In this short Bite‑Sized Bees episode, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey compares the new Abelo smoker box to his older model. He explains that the new box was sent free of charge for review and runs both units side‑by‑side. The review walks through every design change: a thicker‑gauge metal body, a solid fixed metal handle, bolted and replaceable hinges, riveted construction around a false floor, a deeper 25 mm heat‑isolating cavity, a tighter front latch with a fire‑proof seal, and slightly larger internal capacity that can accommodate a Dadant smoker and extra tools. Edwards highlights how these upgrades improve durability, repairability, and safety (preventing flames and smoke escape). He notes the boxes fit comfortably in the back footwell of his L200 pickup, allowing him to keep two smokers on hand. The video ends with thanks to the manufacturer, a reminder to subscribe, and a call‑to‑action.
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Hi, I'm Lawrence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping and a super short Bite-Sized Bees. So in this video, I'm going to review the brand new smoker box from Abello. Abello have sent me this one free of charge to replace my older Abello smoke box, but I'm going to run both of these. There's plenty of room in my truck for 2 smoke boxes. So what I'm going to do in this video is I'm going to talk you through the differences between these 2 boxes. This is the old Abello Smoke Box and this is the new Abello Smoke Box. And if you watch my videos, there's nothing I like more than manufacturers improving the products that they offer, going away, working on them, looking at the features, improving them, and then bringing them back to market with the improvements. So we're going to go through all of the features in this video. We've done a previous video reviewing the old Abello Smoke Box It's going to cover the new and improved features on the new Abello Smoke Box. So I was perfectly happy with this one. It wasn't until Damien messaged me and said, I've got a new one, do you want to take a look at it and review it? This still gets plenty of use, sits in the back of my truck, and it stops the smoke coming out, gives it a safe environment and a safe place for me to put my smoker when I'm going from apiary to apiary. The new one though, as soon as you open it and as soon as you feel it, It's considerably thicker material. It just feels solid in all of the areas. So whereas the other one you get a little bit more dense, this one is a little bit more solid. So the gauge of the material is a little bit superior, a little bit thicker. Then on the old one, you have a flappy handle like that, so it goes flat. In the new one, you have a really nice solid metal fixed handle. Another change on the new one is these new hinges here. So on the previous one, you had this pin and joint system. This one here, you have fixed bolted hinges, and these are really, really nice solid hinges. Everything's put together on this one with Allen keys, so if anything fails, you can just take them out and replace them. I really like that when manufacturers do that. It means that the kit will last a lot longer. So whereas on the old box, everything was just bent together, and then you might get a little bit of welding material as well, Same on this box, everything is bent together, but then you've also got rivets all the way around the exterior of the box just to hold that false floor in. Gives you a really nice premium finish. Obviously underneath you still have this cavity, it's about 25mm, so about 1 inch deep. That lifts the smoker up off the floor so you're not getting any heat going through there. And one of the real noticeable improvements is this latch at the front. It's a much better latch and it just seems a little bit tighter than the old one. So the old one was fine, and like I said, I'll continue to use it. It brings it nice and flush like that. But this new one, if you can hear this, you get a real positive seal. So that's going to completely extinguish any flames within that smoker and probably eliminate the smoke getting out a bit better than the old one. So in terms of size, these are really, really big. This is a Dadant smoker that I've got in here, and you've got plenty of room for a Dadant smoker. And if you look inside, there's Excess room as well, so you could stick a couple of hive tools in there, anything that's not going to melt alongside a smoker. And then on the top here, you've got your really good fireproof seal. So they're closing down, clamping down on that metal there, giving you a nice smokeproof seal. So there you go, that's it for the review. I told you this is going to be a really short Bite-Sized Bees. In general, it's a very similar product. The metal is a similar shape, similar design, but Every single fixture and fitting on the new Abello Smoke Box is improved. So you've got better quality hinges, better quality handle. Everything's connected to the box via a bolt or a rivet as opposed to being welded on, so it's replaceable and repairable. It's ever so slightly bigger in size as well, so you get a little bit more capacity in there. If you're using smaller smokers, you can probably just about squeeze 2 smaller smokers in here. Although I think if you've got one big smoker, that's probably enough for anyone's needs. And that pretty much covers all of the changes that they've made. So I'm going to run both of these because this is still a perfectly usable product for me. They fit nicely down the, the back footwell in a, in the pickup truck, in my L200. So I just have one on one side, one on the other side, and keep 2 smokers in here. Everyone knows that I love a smoker. Keep the smokers lit between visits, safe in the knowledge that you're not going to burn your car down. So thanks again for Damien for sending me this product to review. Hope you enjoyed the video. As always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.
