Beekeeping requires an investment of time and money. The biggest financial investment for most beekeeping hobbyists often is the beehives. Once this purchase has been made, the next major purchase is likely to be a honey extractor. The VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor is a budget-priced, stainless steel, manual honey extractor that holds more frames than many other manual honey extractors for hobbyists. But how does the VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor compare with similarly priced honey extractors? We reviewed three 2-frame stainless steel honey extractors to see how the VIVO BEE V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor stacked up.
Beekeepers are resourceful folk, but everyone appreciates a well made, quick to assemble, and easy-to-use device. Reviewers for every single one of the honey extractors reviewed for this article described adjustments they had to do themselves to make the honey extractor work to their standards. Despite that, there are some quality items to be reviewed. 
The VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor has been on the market for about six years. As a manual honey extractor, it requires manpower to operate the hand-crank. This low-tech approach is ideal for people who keep bees as a hobby. It doesn’t need electricity to operate, which keeps the cost down compared with hobby-grade electronic and commercial honey extractors. While many manual honey extractors are built of plastic, the VIVO BEE V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor is made of stainless steel.
The VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor is a polished stainless steel extractor with metal gears. It holds four to eight frames in shallow, medium, and deep sizes. This honey extractor is elevated and designed for frames up to 18 inches tall, 10 inches wide, and two inches deep.
The VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor includes a hand-crank with a plastic handle, a two-inch honey gate, a cone-shaped bottom, and a two top side, clear lid. It measures 34 inches by 17 inches by 17 inches.
Pricing
The VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor runs approximately twice as much as the three honey extractors we reviewed. However, these honey extractors are designed for only two frames. The VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor will extract twice as much honey per use than the other honey extractors in this article.
How It Compares
We picked a few similar products available on the market to see how they compare. All four honey extractors are manually powered. Some reviewers made adaptations, customizations, and jury-rigged improvements for each of the four honey extractors, signaling that none of the four honey extractors met the reviewers’ needs right out of the box.
Little Giant Farm & Ag EXT2SS 2-Frame Extractor, Stainless
Best Choice Products 2 Frame Stainless Steel Honey Extractor Beekeeping Equipment
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Some reviewers observed that this honey extractor gets a little unstable during use. However, it’s easy to crank.
This honey extractor took about a half hour to assemble. While reviewers noted that it only needed its legs installed, the quality of the parts affected how easy it was to complete this task.
The VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor disappointed reviewers with a drippy honey gate and by not having enough room to slide a five-gallon bucket underneath. Adaptations made by reviewers included lifting the extractor to fit a five-gallon bucket, adding a bowl under the honey gate, and bolting down the extractor to improve stability.
With a one-year warranty and tech support, the VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor has the best warranty of the four honey extractors reviewed.
Reviewers noted the following pros and cons of the VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor:
- Decent for the price
- Good customer service
- Nice 4-frame extractor for hobbyists
- Does its job; nothing fancy
- Honey doesn’t drain all the way
- Hard to assemble
- Hard to clean
- Some parts feel flimsy
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The ARKSEN Beekeeping Honeycomb Drum 2 Frame Stainless Steel Freestanding Honey Extractor has fixed point leg support and a square handle hole. It accepts two frames in shallow, medium, and deep sizes. It measures 15.6 inches by 15.6 inches by 39.4 inches. It comes with an electric uncapping knife.
Price $$
The ARKSEN 2 Frame Honey Extractor efficiently extracted honey. Reviewers found it easy to use.
Though no assembly instructions were included with this honey extractor, reviewers noted it was to assemble.
The reviewers disliked the spigot design and loose bolts. The square handle hole was a nice touch, however. Some reviewers recommended mounting or fastening down this honey extractor to improve stability.
Ask the seller about warranties that may be available through sales, but none is available from the manufacturer.
Reviewers noted the following pros and cons of the ARKSEN 2 Frame Honey Extractor:
- Includes uncapping knife
- Good customer service
- Works fine; very few complaints
- Can feel unstable
- Flimsy material
- Issues with the spigot
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The Little Giant Farm & Ag EXT2SS 2-Frame Extractor is a tangential extractor. It has a plexiglass lid and fits 2 frames in size medium or deep. It measures 16 inches by 16 inches by 30 inches and stands about eight inches off the floor.
Price $$
Some reviewers noted that this honey extractor was wobbly. Once the wobbliness was solved, though, it proved easy to use.
No assembly instructions were included with the Little Giant Farm & Ag EXT2SS 2-Frame Extractor. The un-assembled honey extractor arrived to some reviewers missing hardware, which made assembly a challenge.
This honey extractor does not fit a five-gallon bucket. Reviewers observed that some parts feel to be of poor quality. They also found that it is difficult to clean. One reviewer found it most helpful to just not attach the legs at all but instead rig up another system entirely.
Little Giant Farm & Ag EXT2SS 2-Frame Extractor may be exchanged or repaired within 30 days of purchase.
Reviewers noted the following pros and cons of the Little Giant Farm & AG EXT 255 2-Frame Extractor:
- Works fine
- Reasonable price for what you get
- Bad paint job on the wooden handle
- Flimsy material
- Hard to clean
- Hard to balance the frames
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The Best Choice Products 2 Frame Stainless Steel Honey Extractor measures 16 inches by 16 inches by 38 inches. It is shaped with a conical bottom. It includes a metal crank with a wooden handle and includes a clear, double-sided lid. It fits regular rectangular frames.
Price $$
Reviewers noted that this honey extractor goes off balance. Aside from the balance issues, the Best Choice Products 2 Frame Stainless Steel Honey Extractor was easy to use.
While this honey extractor was simple to assemble, its sharp metal parts cut users severely, requiring stitches in some cases.
This honey extractor, like some others, did not have legs tall enough to allow a five-gallon bucket to slide underneath. The handle also has a tendency to unscrew during use, but reviewers noted this was easy to fix with super glue.
The Best Choice Products 2 Frame Stainless Steel Honey Extractor comes with a 60-day warranty.
Reviewers noted the following pros and cons of the Best Choice Products 2 Frame Stainless Steel Honey Extractor:
- Easy to clean
- Easy to use
- Sturdier than other honey extractors
- Good customer service
- Poor balance during use
- Poor packaging
- Doesn’t fit deep frames
- Sharp metal parts
Based on our review, we award the VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor three out of five stars. Our rating is based not only on the reviews for this article but also on the easy availability of other 4 to 8 frame manually powered honey extractors within the same price point as the VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor on Amazon. Of these honey extractors, the VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor was the highest rated in terms of the number of stars and the number of ratings, with over 245 Amazon ratings. (Four to eight frame manual honey extractors are in the minority on Amazon; people interested in manual honey extractors will find more variety and availability in the two frame range.)
Compared with the three other honey extractors in our review, the VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor’s biggest selling points are its ability to extract honey from four frames, rather than just two, and VIVO’s warranty, which offered more coverage than the other three reviewed honey extractors. If a hobbyist beekeeper specifically is looking for a manually powered honey extractor that holds four or more frames and is easily available across the United States via Amazon, then the VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor will be the ideal choice.
However, for a hobbyist looking for a “starter” level manual honey extractor available throughout the United States by Amazon, we believe the ARKSEN Beekeeping Honeycomb Drum 2 Frame Stainless Steel Freestanding Honey Extractor will be a better choice. It is not a perfect manually powered honey extractor by any means; however, in terms of our comparison for this article, it came out far ahead of the other three, including the VIVO BEE-V004B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor. The ARKSEN Beekeeping Honeycomb Drum 2 Frame Stainless Steel Freestanding Honey Extractor surpassed the other three honey extractors in our review in terms of ease of use, assembly, and design quality.
The ARKSEN Beekeeping Honeycomb Drum 2 Frame Stainless Steel Freestanding Honey Extractor required the fewest adjustments though it lost points for not including assembly instructions in its packaging. However, despite this lack of instructions, when compared with the other three honey extractors, the ARKSEN Beekeeping Honeycomb Drum 2 Frame Stainless Steel Freestanding Honey Extractor was the easiest to assemble. It also gained points for having fewer design issues than the other three extractors.
In conclusion, the VIVO BEE-VOO4B 4 to 8 Frame Honey Extractor might be work considering if you’re a hobby apiarist moving up to the next level. For many hobbyist beekeepers, though, the ARKSEN Beekeeping Honeycomb Drum 2 Frame Stainless Steel Freestanding Honey Extractor will serve you well.