I read the same thing in my travels. I keep the length short so the pot is
just past the front lip of the hive body. I also fixed the rod into a mock
entrance reducer so I inset the "entrance reducer" with rod into the hive.
This positions the pot above the floor and below the frames.It is still not
foolproof.

I can see a problem if you do not cool down the vaporizer between
applications because if you still measure the time it as if it were cold,
you burn off the OA but are still heating the pot. Until the OA is
vaporized, the pot will be around the heat of vaporization, but allow it to
heat after that and you are looking for a fire.

The Varrox  vaporizer is one of the more expensive, and in hind sight I
would have bought it because it can be immersed in water between hives. It
also has a spacer like my home made entrance reducer to position it
hopefully away from contact with the hive's interior. It also is the one
that led me to question why the am treatment since it is wide open at its
bottom and would allow lots of fumes to escape.

It is also recommended by some guy named Randy Oliver- never hear of him.

I am content with mine since it works fine and I have a limited number of
hives to treat and can wait between treatments.

I did melt a bit of plastic frame in one treatment. So I conducted a test
to see what would happen if I left it in the pot and did an open OA
vaporization.. The OA vaporized in my standard 2 min 30+ seconds but all
the plastic did was get soft but did not burn.

The key is not to overheat the pot but know how long it takes from the time
you put on power until all the OA has vaporized.Then stop!  For a hobby
beekeeper the rod is fine but you best know your equipment. I think for a
commercial operation, you have to go with the fan inserted OA vapor. Much
more control.

If I had a lot of hives and wanted to move quickly between hives, I would
conduct a test to see just how long it takes a hot pot to vaporize the OA
and use that time, not the cold test number.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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