New Guy, recommendations for type of tubing and fittings

[blucoondawg]

Hello, been reading up on tubing system and arch builds for a couple years now on this site, a lot of great ideas and information, this year I'm finally going to jump back into making syrup, haven't done it in years, used to do about 35 trees just around the house on buckets and bags with my grandpa and cook in a very large kettle over a campfire basically...Now I'm looking to start again, for this year I will likely stay with a lower number of trees, less than 50 for sure but haven't got out in the woods to decide for sure yet. I am planning to start out with a small 5/16 system either on gravity or possibly (and most likely) with a lunchbox type vacuum system. What is the difference between all the different lines and fittings, I'd assume fittings just go with the cheapest 5/16 taps like the clear ones I see online. What about the lines, what is the difference between rigid, semi rigid, max flow? Are there brand names that seem to hold up better, then theres blue, green, grey? What should I plan on ordering? I have a couple suppliers around my area, I will look at their selection otherwise I will order online. I am in Northern Wisconsin by the way.

[motowbrowne]

Different people have different preferences on tubing brand. It all works. I prefer semi rigid for lateral lines, and flexible tubing for drop lines. Do you have much slope where you are gonna tap? There's a lot of guys going with 3/16 instead of 5/16. It creates vacuum naturally because the tubing fills with sap and acts as a siphon. Also, it's cheaper, and you can still add a vacuum pump at the bottom. Blue and green both are high visibility during winter, but green is camouflaged during the summer if you plan to leave your lines set up. The green is kinda pretty. Personally I'm going to be setting up my new tubing this year with 3/16 leader 30P.

Fittings are another preference thing. Depending on which ones, sometimes it's nice to stick with one manufacturer for tubing and fittings, though it's not a necessity.

They're not cheaper, but there's research showing that the check valve taps do usually produce more sap.

[blucoondawg]

I've been reading on some of the 3/16 threads and it sounds promising. I do have some slope but nothing really steep haven't really tried to calculate how much, I was considering a 3/16 system but since I don't have the 30 feet of drop figured I'd be better off with the bigger lines and a lunchbox vacuum system, though my uppermost taps would have a decent amount of natural vacuum as I get closer toward the house it gets more gradual. I hadn't really found any information on anyone running 3/16 on a pump

[motowbrowne]

There's many threads on here about it. Start by searching for "3/16 hybrid" and "3/16 Shurflo".

Also, the search function on here is awful. I recommend using google. Type your search terms, then type site:mapletrader.com


In a nutshell, as long as you have decent slope, and some drop, there's natural vacuum to be had. Check out some of Cody's posts under the western Wisconsin thread. He's got some with only 10' of drop that ran really well. 5/16 will work too, but for me it's all 3/16 from here on out.