Stainless steel vs plastic health tubing spouts

[Mr. Red Maple]

Hi I wanted to know the pros and cons of using 5/16 stainless steel tubing spouts vs 5/16 plastic tubing spouts. I have heard from some that sap leaks from the ss taps and not from the plastic ones. I am asking this because I ordered some 5/16 plastic tubing spouts from bascom maple but they sent me 5/16 stainless tubing spouts by accident with no extra charge. I just am wonding of I should keep these are see about getting them changed.
Thanks mr. Red maple

[wiam]

Research says that a new plastic spout will give more sap than a "cleaned" stainless.

[Super Sapper]

If they are new they should produce the same the first year but will decrease in following years. You could always use them this year and then sell them and start using the plastic spouts next year.

[markct]

I thought stainless was the exception to that rule as stainless could be sterilized good as new

[Mr. Red Maple]

I was just wondering if anyone has had sap leaking problem with the taps. I heard you can boil these taps so wouldn't that sterilize them and sap flow won't reduce?

[maple flats]

Maybe Dr. Tim could best answer that. I have no experience with SS taps.

[DrTimPerkins]

I was just wondering if anyone has had sap leaking problem with the taps. I heard you can boil these taps so wouldn't that sterilize them and sap flow won't reduce?

Sap leaking does happen with some types of taps. Depends on the specific design, but most spouts will have a little sap that leaks for a brief period of time right after tapping. After that, it depends upon the taper of the spout, how they're seated, and whether they heave. I've heard others say that SS spouts will heave a little more than plastic spouts, particularly polycarbonate spouts, which tend to stick very well in the tree. Admittedly we don't have a tremendous amount of direct experience with SS spouts here at PMRC (for a variety of reasons).

As far as sanitizing spouts, you can certainly clean SS spouts better than plastic, but new plastic is the "gold standard". Extremely well-cleaned SS spouts will do close to that, but simply boiling will not remove all the dried up material on the spout (which provides a substrate for biofilms to form on).

[killingworthmaple]

If you are interested I have new clear check valve spouts I would be willing to trade. Nothing against the CV I have more than I need and would like to try the stainless spouts.

Nathan
860-604-8115

[log cabin luke]

I have 1500 stainless spouts set up and like them a lot. Buy them once and you can pass them down for generations. I boil mine , blow them out with a compressor and then bleach them and rinse. After the trees swell up a bit the taps do not seem to have any leak problems.