IBC tote valve freezing problems?

[Arctic Fox]

I haven't had any experience with IBC totes so I'm asking those of you who have them, have you had any trouble with sap freezing and compromising the valve at the bottom of the tote?

[RileySugarbush]

I have occasionally had the valve freeze in both the open and closed position and it still works fine. I recently changed my piping so that I can drain and remove the tubing between the valve and the pump inside the sugarhouse when I expect freezing.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I have had most of mine freeze up and refuse to open or close but only one became a leaker. Having a drain is the best idea. Now I have 2 different style of valves on my collection of tanks. I have ball valves and they look more like brass gas valves with the taper style and then the butterfly type. The butterfly type are prone to failure if you stress them trying to open or close them when they are frozen. Opening a frozen ball valve wont hurt them but trying to close one with ice in it wont work because it has the sheer the chunk of ice with a plastic valve........ain't happening. I wish I could get the valves apart and grease them up so ice can't lock them up.

[Russell Lampron]

I have three totes and have had the valves freeze on all three. One valve broke and the other two still work. If the valve is frozen don't force it open or closed to prevent breakage.

[VT_K9]

There is a place online you can order fittings for most IBC totes. We did that for one of ours. If you could keep the valve empty then you would be in the clear. However that cannot be done easily. We adapted one of ours to 1 1/2" pipe and used a brass gate valve. This has worked well for us.

Mike