It didn't have and scratches or dents.

The tank is well designed and functional. Material thicknesses are adequate and the legs are easy to assemble. There were some material handling dents on the lid and on one of the end walls that appear to have occurred during the manufacturing process.

Easy to clean and spacious. I can roll it to share the same bucket that is filtering from the extractor while uncapping. The wheel locks are solid. Lid lays flat to keep honey cappings clean while they sit overnight and fully drain.

Would have been better if the tank wasn’t dented and their weren’t extra holes drilled in the legs

For the first two years processing honey, I uncapped into a 5 gallon bucket. Never again! With an increase from a couple of colonies in my back yard, too managing over 30, I knew I was going to need a better system. I purchased the HillCo Maxx 18 extractor and was looking for a better uncapping system to go with the larger capacity extractor. I was leaning towards the 30" Professional Uncapping Tank, but decided to go with the 40" for it's increased frame capacity, and I'm glad I did. The 40" tank gave me plenty of room to uncap frames while the extractor was doing its thing. The 40" tank will hold 28 frames, but keep in mind that you have to take out the uncapping bar to fit that many frames and it doesn't leave any room for your capping to fall. That is why I chose to go with the 40" tank over the 30" model. I wanted to make sure I had room to work and hold the 18 frames I would need to fill my extractor.

The tank seems well build and is a perfect height for me to work (I'm 6' tall). The tank was delivered with a few small dings in the back end, but nothing that will affect its performance. I do think the packaging of this product could have been a little better, with some extra padding to avoid those dings.

Assembly was simple and straight forward, with no tools needed. The hardest part about setting up the tank was peeling off all of the stickers covering and protecting the surface of the tank and lid. The uncapping bar is nice and sturdy and easy to adjust, but I did find that it loosened up bit as I used it and would slide when putting some weight on it with a heavy frame. I wonder if the screw had come loose, or if this was caused by some flex in the tank as I put more heavy honey frames in the tank? Either way, it's pretty easy to adjust the set screws on the bar to tighten it up.

When I first went to use the tank, I noticed that the honey gate appeared to be tilted slightly upward which would cause the honey to have to flow uphill just a bit. I pushed down on it and the end panel of the tank popped out a bit making the honey gate sit level like it should.

The casters on the legs make it super easy to move the tank around my garage and to get in the right position to use. The locks on the casters hold the tank in place nicely! When pushing the tank outside, one of the casters hit an uneven spot in my driveway and caused a slight bend in bottom of the leg where the caster mounts. This did make it a little more difficult to position as the caster did not sit level. Once I was done and had the tank cleaned out, I was able to bend the leg back in place, but time will tell if it stays there or not.

The double grates in the bottom of the tank worked nicely and allowed the capping to drain very cleanly through the mesh screen.

The lid is very nice and seems to be made of a little heavier material than the actual tank. The double handles on the tank make it easy to remove and replace. One change I plan on making it so to get some longer screws and a little spacer to raise the handles up off of the lid a bit to give more room for my fingers to fit under them.

The honey gate worked pretty good, but does let some drips through, but not enough to worry about. The honey gate sits almost flush with the bottom of the tank, but there is a slight lip. Having the honey gate mounted below the floor of the tank, like they do on the HillCo extractors would be a nice upgrade.

Everything was easy to clean with the hose and a little soap and water.

Overall, I'm very happy with the uncapping tank and would recommend it to others. It worked as expected, with only a couple minor issues that would not keep me from recommending the product. I would also recommend picking up a cover for the tank when not in use. An outdoor grill or table cover work great!