Tees or y's better on 3/4 main line

[Smitty8377]

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone could give advise on what works best on a main line tees or Y's. I thought I had seen something from Dr. Tim to stay away from the Y. But I think that was for 5/16. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

Y's


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[JoeJ]

I have 14,000' of main line on my first 980 taps and all intersection are plastic tee's. Over the years, that system has generally produced from 26 to 34 gallons of sap per tap. With that said, my last system with 2,100 taps on it has all stainless steel Y's. This season, with several huge sap days the old woods with all tees produced 26.1 gal of sap per tap and the newer woods produced 27.9 gpt. Maybe it is the y's, maybe
maybe it is the stainless y's or maybe it is a little more vacuum on the newer woods. Old woods, 26.5" newer woods 27.5"

If I add more, it will be Y's.

[DrTimPerkins]

... the old woods with all tees produced 26.1 gal of sap per tap and the newer woods produced 27.9 gpt. Maybe it is the y's, maybe
maybe it is the stainless y's or maybe it is a little more vacuum on the newer woods. Old woods, 26.5" newer woods 27.5"

It's one of those things where a Y in a mainline system will reduce turbulence, and a stainless Y will have less obstruction than a plastic Y. Whether this actually translates to increased production is difficult to ascertain, but it surely doesn't hurt.

With the example Joe gave (old woods vs new woods), just the 1" Hg increase in vacuum would be expected to yield approximately 5-7% more sap. That means that you'd expect to get 1.3-1.8 gal sap/tap more in the new woods simply due to the vacuum difference, thus a total of 27.4-27.9 gal sap/tap, which is right in the range that Joe reports. Realistically though, there are a huge number of factors that can account for differences of this magnitude.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Stainless Y is about same ID as the pipe so there is no restriction for ice to jam up and about 25% more capacity and won't break. Just takes on bad break to pay for the extra cost of a lot of stainless Y's.

[Smitty8377]

Great thank you so much!

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

We replaced a bunch of +/- 10 year old plastic Y's last year because they were weather cracked and leaking. Any time we replace fittings on the mainline now, we are using stainless. I never thought about the additional capacity, very good point.