Black or Blue? What type of plastic to use for mainlines

[PCFarms]

What type of mainlines do you use and why?

Typically, we use black in areas of the forest with more conifers and green/blue in the deciduous areas. Our last 3000 taps were exclusively blue. However this year, we decided to use all black everywhere, mainly because it is cheaper and I dont see the benefit to having more expensive translucent lines. There are a few reasons that people typically go with translucent lines - 1 is that you can see the sap flowing and and it may help identify leaks the 2nd and more important is that it keeps the sap colder as the line doesn't absorb as much solar energy. This is important for the quality of the syrup and it gives more time to process it (wont spoil quickly).

My thoughts on why there are no real benefits to translucent lines:
- Although black lines absorb energy from the sun, translucent lines act like a "greenhouse" in that the solar rays get trapped inside the mainlines. I dont know which absorbs more energy, I suspect that it is the black, but the point is that I dont think that translucent lines are much better. Ideally, mainlines should be an opaque grey or white - I have seen these before, although they are not widely available/used. Further, when you consider the total tubing in the forest, the vast majority of the heat gain on warm days is going to take place in the laterals. They account for 80% of the tubing.
- Why dont equipment manufactures have opaque grey/white mainlines available? I am not sure, but I suspect because it doesn't really matter, which brings me to my last point.
- Sap is pretty robust. We have had sap sit in containers for over a day at 15C (60F) and process it and it still tastes delicious. There may be less (or is it more?) invert sugars and the colour will be darker, but the end of the day, cloudy or not, the sap is absolutely workable. Plus, everyone prefers darker syrup anyway. Lastly, its faster to process on the RO (Although cleaning is more difficult)

In summary, I argue that blue lines are not worth the investment because 1) they dont really bring down the temperature and 2) the temperature doesnt really matter.
I would rather take the extra money and invest it into better processing equipment to process the sap quicker.

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

I believe that the blue lines do keep sap cooler and have heard tests to prove it

MES does have gray for a great price.

I have both in my woods at home pipe is blue but my new woods is all black and will stay that way because it has a lot of soft wood that needs to be thinned and it's cold there.

IMO cold woods get black pipe and warmer woods get blue pipe


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[Wanabe1972]

I use blue throughout the bush but changed my 2 sap ladders to black as they are both in somewhat shaded areas . I had a brain fart and didn't get them in the morning sun. I found the black would thaw much earlier than the blue and this was easier than moving them. Jeff

[Maple Man 85]

I am going with blue 5/16 (low slope) with blue 3/4 running to 1 1/2 blue and black wet/dry. blue for the wet line black for the dry line. In looking at your woods it makes sense to observe the temperatures as the trees may be ready to leak before your lines are thawed. This is beneficial in the beginning of the season and as season draws to a close then blue lines help to reflect heat keeping the sap cooler. Also smaller lines thaw quicker which is why I justified blue wet and black dry lines so I am not losing potential early morning sap flow

[WestfordSugarworks]

MES does have light gray mainline that is very reasonably priced. As to the question of heat absorption by the pipe, I would guess that black does warm the sap more but I haven't seen any studies that prove this. If anyone has links to any or knows of anything published, let me know. But I know of nobody in my area who installs new black mainline. I think it does heat the sap. And I know that sap loses it's integrity as it heats. We also have had sap sit for longer than it should have on warm days and have made it into great syrup, but you are losing money in doing that. Microbes eat away the sugar and you actually are getting less syrup per gallon of sap after you allow it to sit and allow microbes to eat the sugar (from what i understand). With all this, I'd recommend a system that keeps the sap as cold as possible, from the tap to the storage tank, and then ROing it ASAP and boiling it ASAP.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

We use blue in most areas but have black line in some shaded, low slope areas with the idea that it will thaw things out quicker where needed. Can't say for sure if it work so or not but that is what we were told to do. Makes sense if you think about it.

[markcasper]

.
- Why dont equipment manufactures have opaque grey/white mainlines available?


Lappierre did make white mainline up until a year or two ago, but has since been discontinued because of lack of sales. Leader would make it if there was enough demand for it, a rep told me this. Leader does make white 5/16 but is only available in western Wisconsin. Its the only 5/16 I use. The darker the tubing, the more it will warm the sap hands down. Use the darker stuff on north sides and lighter stuff on south sides. There is no way I would use black in areas where the sun is on it all day.

[68bird]

Bascoms uses all black, and their woods have no softwood in them for shade.

[DrTimPerkins]

There are definitely older studies showing that mainline color affects sap temperature. Can't put my hand on them at the moment, but will try to look them up and post later. Bulk sellers are typically more in-tune with wanting to produce very light syrup (higher price). Retail or wholesale producers often don't mind making syrup a little darker since that is what their market likes.

We tend to use black mainline in most places. Some areas have blue mainline if it was set up by installers. We have a LOT of mainline in the woods compared to typical producers since we like to keep sections separate to measure sap volumes from each area for research purposes. This means that we typically produce somewhat darker syrup.

The color is usually put in as or with UV inhibitors, which help reduce mainline breakdown due to solarization. We've not seen any breakdown in the black pipe, but have experienced this problem in blue mainline. It get very fragile and will eventually crack and/or shatter when a branch falls on it. Once that starts -- you pretty much just have to replace it all. We've had it happen as early as 5 yrs, more frequent once the mainline hits about 10+ years.

Blue is certainly easier to spot leaks in.

We will use translucent blue on whip manifolds (or presumably on ladders if we had any).

[bstewar]

MES does have light gray mainline that is very reasonably priced. .
I would be interested in any feedback on gray mainline as I bought 1000' of MES'.

[BAP]

Funny how things come around full circle. Some of the earliest mainline was the Lamb blue mainline. Then, people started using black water pipe for mainline because it was cheaper and thawed out quicker. Grey mainline was around for a while and worked well. Also, a white mainline with a black stripe was sold for a white in an attempt to cool down the line. Now, there is s lot of black mainline manufactured and used, but blue mainline is making a comeback as staying cooler in the sun. The good thing in all this is the quality of plastic has improved and is more durable. The early Lamb blue would crack at the insert fittings and the fittings themselves would break when really cold. Hopefully the trend to better products continues.

[sugarsand]

This may not be on topic, awhile ago there was some post about what color main line and laterals had tendencies to attract squirrels and other critters. Cant recall what was determined to be the worst, but some producers were sure it made a difference. Maybe Dr Tim has some research on this.

sugarsand

[GeneralStark]

Another factor to consider with pipe color and sap heating is slope and flow rate. A black 1" mainline with 500 taps at 6% slope may yield similar temp. sap to a blue 1" mainline with 100 taps at 2% slope.

[Sunday Rock Maple]

______ lines matter!

(inset your favorite color -- & please don't be offended, this was just too hard to pass up......)