Will it work??

[emericksmaple]

Since we are going to vaccum in one of our woods we are taking down all of the 1/2inch mains and replacing them with 3/4 inch. Now here is the question. In One of the woods i already have vaccum in, I need another booster. Could I run 3 -- 1/2 inch dry lines from one booster to another and get decent vaccum??? This way then I would not have to buy 1"or 1 1/4" for a dry line just use what we are discarding.

[lew]

I am by no means an expert on vacuum, but if you try to replace one 1 " line with thre 1/2 inch lines, you won't have the same capacity as the one 1 inch line. Mathematically, yo need to find the surface area of your 1/2 inch line and compare it to your 1 inch line. So you take the formula for surface area (3.14 x radius squared) and apply it to your main line choices. For the 1 inch line it would be 3.14 x .5 x .5 = .7875. For you 1/2 line it would be 3.14 x .25 x.25 = .19625. If you had three 1/2 inch lines that would equal .58875, not equal to your 1 inch line. You would need just over 4 1/2 inch lines to equal your one 1 inch line, plus don't forget all of the friction loss due to all of the of the number of pipes that the air would be running through. you would have twice the friction loss in the 1/2 line setup with 4 lines versus the one 1 inch line. I like the idea of reusing the lines you already have, but you would need at least 5 lines to do what 1 one inch line could do. I am not sure how you figure out your friction loss for the air, but i am sure somebody on here does.

[maplecrest]

hi, lew is right. my first question is how may taps do you have on each 1/2 inch line? I have 1/2 inch wet lines still out there. i use wet dry set up. i keep telling my self to replace it with 3/4. but i have 50 to 75 taps per line with 5 taps per lat. i look at it from a washing stand point. when i build systems in the woods i think about washing. if it washes easily, you know it will run. you have the investment in the set up. think wet dry and keep the numbers small with manifolds at each place your 1/2 comes into your main line. then watch for sap movement. i put a piece of clear milk hose at each manifold to see sap movement, and look for air leaks and problems. then down the road replace with 3/4 as you replace old tubing. i have a 1/2 gallon per tap luck with my set up.this year i did not quite make my goal, got busy putting in r/o and did not tighten up good in woods till late. another way to see is at your last tap on 1/2 line check your vac level18 at releaser 17 at last tap hole will tell you, you will loose a little vac do to size. for example this year i put vac in a area i never had vac before. i did not tap trees for a few years. had 2500 feet of 1/2 inch line broke in half with 3/4 with 1 inch dry line left top half at 1/2 inch, the first 1200 feet had same vac as releaser, but at the top of the 2500 feet there was no vac at all. which i new was going to be the case but ran out of time. and i had 150 taps on that line. will go wih 3/4 up to where vac dropped off this year and leave 1/2 the rest of the way with 75 taps. also that top section did not wash well. jeff

[brookledge]

emericksmaple
First of all how long are your mainlines and what is the slope? Before you go buying all new stuff you might be able to use what you got.
Lew is right about needing four 1/2" lines to equal the one 1" line.
Again it is important to know how long the main lines are before sizing the correct diameter.
One thing that I did with 1/2" when I replaced alot was to use it for places where I had long lateral lines(5/16). So instead of running a 5/16 line off the mainline for 100' or so I put in 1/2" mainlines.
Keith