Tubing Taste

[nymapleguy607]

I had a problem with this last year, my sap had a strong plastic taste and smell.When I boiled it down it would loose the taste. After last season I flushed all the lines but this year I still can the smell the plastic in the tubing. Has anyone had this problem before? Is there a way to cleam this out?
Thanks
Jeff

[markcasper]

I have noticed that with new tubing as well, but never thought much about. It smelled like new tubing but never seemed to affect the taste of the end product.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Won't affect the taste of the final product.

[DrTimPerkins]

I had a problem with this last year, my sap had a strong plastic taste and smell.When I boiled it down it would loose the taste. After last season I flushed all the lines but this year I still can the smell the plastic in the tubing.

This seems to be an issue with most new tubing. Probably residue left over from the extrusion process. It causes a strong odor in the sap, less in the partial syrup (but you can smell it during boiling), but is absent by the time syrup reaches the correct density. It is something that is obviously volatilizing off during the evaporation process. You'll find it to be very strong the first year during the first several sap runs, and maybe a little the second at the beginning of the season, or if you retube a good section of your woods, but it goes away after that. Doesn't appear to be any problem, but can be disconcerting the first time you encounter it.

[peacemaker]

i found that my first year ... so i tried this and it seems to work my wife hates me but ... its only once i made up a piece of tubing that i can connect to the a pond pump . i set the brand new roll still tied in the tub and run the tub full of hot hot water ..the run the pump for awhile thru the tubeing
then when i am done flushing it i hook it to the faucet flush it once more with fresh
then i blow them out with the compressor i am still amazed that some water still runs out as you stretch it .so i do only as much as i can hang in a day

[nymapleguy607]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I made the mistake last year of not trying to boil the first few runs because of this. I probly dumped 300 gals of sap because I thought it would off flavor my syrup. It did get a little better as time went on though.
Thanks again
Jeff