Leaking Leader check valves...still

[Maplewalnut]

Well, after escaping the dreaded leader check valve 'pin hole' problem last year it burned me this year! First 40 degree day of the year, fire up pump and check releaser..5. Crap, into the woods I go, low an behold it sounds like a hissing snake behind each tree. So loud its deafening and you dont know which drop to check first. Come to first tree and its the freakin check valve. Tap is seated properly and then I see it...the dreaded manufacturing hole! What a year to have to check every tap in 2ft+ snow and drifts a small child could get lost in. All told found 18 out of 700 taps in this section of woods. Absolutely unacceptable. I bought them at Verona this year, dont know when they were made.

Mike

[GeneralStark]

I'm using some on two year old drops this year and have been concerned about this as well. I have 100 in trees and tested the vac. yesterday and they all seem fine. I spoke to the dealer I got them through before I bought them and he said it was possible there may be a few in the batch I got, but so far so good.

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

Where is the hole so I can check them as I tap?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Maplewalnut]

The hole is on the face of the check valve at the + where the 90 degree angle is joined. I think Brian Ryther posted a picture...same spot

[mapleguy]

I am curious as to what Leader is doing. I've been using the cv-1's since 2010 and have had absolutely no problems, until this year. Out of 500 taps 29 broke on me. I would no more than tap once and they would break off at the stem or when I inserted the stubby spout they would split. Now everyones first thought is I am hitting them to hard and believe me that is not the case. Seems like they mixed in a bunch of rejects so some bean counter at the plant could look good. There is no excuse for this.

[unc23win]

Seems like it would be simple to check them at the factory with a little air.

[upsmapleman]

I had trouble last year with breaking of the cv1. Just pushing them in was all it took at times. About 5 to7% broke. Had 500 left that I started with this year and same thing. Started on new ones I got this year and think only 1 out of 4000 broke. Was much happier. They were to replace what broke last year but after the season my dealer didn't seem to remember that.

[batsofbedlam]

It sounds like the old uncured plastic problem they had a few years ago. Leader suggested that I put one tablespoon of water into each bag of 100 check valves and that finished the curing process and the plastic (nylon) became more flexible. I never had one break.

[Tappy Sap Master]

Installed 200+ and 4 of them broke at the last hit w/hammer. Not too happy:mad:

[spud]

I installed 6200 CV2 spouts this year and 2800 clear smart spouts this year. We broke about 10 CV2 spouts and about 3 clear smart spouts. After very carefully examining the situation I came to the conclusion it was the Idiot hitting the spouts that caused all of them to brake. That Idiot was me.:lol: This cost me a whole $4.00 of my profit for the season.

Spud

[Maplewalnut]

Spud, you have no leakers or you dont know yet?

Whereas some guys have problem with them breaking at least you know about it at time of tapping. Unless you inspect every tap you put in a tree before hand you dont notice the ones with ahole in he plastic til you turn vaccum on and trudge through the woods listening. Much different problem. I have a very small number of taps, I cant imagine trying to find defective spouts amongts tens of thousands of trees.

[Russell Lampron]

I put in 700 cv2's this year and had 5 of them break when tapping them in. I was hitting them square and not using too much force either. When the first 2 broke I was using a pair of linesman's pliers to tap them in. They all broke where the stem bells out to meet the head.

[spud]

Spud, you have no leakers or you dont know yet?

Whereas some guys have problem with them breaking at least you know about it at time of tapping. Unless you inspect every tap you put in a tree before hand you dont notice the ones with ahole in he plastic til you turn vaccum on and trudge through the woods listening. Much different problem. I have a very small number of taps, I cant imagine trying to find defective spouts amongts tens of thousands of trees.

I plan to turn pumps on Saturday and hope my CV2 spouts are ok. I have 6200 CV2 spouts in my woods this year so we should be able to find leaker (if any) and fix them by Tuesday's sap run. Last year I was one of the lucky ones and had no leakers. With some sugar maker's having pinhole problems on the CV2 spouts last year you would think all company's selling these things would make sure not to sell them again until the problem has been fixed. The first time they sold defected CV spouts it was a mistake but to do it a second year in a row means Attorney time.

Spud

[markct]

I havent found any leakers yet in the area im trying these but gota ask how the heck do you get them outa the dropline at the end of season? Or just cut em off and lose a bit of dropline each season?

[Maple Hill]

Just cut them off.

[Russell Lampron]

I use cup tees on my drops to plug them into for the off season and just cut them off when I tap.