>    A hot water washer creates it's own hot water, i.e. a hotsy unit, 
> cost approx. $2500.00, excellent for cleaning extracting facilities and 
> honey drums as well.

I rented one of these the past weekend.  (By the way, I found prices
were twice what you quoted, to buy, and the rental came to almost
two hundred dollars, twice what Bob quoted).   It was a heavy duty
unit, 4000 psi and used lots of heating oil.  It did clean the plastic
completely, but not quickly.  You still had to keep the wand very
close to the plastic and cover the surface totally (which was hard
to do since the frames and myself were envelopped in thick fog).

I bought a face shield but couldn't use it because of condensation
and the fog.  Couldn't even wear my glasses.  It was one of more
obnoxious things I have ever tried.

I built two holders to hold frames and put them at opposite
ends of the trailer so one person could be cleaning while another
emptied and reloaded the other frame.  It worked well with the
one piece plastic frames, but with wooden frames with the plastic
inserts they needed a backing board to prevent the plastic blowing
out, and so they had to be handled twice and either the frame
flipped or the backing board flipped.  

The economics of it are pretty clear:  with the one piece plastic
frames even assuming you owned the machine and were doing
so many frames that the amortization cost was near zero it is
a break even proposition considering the gas, heating oil and
labour.

With the plastic inserts in wooden frames, there is no question
that it would be cheaper and easier to junk the insert and put
in a new one or go back to wax.  The extra handling in having
to back up the frame and do each side separately and the fact
that the plastic is half the cost makes the difference.

Environmental economics are also poor.  It took quite a lot of
heating fuel and gas.  I don't know how much oil it takes to
manufacture a plastic insert.

I don't recommend the method even though it works.  The 
cost of one the "hotsy" type units is probably close to the cost
of a good set of foundation rollers and a wax sheet roller
(at least the ones I saw recently in Chile).

I have one last thing to try.  I have ordered a bag of lye
and I want to see if a lye bath loosens the cocoons.   A soak
in a lye bath and then a rinse might be an acceptable
method if it worked.  I hate the thought of sending all that
plastic to the landfill.  I am not keen to use something as
corrosive and dangerous as lye, but I think it would be
better than the hotsy.

Stan

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