CDL 4-Seasons -vs- Leader Max Flow laterals

[maplebluff]

Were getting ready to tube a new large woods and wondered if there was a concenses of opinion on which 5/16 tubing was performing best. Also any comments on black plastic -vs- blue poly mainlines would be most appriciated.

[220 maple]

I would rather have 4 seasons, price per roll is the issue. The advantage with black main line you don't know how dirty its, out of site out of mind. plus it pulls apart during real hard freezes, so you'll have less boiling time, I have never had a blue poly main line come apart due to cold weather. requires more wood or oil for the evaporator when the lines stay together, thats the big difference with black vs. blue main line. "Syrup is made in the woods not in the sugarhouse" quote from Brandon Family Maple Orchard's website.

Mark 220 Maple

[brookledge]

The black main line will be cheaper. My feeling is that unless you have a real long main the black is fine but it will cause the sap to heat up on long exposed sections. I have never done this but some have taken a glove or a car wash mit and coat the main line with white paint. I have never had a main line pull a part. I put a tie on every 10" or so.
I use cdl 4 season for my drops. I have never tried max flow for laterals so I can't comment on it.
Keith

[MorrillMaple]

i would recommend blue line anyday its an all around better tubing with more resistant to sun. down fall is that in shady areas it takes a little longer to unfreeze. now when it comes to laterals the CDL 4 seasons which is made by IPL is a good tubing many seem to like it but i highly recommend the CDL brand semi-rigid which is made by cdl. they sell both but there brand is even better. they even have three types of tubing, a semi-rigid, a medium semi-rigid, and a Rigid. and the price is cheaper then the 4 seasons.

[3rdgen.maple]

240 bucks for 500 ft of 1 inch 30p, I will run black pipe all day long for that kind of money. I can buy 1000 feet of Black poly and get change back.

[vtmapleman]

I painted my main line a number of years ago - the paint stayed on only a couple of years - I figured it was a waste of my time - go with the blue line it may be more expensive but in the long run well worth it.

[brookledge]

vtmapleman
What did you paint it with. I was thinking of trying a few areas where the mainline runs out in the open getting a lot of sun. i was going to try using a car wash mit and just go along the main line.
Keith

[3rdgen.maple]

Brookledge if I was going to paint the mainline I would seriously be looking at Krylons paint for plastic.

[vtmapleman]

Brookledge

I'm not sure - it was probably either an oil base or latex - I did it 12 plus years ago. With the new paints made specifully for plastic I would expect the paint to stay on a great deal longer.

[brookledge]

Thanks
I have heard of the special paint from krylon made for plastic but have never used it. I'll look into it
Keith

[lew]

I can tell you my experience with black mainlineand a little bit about friction loss. We had 3 1 inch black plastic mainlines running up a tractor trail with hedgerows onboth sides. The lines all ran together on a single wire in a due North/ South line up0 one side of the tractor trail. They ran exactly 1,100 ft. to the base of the woods and had 2,500 taps on them (way too many for our standards today but this was quite a while ago). On a 45 degree sunny day the sap would come into the tank at 78-80 degrees. We ended up painting them white with socks on our hands using oilbase paint. It stuck for several years. This dropped the sap temp. down to 58-60 degrees. Well worth the paint job. Now I only use Warren Allens orange mainline or Leaders Light Blue. Much more expensive, but a joy to work with. the friction loss lesson on these same mainles came when we were washing. We had always disconnected the mainles at the releaser and pushed our air/water mixture up from the bottom and washed the woods like that for years. One year we decided to drive the sap truck up to the edge of the woods and wash from there for whatever reason, I guess to eliminate the 1,100 feet from the road. Any ways the air compressor broke down and all we had left to wash was the 3 1,110 foot mainlines down the hile to the releaser. So we just turned on the vacuum pump and sucked the water down to the releaser to wash it as best we could at the time. When we turned on the vacuum pump with all 3 lines open, we were reading 10 inches of vacuum at the releaser. this was with a litlle sp-22 (Iknow, way too small for 2,500 taps, but we were learning). Anyways,, that's my longwinded experience.

[IPL Technical Support]

i would recommend blue line anyday its an all around better tubing with more resistant to sun. down fall is that in shady areas it takes a little longer to unfreeze. now when it comes to laterals the CDL 4 seasons which is made by IPL is a good tubing many seem to like it but i highly recommend the CDL brand semi-rigid which is made by cdl. they sell both but there brand is even better. they even have three types of tubing, a semi-rigid, a medium semi-rigid, and a Rigid. and the price is cheaper then the 4 seasons.

MorrillMaple, as a technical guy at IPL, I am very interested in knowing why CDL's own brand would be better than IPL's 4 season. Do you have some pros and cons for me?

Thanks in advance!
IPL Technical Support