Hi all,
I have just finished oiling, drying and putting together 2 full flow hives shipped to me from USA. Shame on you Yanks!’ Quality wise you have just dropped below Chinese manufacturing in my personal rating.
The wood could not have possibly been dried before you’ve fabricated the parts.
Parts are made with plus minus 2mm tolerances and when this gets combined with wood bending upon drying (especially where knots are present) the gaps and wobbliness can be considerable.
In my case - one of the hives has 6mm gap between the top box and the cover on it !!!
I will have to replace one piece of wood in the top cover to address this problem.
Overall I am quite disappointed with the outcome. It is so beautifully designed hive and the bad craftsmanship just spoils it for me.
Anyway I am looking forward to having bees in it - hoping the flow parts made in Australia will do what they suppose to.
Sorry to hear there are issues with the hives. We don’t want you to be stuck with faulty products. If you send photos of the faults to our support team via info@honeyflow.com we can arrange replacement. We will also pass your feedback onto the manufacturer too.
Saadi,
it would an arguable topic to agree what is fault and what is ok. From the function point of view you can even argue that all is ok as bees are able to seal any gaps themselves. Beehive is not a furniture / is it?
It much depends on expectations and I have most likely expectations higher than others.
I mainly feel sorry for the “missed opportunity” to produce an “icon” one can be proud of.
As I come from trade background I know that to produce a mediocre outcome takes nearly as much energy / effort as producing an excellent outcome.
The pride of a tradesman and attention paid to details are largely responsible for the quality of outcome. In this respect I am badly disappointed by the “USA made”.
Had the wood been kiln dried, the machinery correctly used and the contractor proud of his work you could have come pretty close to IKEA standard.
(It doesn’t take much effort to avoid having knots in locations where they cause problems, and if IKEA can do it anybody who works with wood can likewise.)
Anyway I am not interested in getting a replacement as it is greater hassle for me than fixing it myself.
I just had to let off bit of steam.
It may be useful to you guys, and possibly even to buyers. With low expectations a disappointment is less likely.
I include few photos. There are other details which disappointed - but not all can be easily illustrated by photos.
Regards
honzul
PS - it doesn’t allow me to upload more than one image so I am wiping of the other pics.
Hi @honzul, Sorry to hear about the poor workmanship on your hive. That lid is definitely not up to standard, apologies. Thanks also for your feedback we will forward this to the manufacturers.
We are totally happy to replace any parts that are not up to standard just send pictures to the email above or link to this page in your email.
@honzul That inner cover shouldn’t have been sent. We can absolutely send you a new one if you’d like – there’d be no VAT, etc. as it’s a replacement part. Just speak with Flow customer service and they’ll work with us to make it happen.
We designed and began producing these hives at an incredibly rapid pace, and there have definitely been some growing pains as we check hundreds each day for quality. Inner covers have generally had very few quality issues, as even with knots, depending on the type, they don’t necessarily warp and they are still strong due to the joinery and the glue holding them together. This one doesn’t fit the bill.
Regarding drying, etc. All of the lumber used for these hives is kiln dried to 12% or less, most of it sitting at around 8-9% here in our facility as I type this. We check it regularly.
Matt from the photos it looks simply like the inner cover surround piece was knocked during international shipping. This time of year most of the shipping carriers see the most freight damage as the drivers are all overloaded. Looks like an easy swap out and we have spare in stock.
Wood warps, yeah they shouldn’t have used it with a big knot in it, but I’d be willing to bet it was straight when it shipped out. Not worth all the whining.
Late to the conversation, but yes…replacement parts are not the answer when you take the time to fix the errors yourself. The issue at heart is that faulty parts and poor workmanship should not leave the door. Period.
