3/16 #s and thoughts

[cjf12]

I just spent a good 1 1/2 hours trying to find something I may not have read on here. Before my wife leaves me because of the time I've spent on this forum can someone tell me, is there any new research as to how many taps on 3/16 gravity only? Thought I saw somewhere 45 was a possibility but always thought 30 was the # to shoot for.

[RileySugarbush]

I just spent a good 1 1/2 hours trying to find something I may not have read on here. Before my wife leaves me because of the time I've spent on this forum can someone tell me, is there any new research as to how many taps on 3/16 gravity only? Thought I saw somewhere 45 was a possibility but always thought 30 was the # to shoot for.

45 is probably too many. 25 or 30 work well for me, and that is indeed on here in various discussions. Too few and the line doesn't fill with sap and you don't get vacuum as soon or as well. Too many and the high flow rate starts to create too much line friction and therefore back pressure.

[TapTapTap]

I am not a very experienced sugarer but I think I'm a pretty good engineer. That said, I believe that 45 taps is far too many for the simple reason that it only takes one leaking tap to mess up the entire vacuum below that tap. With a high number of taps, the chance of a leak increases proportionally. I tried 3/16" lines my first year and wasn't able to get over about 9" of vacuum with about 25 taps which i think was at least partly due to small leaks. And with natural vacuum it is very challenging to detect those leaks. The hydraulic frictional losses is a whole other matter that also reduces the flow, particularly when the tubing length and number of fittings is increased.

[wnybassman]

If I had 40-45 trying to go on one run, I think it would be worth the cost to split it up into two runs. And the reason above is probably the best one, if you have damage to the line (tree branch, deer, etc) during a run you are losing a lot. Split into two and one will keep going strong until other is fixed. I have 15-18 taps on most of my runs and achieve 25+ inches of vacuum at the top taps during most runs.

[Sugarmaker]

cj,
Song comes to mind! (I'mm gonna miss her, OH look, I've got some sap!)
Good luck with your season too!
Just kidding.
Regards,
Chris

[Chasefamily]

i shoot for 25 on all of my 3/16 some may have 20 others around 30. although have found if have the slope and leak free they all pull 25+. have found that the output was much higher when new, and have been tapering off the next two years. this year ill be installing many more new taps, and then ill replace all my drops on all current 3/16 lines and see if i can gain any of that lost output back. I am also for the first time going to try adding a vacuum pump to the 3/16 line system as well. I know others have done so.

[maple flats]

I read in a study report by Tim Wilmot (he pioneered the 3/16 revolution) that 37 may be the max. Most try for 25 +/- 5 when possible. I have one line that has 41 and it appeared to do well in the past, but I was told I likely lost some production because it was overloaded. This next season I am going to make that 1 lines.

[buckeye gold]

I have several different tap counts on my 3/16 . I have a couple short but steep lines with 8-12 taps and they do not do as well as the ones with approx. 20-25, even though the 8-12 are steeper. my best line have 22 and 27 on them with I'd guess a drop of 30ft plus down to 10 on low end and around 20 feet average. I don't know the pressure, but they run full stream on good days. I'm not concerned with max pressure in my set up, but I do think if there is a magic number its 25 give or take 2-3 taps.