Washing Gravity Tubing?

[butler]

Hi guys...this has probably been asked..but I will ask anyway...I now have 3 separate 500' 3/4" main lines each with approx..50-100 taps on laterals all on gravity. I am going to give each line a good clean at seasons end but not sure what is the best method for gravity systems.

Do I put a valve on the bottom of the main and fill the system with water and Clorox from the top...

Pump water from the bottom with a small honda pump?

Do I leave the drop lines in the tee caps when I send the water in?

Any help or info would be great...thanks

[Sugarmaker]

Hi guys...this has probably been asked..but I will ask anyway...I now have 3 separate 500' 3/4" main lines each with approx..50-100 taps on laterals all on gravity. I am going to give each line a good clean at seasons end but not sure what is the best method for gravity systems.

Do I put a valve on the bottom of the main and fill the system with water and Clorox from the top...

Pump water from the bottom with a small honda pump?

Do I leave the drop lines in the tee caps when I send the water in?

Any help or info would be great...thanks

Filling from the bottom is what most do, usually pressurized. I would not use clorox unless you don't have squirrels, they love the salt.
You can leave the taps in the trees as you use low water pressure from the bottom. and then remove the spout and rinse as you remove each tap. Then plug the rinsed tap into the cup on the tee.
When you get to the upper end, shut off the pressure and allow the water to drain. You could go back down the line and remove each spout from the cup and allow the drop to drain. Plug the emptied spout back in the cup tee and move down the line.

At the sugarhouse at the end of the season we bring our lines in for cleaning. We rinse with tap water pressure (40 lb) and air pressure to get a surging agitation. We have the spots in the drop and remove each one and rinse the drop. plug it in and go to the next. When complete we go back an blow the lines out with just clean air.

Hope that helps a little.
Regards,
Chris

[butler]

I have a valve at the high end of my mains...so I should make sure it remains closed and fill system with just pure water. Start at top end removing taps from trees so water rinses drops. When I get back to the bottom and shut pump off should I leave the all the taps open(not plugged into tees). So the system had a few hours to air dry?

[Sugarmaker]

I haven't tried from the top down but may work just as well.
Regards,
Chris

[BAP]

We used to wash a lot of tubing and pumped it both from the bottom up and the top done. The biggest problem was keeping everything together when pressure would build too high trying to get it to the top. The top down would work the best if you can get to the top.

[butler]

Starting at the top could work well for me because that's where most of my taps are....I could let the system fill and literally walk the feet and start pulling taps...

[noreast maple]

I wash mine from the bottom up. I first pull all taps and plug them into cups or pegs on tees, then I leave the very last tap unplugged, then start pushing water and air up from bottom. I start at very first tap ,unplug from tee, let rinse for maybe 5 o7 scounds, plug back onto tee and continue onto next one and work my way up line untill done. doing this way your not washing bacteria into tree.