How To Use A Gas Vap – Fast Oxalic Acid Vaporisation For Varroa Control

Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. Now we're going to do a follow-up review on a product that I really do like, and that is the GasVap. So the team at Bridge Cottage Bees have sent me 2 full GasVap kits. So the reason that I wanted to update this review is they've got a brand new blowtorch design And I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about that because obviously the first version that I had, I had some issues with. The second version, the Recro, was such a good burner. Like, it alleviated all of the issues that I had with the whole setup and turned it into a really, really good product, but it was a little bit more expensive. And now they've brought out this Taylor and Brown torch that's no more expensive than the original version. And from speaking to people, they're saying that this torch is just as good as the Recro. Doesn't come with quite as long a warranty, but it's about a third of the cost. So I just wanted to update this review, show you how it all works, talk to you a little bit about the new torch, and talk to you a little bit about how well that new torch works. And it wouldn't be Black Mountain Honey, would it, unless I was going to give something away? So not only am I going to give away a full GasVap kit with the blowtorch, but I'm also going to give away another GasVap as well. So there's 2 prizes to be won here today. The first prize is a full GasVap kit. So you're gonna get the full kit, the caps, the poly extension pipe, the little dosing tool, and a brand new blowtorch. Everything brand new, direct from Bridge Cottage Bees, courtesy of Bridge Cottage Bees as well. And then the other one is I'm gonna give away a brand new GasVap only for someone who's already got their blowtorch. And you can pick these blowtorches up for about £20. So total prize value there of over £100. So if that's not a good reason to stick around at Black Mountain Honey, no-nonsense beekeeping with our numerous giveaways and promotions, I don't know what is. So just to clarify, 2 prizes on offer here today: a full gas vap kit with the blowtorch, and then a gas vap on its own as well. And the reason that I'm doing that, and the reason that I'm going to demo that for you today, is I'm going to use my old gas vap as the demo. And to be completely blunt, I'm going to keep one of the blowtorches for myself because I like that blowtorch. It's a really good blowtorch. And I'm going to get a lot of use out of it throughout the season, and I'll do follow-up videos on it as well, showing you just how good that torch is. So, purpose of this video, I'm just going to give you a really quick demonstration of how the gas vat works, how it works with a new torch, and I'm just going to sublimate some oxalic acid. As always with oxalic acid sublimation, as we use in the UK, Api-Bioxal, make sure you use adequate protection. Don't be doing this without, at least as an absolute minimum, Full organic vapor mask, eye protection, and gloves. Really horrible stuff, oxalic acid, especially in a sublimated form. Make sure you're protecting yourself against it. Right, so let's get on with it then. So the brand new torch, the Taylor and Brown torch, I've just filled it up with some normal butane gas. Really simple to fill it up though, you just invert it, put it in down like that. This one's full now. Do it for as long as it needs to and then you're full. And then the torch is a really simple design and it's And it's got a nice design feature that all the torches have, is that it locks into the lit position. And with a gas vap, that's really important. So all you do, there's a little red lock on it, you just turn the gas open and then you hit the plunger. Starts first time. It's a really, really nice torch, this one. Good ignition mechanism and really nice accurate control of that gas as well. So I just turned it off there just because of the noise. If you turn it onto full whack, put it on, then you can adjust it down to a really nice low flame. And that's what I find is best with the gas flap. You want to keep this pretty much as low as it can be so it remains on, and then you're not getting too much heat into the gas flap because otherwise it can get very hot. I'll just turn it off again. I'm going to put the gas flap on now, and we've all seen the gas flap before. Hopefully you all have. This is the original gas flap on the market. The team at Bridge Cottage Bees, they designed this before anybody else did. They're the ones that have put the R&D money into this. They're the ones that are developing this. In my view, this is the best oxalic acid gas-powered vaping device on the market. Considerably better, in my view, than a Varox. Very, very different to a Sublimox, at a very different price point to a Sublimox as well. Sublimox, you're talking with all the kit, maybe £450. The GasVap, you can pick up a kit for £50 or £60, so it's not, it's not in the same ballpark. And in fact, the GasVap has loads of practical benefits over the Sublimox in that That's your kit. That's all you need to actually go out and treat your hives. There's nothing else to it. So you don't need a big generator, you don't need a battery or anything like that. It's a really simple, neat device. In terms of the oxalic acid sublimate that it fires out, there is no difference whatsoever between this and the Sublimox. There really isn't any difference whatsoever. So I'm going to get this one fired up and I'm just going to show you quickly how the GasVap works. Now I just went to go and get this working and I realized that, oh, it goes down like that. And I remember the previous version of the GasVap, that's what happened, and it was really frustrating. And you know me, I love it when people go away and develop solutions for things. And I just found the thumb turn in the bottom of my gas vat box. Effectively, the thumb turn, you just screw it in there like that and it clamps that on so much better. So I'll just show you again. If you're doing it and it falls like that, it is completely an unusable product. So you line it up, tighten that, and it doesn't go anywhere then. Completely fixed into position, into the orientation that you want it in. It's transformed the product in my opinion, that little, that little thumb turn. And I know the thumb turn was on my old review, but I just wanted to point it out again just to show that it really does make a difference. Make sure you get one with the thumb turn. If you're going to buy one secondhand, make sure you get one with the thumb turn. So what I'm going to do then is I'm just going to turn my torch on using the lock position, turn it on to full blast, light it, and I'm just going to turn that right down to the lowest that it'll go. Go. I'm just going to pop that on the floor while I put my PPE on. So the preheat on the GasVap is only about 30 seconds to a minute. It's nowhere near as long as a Sublimox because it need— doesn't take anywhere near as much energy to get up to temperature. So give it 30 seconds or so. You want it at a good temperature though. Now I'm suffering from bad lockdown hair as well, so I need to go and get a haircut. But this is the mask that I use. I'll stick the video up there. I talk a lot about this mask. I won't tell you about it again. We'll stick the links up though. Good quality goggles, and then you want some good quality gloves. We've got welder's gloves here. So you take the gas vat, you invert it, put your cap in, go over to a hive, flick it over. So as you can see, it's a really simple process. Beware, it stays hot for a long time after you turn the torch off. So once you've taken your gloves off, give that a good 10, 15, 20 minutes to cool down. Just test it first. But the kit comes with these caps, so you can either have the 2-cap kit or the 4-cap kit. Good to have the additional caps, I find, because they are hot. And it's good just to have numerous ones that you can take on, take off, and use. Obviously, I showed you how to do it there. It's quite difficult to talk as I'm doing it. It comes with a little copper measuring device, a level spoonful in your cap, and then you want to put the cap in upside down, go over to your hive, invert the whole gas vap, the oxalic acid drops down and fires it out into the hive. As you can see there, you get a huge amount of sublimate. It's really effective at sublimating that oxalic acid and turning it into a mist. So that's it for the video. Like I said before, I'm completely convinced this is a really, really good product. I use it on my bees. I always keep it in the truck with me. So if I've got swarms, if I've got something that needs an urgent blast of oxalic acid, I've got a really nice neat kit that I can use really, really quickly. I don't have to keep my generator with me, my Sublimox, all of the other stuff that comes with it. I've got a nice neat kit that I can use, and it's just as quick as using the Sublimox as well. So if you're interested in winning one of these prizes, one of the prizes is effectively this. So you're going to get a brand new gas flap. I've demonstrated this with my old one. A few caps, poly extension hose, little measuring tool, and the blowtorch. And then the other prize is everything you see here minus the blowtorch. So you get a brand new one of those as well. So 2 competition prizes. As always, really, really simple to enter. Hit the like button, Show me that you like the video, write a comment, and then you're included in the draw. And it's as simple as that. I hope you've enjoyed the video. I hope you're going to consider entering our competition. Like I said before, we've got loads and loads of giveaways. They're really popular with people. Feel free to share them on Facebook pages, on beekeeping forums, on anywhere you feel that people would welcome a competition or a giveaway. Take a look at our other competitions that we've got on at the moment where you can win an Abello poly hive. where you can win a BS Honeybees poly nuc. We've already given away a Thorns poly nuc. We give away loads of stuff, so stick around, subscribe to the channel, and there's plenty more to come. So as always, I hope you've enjoyed the video. I hope you found it useful. Please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.