Blue 5/16 Health Spiles

[Run Forest Run!]

I'm getting some leaking around a couple of the spiles. Can I expect them to take up much or will they likely leak for the entire season? Live and learn. :)

[unc23win]

Are they still leaking? I have never used the spiles you have described. In most cases if a spile leaks for any reason other than actually splitting the wood it will quit leaking. I am surprised no one else replied earlier.

[DrTimPerkins]

I'm getting some leaking around a couple of the spiles. Can I expect them to take up much or will they likely leak for the entire season? Live and learn. :)

If they are just leaking a little, and you're not on vacuum (unlikely with 10 taps :) ), then they should sugar-up fairly quickly and stop leaking. You could try GENTLY tapping them a little bit with a hammer just in case they are leaking due to not being seated well enough, but definitely do not overdo it.

[MapleLady]

I decided to try a few of this type of spile this year. I plan to make sure that I am extra careful tapping them in. Did you notice a change in the sound when you got to a point that they were seated?

[Run Forest Run!]

The weather has since turned cold so the sap has stopped running. I'll have to wait and see if they are still leaking. I used these type of spiles last year as well and did get some leaking then too. I thought I'd been too rough with the taps as it was my first time sugaring so I was extra careful this year. I even braced myself better when drilling the holes to avoid "ovalling" the hole.

The spiles did make a kind of deeper "thunk" when seated in the hole, but I nothing like what I heard when I watched the video that DonMcJr posted about placing spiles.

I'd love to hear from other peope who've used these blue plastic spiles too. I'm curious to find out if they are a little more fussy to insert than some of the other types out there.

[unc23win]

Well they should sugar over. As for the thunk well I can say that this year after reading some discussions on hear I finally decided to try one of the Lapierre spout hammers. Today was the first time I used it I put in about 50 taps and I have to say I was very pleased with it. Granted it is a little pricy, at $30 but I think it would VERY HARD to hit the spiles in too hard. It is very light weight and very balanced and has a nice feel to it I also couldn't find my hammer loop but I just slid it in my front pocket of my pants and its so light I hardly noticed it was there. For me with 1100 taps its worth it for someone with only few taps probably not.

[MapleLady]

Started tapping today and decided I would start with some of the new blue 5/16 plastic spiles that I got. They definitely make a different sound when I think they are seated. Checked on them this afternoon, and a few are leaking. Not too happy about it over here. Will try to coax them to seal better with a couple taps from a plastic mallet. This is the first year that I use this type of spile. My other taps are the traditional 7/16 metal spiles. I guess I will give them a few days in hopes that they will 'sugar up'. Just don't like seeing that sap run down the bark of the tree. :(

[Run Forest Run!]

Hey MapleLady. I see that you are having some of the same problems I've had with blue spiles leaking. Mine haven't seated yet.

[heus]

Not to worry they will sugar over. Mine leaked for a couple days in the past but sugared over and ran longer than my aluminum spouts.

[Run Forest Run!]

Now there's some positive news at long last. There is some hope after all.

[maplehillbros7179]

i wouldnt worry to much about it, its very frustrating when they leak but your always going to have some that leak, just keep doing what your doing, good luck

[Paul VT]

Are you talking about bucket spouts? or tubing spouts?

[MapleLady]

Are you talking about bucket spouts? or tubing spouts?

These are the blue 5/16 health spiles for buckets. I used metal taps last year and didn't have any leaks. I thought that since I needed some more spiles, why not try something that puts a smaller hole in the tree? I guess I will give them a few days to see if they 'sugar over' and stop leaking.

[Paul VT]

Ok. I have been using these same spouts. This will be the third year using them. This year about 175. I have had issues with them leaking. I have had a couple fall out. I am very careful about drilling straight. Last year i started using one of the expensive tapping bits. I have tried tapping in a little more and they still tend to leak. After hearing others are having similar issues I am questioning using them in the future. Others having issues?

[Run Forest Run!]

I'm starting to feel better about my tapping abilities now that I hear that I'm not alone with my problems with the blue taps. I had a lot of trouble with them leaking and falling out last year. So much so, that I hogtied every bucket I had with twine to keep them on the trees. I was really careful this year when I drilled the holes so that I'd hopefully have better luck this year. So far four have fallen out of the trees (4 out of 10) and yesterday I broke out the bindertwine again to tie them to the trees. I did find that as the season progressed last year, they did seem to stop leaking as badly as when they were first put in. However, they would still fall out of the trees if I removed the twine.

Anyhow, I'll give it a go again this year. As an experiment, maybe I'll buy a few metal spiles and see if I have a better success rate.

[MapleLady]

Some actually fell out? :o (I hope it was because those buckets were so heavy!)

It was encouraging to hear that others have had trouble with these spouts. I'll just keep checking them and the first one that falls out will be REPLACED with a conventional metal spile! Time will tell.... Let's all keep our fingers 'crossed' on these! :)

[Run Forest Run!]

Some actually fell out? :o (I hope it was because those buckets were so heavy!)


Having sap in the buckets made the problem worse. If there was wind in the weather they seemed to wiggle out. That's why I would tie the bucket to the trees and then ladle the sap out every day instead of always having to untie them. I didn't have a probem with all ten of my spiles last year, but I'm getting a repeat of the same problems again this year.

[Paul VT]

Some actually fell out? :o (I hope it was because those buckets were so heavy!)

It was encouraging to hear that others have had trouble with these spouts. I'll just keep checking them and the first one that falls out will be REPLACED with a conventional metal spile! Time will tell.... Let's all keep our fingers 'crossed' on these! :)
They seem to fall out easier with no sap in them. Does anyone make stainless steel 5/16 bucket spouts? Starting to think I don't want my plastic ones anymore.

[Run Forest Run!]

Had to retrieve another empty bucket - with lid and spile attached - from blowing around the yard. This is getting old.

[MapleLady]

I don't like hearing that you're picking a bucket and spile off of the ground. How deep are the holes you've drilled for your taps? Over here, the leaking seems to have slowed down -- and so did the sap yesterday. Hoping for better runs next week.

[Run Forest Run!]

The blue spiles have a "collar" on them around the 1 1/2" mark. So, I drilled that far in, and a hair extra. Because my sap has been frozen for two weeks I'll have to wait a little longer to see about the leaking. We may get a bit of a run this week if the forecast holds out.

[Kyle Baker]

I just picked up some blue 5/16" health spiles, as well as some black treesavers for line to do some drop lines, and then I read here on the trader that the tubing spiles are basically a 1 time use... is this also true for other plastic spiles? I have a couple plastic 7/16" bucket spiles I used last year, and now some of these health ones, and the rest are vintage old cast ones I'm working on fazing out. I just want to be sure I dont have to buy new plastic bucket taps every year.

[mapleack]

You get more sap if you use a new spile every year. That said, there's nothing wrong with washing the blue plastic bucket spiles in a bleach solution, rinsing them and using them again the next year. You're really not going to notice when you're just using a few buckets. Another alternative is the clear straight spiles from lapierre, they work for buckets and at 14 cents a piece you can afford to get new ones every year.

[MapleLady]

Good news over here, Karen. It looks like my blue spiles have stopped leaking. So far, they are staying put. We'll see how they do once my buckets fill up!

[Run Forest Run!]

That's great to hear MapleLady. I'll be crossing my fingers that mine do the same when the sap eventually runs.

[mantispid]

This is my first year tapping trees, and I've started with the 5/16" black nylon tubing taps. I'm just using gravity for now (though I do have an old vacuum pump I've had in storage for some time...) into old milk and juice jugs. I've noticed that about 30-40% of the taps leak a bit to cause a circular wet area about 2-5" in diameter around the hole... About 5% leak enough to run down the tree (probably user error on my part).