Has anyone had any experience with the Plava II Cream Seperator? I want to buy a manual seperator and this is the only reasonably priced one I can find. Unfortunately one person told me that they could rarely get it adjusted correctly to keep it from spilling milk. She said when it worked it worked great, but adjusting a certain screw to keep it from spilling was always a terrific problem. I have seen this Plava II advertised in Countryside and in the goat catalogs. All other seperators I have seen are either electric or too expensive. Any one have any co

-- R (thor610@yahoo.com), January 01, 2000

Answers

R,

If you live anywhere in farming country, you might consider looking for an old DeLaval or International Harvestor separator that might still be lurking in some farmer's barn. Although they haven't been used by dairies for many years, you still have a chance to find one in good working order. The O-ring might likely be bad, but you can get a replacement for it at a parts store. The "newer" old separators had stainless steel top parts. You shouldn't even consider buying one that isn't stainless. The DeLaval, made in Sweden, was by far the better of the two makes. Both came with a hand crank as well a power cord, except for the IH "power washer," which should be avoided. Both used a light weight "sewing machine" oil for lubrication.

You might try advertising on the local swap radio show, or put an ad in the area advertiser. I found one at an auction a few years back and I think I paid around $10 for it. Watch the auction bills, they sometimes advertise separators under the "antique" section. Most people will buy them to convert to a mailbox. What a waste.

Good luck

jw

-- jw (jwerner15@hotmail.com), January 03, 2000.

Have you seen the separators in Lehman's and Hoegger's catalogs? I ordered mine from Hoegger's, and I'm still waiting for it to arrive, so I can't vouch for it. All the separators in both catalogs seem like fine choices to me.

-- Christine Baillie (Towanda515@aol.com), January 24, 2000.