1/2" Mainline

[Gravel]

I have some 1/2" pipeline with fittings already attatched to pipe, will this work for 150-200 taps? I figure someone has done it, how did it work? Thanks!

[wcproctor]

It can't hurt. Just think of this less buckets you have to get.

[Gravel]

Hopeing to not collect any buckets at all but I dont want to not have enough sap because the mainline was too small....

[Russell Lampron]

As long as your system is gravity the 1/2" mainline will be perfect. If you are using vacuum you should use 3/4" mainline.

[West Mountain Maple]

In the Leader catalog, 1/2" is rated for 50 taps, i just ran 200' of it with 77 taps coming into it, 40 enter at the end and 37 more along the 200'. we will see how it does

[foursapssyrup]

we have 65 taps going into 1/2" at the top of 200' run. it handles that no problem. as we expand, there will be as many as 150 taps on this run of 1/2".

[Gravel]

I appreciate the info guys, I surely wouldnt try it if I was buying new but being I have the pipe I guess I will, hopefully it works well and I will not miss chasing buckets! It was a fun family thing to do at first but the newness wore off about 3 years ago!

[lew]

Years ago, we ran three 1/2 inch mainlines off a hill with 1,200 taps. So that's 400 taps per line. We also had 50 to 80 taps on a single 5/16. During "normal" normal runs this woods would give us great volumes of sap, 2 gal. per tap in a day was quite common on good run. ON weeping runs, not so good. We were attempting to get natural vacuum and we did achieve it, not sure how much vacuum we got though. We had lots of grade to work with. Now that we have pumped vacuum I wouldn't think of doing this. Your situation, so long as you have enough grade, sounds very achievable. I would just be careful of not having any "flat" sections of mainline.