Where can you find cheap plastic check valves?

[jfroe939]

I'm talking about the kind that go in your mainline. I don't have a problem finding the brass check valves for $15-$20. I found 1 1/'4" inch flapper type that's meant for a lawn sprinkler system at menards. It's close to what I want but I don't want to buy reducer fittings quite yet. I went to home depot and nothing under 2" diameter but that was white pvc meant for something other drain application. I googled check valve and got a bunch of $12-50 models. Doesn't some maple outfit make 3/4" mainline check valves? I'm guessing somebody out there knows of some website. The pieces aren't complicated nor should they be terribly costly in theory, but heck if I can find what I'm looking for under $10. Am I stupid to think I can find one under $8? I want to know what others are using, where they found them and how much - and perhaps a picture too. thanks for the help.

[whalems]

What is the check valve for? I am pretty new to tubing but I haven,t seen anybody using check valves on main lines. If I am missing something please let me know. Thanks, Mike

[BryanEx]

Check out the listing for US Plastics and then do a search on their site for check valves. Lots of check valves listed but not sure if any are what you are after.

http://www.sugarbush.info/links/manufacturers/

- Bryan

[KenWP]

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23369&clickid=redirec

Try this.

[Russell Lampron]

I have a 1.25" PVC check valve in the vacuum line out of my pump. It keeps the pump from turning backwards when I turn it off. I don't remember how much I paid for it but I got it at Lowes. I also have a 1" one in my 1500' pump line. It keeps the sap from coming back down the line into the pump when I am done pumping sap up the hill. I am pretty sure they had 3/4" ones as well.

[Dennis H.]

I picked up a few clear true union swing checkvalves from a supply house for fish ponds. I think it was aqua cave. I can't remember how large they carry but I know they have aleast a 1"

Oh yeah these are just swingf type and they have now springs or metal of any kind in them.

[Haynes Forest Products]

jfroe So this is all about buying 1 check valve for the mainline? Is Daisey May getting that cheap you cant afford maple equipment. Now remember that all check valves dont work the same so make sure it will open and work for gravity. Dont go so dang cheap you cost yourself sap.

[3rdgen.maple]

Bascom's along with all the maple dealers has the 3/4 check vavlesd with the flapper. All brass just go to Bascomsmaple.com and look they are there.

[jfroe939]

If all else fails, I'll try a brass one for like $18 or whatever they are. Just trying to get by on the cheap without stuff working like it's cheap. I broke down and bought a hobby releaser Haynes. So I'm going to tinker with some sort of vacuum afterall. I say tinker because I'm planning on it being an evaluation rather than a rule this year. I have an old dairy vac as a last resort which I know will do the job. BUT, just for giggles and hope-on-hope I'm going to try something on the order of what some people have recommended which are kinda like the gast rotary vane pumps that pull 10+ cfms only not-so-much. I don't have but 100 trees at the most that I can run vac to because the others are on level ground, but I figure that I want to see how it goes just for the knowledge of it doing it. In the event I have the opportunity to find more trees in the next 5 years that I can surely run vac to I want to have the kinks ironed out by then. I bought 2 Thomas Industry Wob-L pumps that don't pull much in the order of cfms (3 or less)from a fella on ebay at a price I can swallow in the event they're crap for this application. But they're supposed to pull good vacuum in a tight system which will be the interesting part. I think they came off of old oxygen machines. I don't need them to get me 25" and suck the innermost ring of the trees into my collection tank, but if they can get me 15" and deliver 15-20% more sap than gravity then I'll call it a win. More or less, I'm looking to test it out and if I can say it worked okay maybe some other guys who don't have more than 400-500 trees will consider it as well. I don't have a spec of firsthand knowledge on vacuum in the sugarbush, but I kinda want to poke ideas around on here and cobble something together and learn from the mistakes. The interesting part I'm looking at will be how these low-vac outfits interact with the releaser and its ability to recover from vac dumps the way it should and how the whole system in general behaves compared to a more powerful dairy vac that obviously would handle the bumps in stride. I'm not oozing cash to the point where I can stick good money into dumb ideas, but I'm hoping my chances of this working acceptably are closer to the side of 60% than 40%. We'll see. I guess I don't have a great reason for desiring more check valves in the line other than if the releaser dumps don't go so well for recovery that the valves could minimize the pulses that will most likely occur in the system. Under a big vac's system it probably happens anyway, but because I won't have the air flow from these smaller vacs I'll be using I was fearing those pulses could be intensified in a bad way. This is all just made up in my head because I haven't seen this happen in person, but I figured more check valves is a positive thing. And yes, I'm cheap and proud of it :) Jason

[Haynes Forest Products]

I understand completely. Now as far as dumping good money into dumb ideas WHAT is wrong with that. I sold alot of the Thomas vacuum pumps and they will pull vacuum low CFMs Higher HGs so give it a try. Speaking about check valves I understand the idea of putting them out in the woods to control surging. I scrapped out 150 of the oxygen generators and ended up with 400 5/16 check valves. Im thinking of trying them on a few latterals to see how they work for suck back and surging. My biggest concern is the design of them 1 they are spring loaded so they wont work with gravity 2 They look like they will break with little freezing. 3 will glog with small wood chips. I believe the rule of KISS is in order and that is Dr. Ps CVs BUT im still the type that is willing to lose a little sap just to experiment.

[maple sapper]

I have gotten the ones Dennis has (thanks to him) and they work fabulous. Not to mention you can see when they have debris in them or frozen due to being clear. I forget what I paid but the price was irrelavent considering what it does for me at a glance. Not to mention being able to remove it clean it and put it back in a moments time.