Leader sanitary adaptors

[markcasper]

The verdict is out. Anyone see in the recent maple digest the add for Leader? They were advertising 5/16" throw away adaptors. I was unsure whether these were to fit on a 7/16" spile, or the newer 5/16"/ 19/64".

I contacted them yesterday and WOLLA, just what I have been looking for. These new adaptors are for the 5/16" spouts everyone has hanging in the woods. I talked to Randy and he told me that they were out of stock until the 24th of Feb. He said this was the 3rd order theyv'e made to their supplier already this year-very popular. With the 3rd order, he said they will be at 600,000 made, 400,000 have been sold already!

They are .15 cents each and is a small price to pay for putting something bacteria free into each taphole.

I have said this before, the reducer adaptors that I use on my old 7/16 inch spouts always run later in the season. Now I'll be able to do all of my taps with this new concept. Now i won't have to go and cut the old spiles from the drops, just use these.

One additional note. I asked him about stainless spouts and he said that even if those were brought home each year, washed, boiled, sanitized...etc, theres still no way that they will be as bacteria free as a new adaptor. He said that stainless is still porous, not as bad as plastic, but either way, its impossile to get them 100% next to a new adaptor.

Mark

[Parker]

I cleaned Bascomes out of them when I was over there 2 days ago,,we will see how they work,,have got to help. The ones I got are 5/16 OR 19/64 to 5/16....

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

The problem is that they are so popular, the price will go up. :( I would think if you brought them home and soaked them for a few days in a strong bleach solution, they would have to be about as good as new for next year. :D

[Rob Harvey]

Apparenly Brandon that is not the case. The bacteria is in the plastic and disinfecting them does not work. Perhaps boiling them would? Rob

[markcasper]

Brandon, Thats true! If everyone wants them, they will get in their head to charge more. Noone says you can't get a few years use out of them. Leader sayd otherwise. My original 7/16" to 5/16" are 4 years old now and I am going to wash and then boil these again-definately alot better than doing nothing at all in my opinion.

I am glad that someone came out with 5/16 to 5/16, i had all but given up hope for this year. Mark

[markcasper]

I have evidence that the boiling of these helps some, but not as much as being new. I will share with you all a few excerpts out of my journal of the past few years for your enlightenment, word for word as follows:

4-10-04: Checked 5 taps on west side, spile reducers, 1 had mold growth, the other 4 looked fresh. Went to the east side and they all had a white slime on the spouts, didn't matter if they were on the north or south side of the tree (these were regualr 5/16" spouts installed in 2000). These trees were all tapped on 3-7 and 3-8-04

4-12-04 Low this am - 24, high- 47, turned cloudy this afternoon. Gathered 275 gallons from Bagans, 14 bags were running over, at least 1/2 were dry (325 taps on bags, tapped 3-16-04 and 3-23-04) Grandmas tubing running the best yet this year (200 taps on tubing w/ reducers)
The taps with the spile reducers are no doubt running better than those without them/. Millers east (310 5/16" spiles tapped on 3-8-04) had only 50 gallons.Millers west (280 spile reucers on large spouts, tapped 3-7-04) had approx 125 gallons sap. Lynns had 125 gallons. (275 spile reducers on large spouts, tapped on 3-9-04)

4-13-04-Millers east had barely any sap (non-sleeve spouts) The others all had a fair amount.


4-17-01 Millers zero tank (west) was not running very good, will put spile reducers here next year. (These were tapped 3-17-01) Lynns woods running v.good yet, adaptors must be working. (these were tapped 3-15-01)

3-29-00 Froze real hard at 20 degrees for a low, lynns tubing-done, millers west- not running good at all, grandmas fair, little taps running the best for tubing (These little taps were brand new this spring.) (All were tapped from Feb. 29th-March 3rd. Adaptors not invented yet, but notice the better flows noted from brand new taps.)

All of this is word for word, except the addition of the #number of taps and tapping dates.
So the evidence is there folks. Mark

[markcasper]

I liked the sanitary adaptors. The holes look real fresh even on April 20th and buds breaking. Am having a real hard time getting them off of the spiles though. I have to use a 1/2" wrench on each one and twist and pry until eventually they work loose.

Parker....you notice the same problem, or am I doing something wrong?

Also Parker...did you have some of them shatter when pounding them in after tapping? I lost maybe 12 to 15 of them and I was not pounding any harder than I have in the past 22 years. A few I had to drill out with the drill and luckily salvaged the taphole.

I realize they have to be SNUG, so maybe I shouldn't say anything, but this is how improvements come about. Mark

[Parker]

I was not impressed with them,,,,the seemed to loosen on the spile after we would have a hard freeze,,I would start the vacume pump and be pulling 8-10"!!!!! go around the woods and tap them all tight into the spiles agine and look at the vacume and be up to 16-18",,,,I cant say as the increased the lenght of my season to any degree either,,the woods dried up about when the usually do...mabey if I had tapped in january (thinking about doing that if conditions are right next year......as for getting them apart, when I was on the maple tour I stopped at Mayottes maple,,they were selling a tool to take them apart,,works slick,,it made for the lapierre spiles (wich I think are VASTLY better than the leader spiles and I will be switching to),,,The tool was not made for the leader adaptors but does work on them,,,I also had a few of the leader adaptors shatter and a few had pin holes in them,,,,I am sure you can get the tool thru the MAPLE GUYS,,the tool is item #ETP71843 in the 2006 Lapierre catalog,,I have to say EVERYONE except for Brannons and Goodrich we stopped at on the tour was using Lapierre in the sugarhouse and woods....they make some real nice stuff..

[markcasper]

Parker, Thankd=s for sharing the information. I too noticed after tapping that some of them seemed to leak a little, but never was down at 8-10 for long. I was at first, but after leak investigating, the vacuum came right up and I pounded very few in a 2nd time.

I am not sure if this year was a good test year for them, at least out my way. We had one 60 degree day from the beginning to the end of the season. Well the last few days of the season were over 60 and then 70, but then like a faucet they shut off and has never froze since.

I was not aware that Lappiere was on the extension train as well.

I had a few crappy trees where I did not put the extensions in. I was flushing and pulling today and came to those without the extension. I'll have to say that the tapholes on those without were very black colored and moldy. Those with the extensions were very fresh looking yet, looked as if they would still run good yet. I am no scientist, but I am a believer in some kind of extension and seeing that the holes with the plain old spile were noticably blacker should say something.

I figure that its pretty cheap insurance to say the least. Mark

[Parker]

I think you are right,,,they are cheap insurance,,but I also think to get any real increased production from using them you would need to tap early,,when it was over here,,it was over

[markcasper]

It was over here , right now. One day there was mountains of sap and a day later.....zilch. 4 days after that, the hard maples were all flowered out with that green apple look. Happened way faster than usual. Mark

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

After getting my catalog i had requested in an e-mail to Lapierre on Friday.I get the catalog today in regular US postal service mail/I see the spout removal tool Parker was talking about=it is the same tool that D&G has been carrying since last year if you have their 2005 catalog and for some reason i think i seen one at a VT meeting in 2004? Thought i might have been missing something new? but i guess not.

[Parker]

We got all the spiles pulled yesterday,,,I have to say the adaptors appeared to have done their job in terms of bacteria,,,the tap hole end of the adaptors were all clean,,no slim build up,,tap holes were free of any slime,,mung build up,,,BUT,,where the old spile meets the adaptor their was a lot of slime,,sap cheese build up,,,must be the bacteria was presant on the old spiles and when the sap hit it it started to grow??? Now if they could just get them so they would not push themselves apart after a freeze they would have something,,,I have to say I will use some form of this princaple next year after seeing the cheese on the old spiles,,,,anyone want 2000 old adaptors for free??(got to pick them up at my place)...

[markcasper]

Parker, I got done a few days ago, but one woods I still have to go and pull all the adaptors out, though the tubing has been washed. I DID noticed a few of the adapators had cheese, as you call it, even in the part that was in the hole, but not very many.

I guess I could go look at my drop buckets and see if there was more than a few.

I too noticed some old spouts that were very cheesed up after pulling the adaptor off. This may be due in part that there is a small gap between the adaptor and old spile, and that would create a spot for bacteria to build. Would be interested to see if that build up would still happen if the spile and adaptor were both new.

I have about 150 blue lamb (CRAPP) spouts that I have been using the 5/16-7/16 adaptors on that will be replaced next year. It'd be a good experement to use a new 5/16" spile and adaptor and see if this happens. Only trouble is that these are all north slope, so they would be less likely to slime up. Markl

[NH Maplemaker]

Wonder what would happen if next year you wiped the old spout with alcohol before putting them into the adaptors? I have used alcohol last two years and have great luck! Did'nt find one slim hole during clean up this year or last ! :lol:

[Mike]

Maplemaker, What kid of alcohol did you use and did you dilute it with water??? Did it affect the sap any??? Thanks.....Mike

[markcasper]

Maplemaker, I have used alcohol for many years and do more than just dip the spouts. I used to dilute with water, but used it full strength this year, a bit less though. Mark

[NH Maplemaker]

Mike, Jack Daniels :P Oh, you mean on the spiles ? This year we used whole grain alcohol. We get it at the state liquor store ! Had to sign for it ! :oops: We just dip spile in it and wipe of and stick in hole. No tast or anything that we can tell :!: As there is'nt any chemicals in it and excess alcohol will evaporate. Jim L