Oxidized taps

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Hi all,
Anyone have this happen to their taps? I've soaked them in hot water, rang them through the dishwasher etc....this stuff just won't come off. Should I not use these to tap with or do you think they are fine?

Top tap is what they SHOULD look like. I have about 50 that all look like this.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170108/6dd1e7ca9fddd755fe1e626460960831.jpg


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[Wanabe1972]

I have a hot water and soap parts washer at work and anytime we put zinc or aluminum in it they turn black and oxidize like this. I'm not sure what causes it.

[steam maker]

almost looks like what happens to a anode rod in a water heater !

[Bucket Head]

Not sure exactly what happened, but years ago I had some Leader "shark fin" aluminum taps do that. The only thing that had touched them was the hard water we have here. I had soaked them prior to cleaning after pulling them. They were on roadside trees, so at the time I thought maybe some road salt had contacted them and made some sort of reaction?
I discarded them and bought new ones, which was tough to swallow. I have not seen any do it since.

[markcasper]

years back, we use to bleach them, and that made it start almost immediately. No it doesn't hurt if you use them IMO, but they are getting slowly eaten away. Alum filter press frames start to do it after so many years too.

[jmayerl]

Agreed, looks like they were cleaned with a bleach solution

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

My first washing of them was in a bleach solution with water, then washed them in the dishwasher. I didn't thing the bleach would harm them ugh :-( at $3 each sucks to replace them.


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[n8hutch]

If you can get the hooks off those taps you could use a clear polycarbonate seasonal spout with those hooks. At 15 cents a piece you can just toss them out at the end of the year. Probably get more sap too vs reusing the aluminum spout.

[PerryFamily]

If you can get the hooks off those taps you could use a clear polycarbonate seasonal spout with those hooks. At 15 cents a piece you can just toss them out at the end of the year. Probably get more sap too vs reusing the aluminum spout.

I used lapierre seasonal straights with buckets. Some had a big enough hole others I used a step bit to enlarge the hole.
I did use a 2" piece of tubing on the spout so the sap dripped into the bucket better