Lube for the releaser

[Parker]

At one of the maple schools I went to this year someone was saying what they used to lube up their releasers (common household item) and I thought "that is a great idea,,if I rember that one thing it was worth comming to this session",,,Anyone have any suggestions? Mine are all pretty sticky,,

[lmathews]

I use vaseline.Have for 4 seasons.

[mountainvan]

I cleaned and lubed mine yesterday. I use food grade grease, same as for ro. I think I did too good of a job. Yesterday it dumped half the sap in it and closed again.

[nhmaple48]

Use food grade silicone spray,it's lite enough so it does'nt gum up.

[nhmaple48]

Use food grade silicone spray,it won't gum things up.

[802maple]

Dido use food grade silicon or pam spray as grease gets older it will sometimes have the opposite effect on colder days

[oneoldsap]

Mineral oil, Non petrolium and non vegetable.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

post edited

[TapME]

has anyone tried a drop of corn oil or vegei oil ?

[maplehound]

I am a meat cutter and I can talk from experience on this. VEgitable oil and corn oil as well as most food grade greases will leave a film behind and eventually get gummy and sticky. Where as mineral oil or oil made for food equipment (still just mineral oil) won't leave a film to build up and get sicky . When I was using metal bucket spiles I would put them in a bucket full of mineral oil for the summer so they wouldn't rust. and I still always keep a bottle of mineral oil around the sugar house for use on threads and other moving parts that don't come in direct contact with the syrup.

[HanginAround]

Lapierre recommends mineral oil (sewing machine oil) for the vacuum control mechanism. They say to clean the surfaces with hot water and dish detergent before lubricating if you need to. They also say to lightly scrub deposits or light corrosion off the float rods and lightly coat with mineral oil.