Clear Seasonal Spouts

[ennismaple]

Anyone heard anything, good or bad about these:

http://www.mapleguys.com/index.php?item=289&ret=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mapleguys.com%2Findex.php%3Fp age%3D1%26category%3D8

We got one as a free sample from a local supplier and it definitely looks interesting. Instead of a stubby plus disposable extension the clear spout is all you need.

[chipa]

I am trying a few of these myself. They are clear in order to help you determine if the tree itself is causing a vacuum leak.

[tuckermtn]

only drawback seems to be they are .10 more than the leader sanitary extensions- say you buy 1000 per year that is s a $100 difference.

[maplwrks]

If they were .20 more, they are worth it! They are clear because when they were in the experimental stage, they ran a bunch of them to be tried in the field, and it was the color of the plastic in the machine.The producers that tried them, really liked the clear, for the reasons stated, they could see sap flow and vacuum leaks.

[802maple]

I agree they are a little more expensive, but they eliminate two connections and you don't have to buy the stubby connector.

[mapleman3]

I'm trying about 400 of them but all on new tubing, I'll llet you know in april ;)

[tuckermtn]

so you would use that only on the end of your drops? So no "tap"...I assumed it was used like the sanitary extensions with a tap and then the add on...

- checking the math - Laperier disposable- 10 years at .25 each = 2.50 per tap
- IPL heath- one time .35 plus nine extensions at .15 each... 1.35 + .35 = 1.70 per tap

closer - and the clear plastic is a bonus...

so if your doing a 1000 tap new install over the ten years it would be a $700 difference in cost.

not saying one way or another, just running some numbers

[maplecrest]

some advantagements one is color clear. black spouts tend too loosen up with freeze thaw. price, trade in of old ones. now other side, loose an inch a year on drops, need right tees or buy the 16 cent plug to wash or dont wash. the clear not thawing out as fast and blowing off the drop hose in freeze thaw. my thoughts

[dano2840]

OK so heres my question, so at the end of the season when your said and done, do you cap them on your cup tee and just leave them till next season when you install new ones? because if you took them out when you were finished every drop would be open for 9 months, it would be kind of hard to cap them as there is no 90 degree angle like the spouts, so the drop would eventually kink in the heat of the summer being bent over like that

[ennismaple]

I think they are meant to simply be inserted and removed from the dropline by hand without having to cut 1" off the dropline. You can either cap them of on a plug tee or there's a plug you can buy that loops back over them dropline.

[802maple]

A local sugarmaker has been using them for Lapierre"s demonstration purposes and he loves them. You only have to push them on a little and they don't blow off is what he has told me. He has a very high cold sugarbush and he says he hasn't had any bad experiences so far.

[maplekids]

how much sap is lost with out vacuum using the small spouts I am going to try some of these clear spouts but do not want to lose A lot of sap

[halfast tapper]

They are the same size as health spouts.

[maplekids]

They are the same size as health spouts.
yes but with out vacuum is there any sap lost

[halfast tapper]

When I switched over to health spouts in 98 bascoms said they would do 15 percent less. Well after the first five years I had a friend of mine with an orchard with exactly the same amount of taps , roughly same age of trees and his had a better exposure. Until he went to vaccum our orchards would run within 200 gallons of each other every year. He had the 7/16 size spouts and I had the health spouts. So in my case I don't think there was any loss, my yearly totals were pretty much the same with health spouts as with the 7/16 spouts.

[Grade "A"]

What do people think of these spouts after this season?

[Russell Lampron]

Theron used a bunch of them and he will have to tell us what he thinks as far as the production goes. One thing that I found when I was in Theron's woods is that when you tap you want to do it a warm day. It is hard to push frozen 5/16" tubing onto the tap far enough to get it over the barb to keep them from leaking.The clear plastic did make it easy to find the hollow trees. I wish all adapters were like this.

[markcasper]

I heard yesterday that you can't see any clear after you shove the 5/16 over the clear spout. And that finding leaks with them is a misconception.

[peacemaker]

i used 200 of these yes u can see right into the tree .. the things i learned u cant make up drops with taps on them ... u need to set the tap then push your drop on because u cant push and turn 90 cause the slip on the tap pulling taps is a bit different cause a tap puller doesnt fit i had to mae a new one put i cut the drop just behind the tap popped the tap in my pouch and then i could count them in the sugar house ...they seemed to produce well ... as far as loosing a inch of line each year if u took in any of the talks they say to change the drops each year .. i cut every tap out of the woods this year and will be switching to these only

[Woody]

A couple guys said they were going to report back on how they liked those clear seasonal spouts. I'd be interested in hearing any information before I figure which spouts to get.

thanks

[PATheron]

I liked them. I especially liked how the trees heal up with the quarter inch ones. I think that they are a little slower tapping but I ordered a bunch more of them this year and Im using them on all my new stuff becouse its a cheap easy way to do a throw away spout. Theron

[Woody]

So I take it these can't be re-used each year?

[Maplewalnut]

I used a bunch of them last year also. You can definitely see into the tree with them and they are great at finding leaks. I typically put them on my end trees so I didn't have to walk to the end everytime when checking for leaks. They do take longer to tap, but in my mind make up for it during the season when there is a lot more to do than drill holes. All our holes healed in record time this year with all the rain, didn't notice any difference there.

If you have any open houses or tours put a couple near your sugarhouse, people love to look into the tree and see sap coming out.

[JoeJ]

I used the Lapiere clear 5/16 spouts this spring on 848 taps with 24" of vacuum. I was very satisifed with the ease of installation and the production results. There were 2 or 3 spouts that gave me a problem which were easily solved. I liked being able to see the sap flowing through the clear spouts.

2009 was a very good sap production year in my area. I made 503 gallons of sytup from 848 taps. (.57 gallons of syrup per tap) My woods average 32.5 gallons of sap per taps with one small section of 149 taps on the North west side of my land that averaged 42.7 gallons of sap per tap. ( too bad the sap was a low as 1.4% sugar content)

With that said, I plan on using the Leader check valve spout adapters in the 2010 season to try to maintain the highest gallons per tap production. My trees only have to produce an extra 121 gallons of 2% sap to pay the $127.00 difference between the cost of the clear spouts and the Leader check valve spout adapters. I think that they are well worth the extra cost.

[KenWP]

Wish we had other dealers then D&G around here. I like to fool around with new things. Have D&G and the CO-OP has maple stuff in the spring but they only stock once and then your out of luck to get anything from them.

[jason grossman]

ken, i drive by ayers cliff all the time when i am going to CDL. it's not that far to either CDL or lapeirre from where you are. a good sunday drive with the one who must be obeyed!!

[KenWP]

I know Lapeirie is in Waterloo but where is CDL. I find it funney in a place that has so many maple trees that there is very little informantion available for where to get things. Okay after a google search figured out why I can't use CDL. The web site only works in french and nothing really comes up on it. The online catolog is 2008 even and it dosn't load. Owell.

[tuckermtn]

follow up question- is anyone still using the clear seasonal spout or have folks pretty much switched over to check valves? this would be on a vacuum system...

[DrTimPerkins]

follow up question- is anyone still using the clear seasonal spout or have folks pretty much switched over to check valves? this would be on a vacuum system...

I can't tell you for certain that it was a representative sample, but of 94 people who completed my survey in April 2010, which included over a quarter million spouts, 3% used primarily clear straight through spouts (CST) and 36% used primarily Check valve spouts (CV). It is question #9 on the survey http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/surveyAll.pdf

[PATheron]

Eric- I used quite a few of them last year. I like them and they really work good for me, my only gripe is that they seem to be a little slower to tap with than the health spouts I had been using. They seem to be pretty good about not leaking vacuum. Theron

[Maplewalnut]

I plan on using some this year (about 200) on new taps with new drops ,new main etc. I am however using CVs on anything that is not new tube.

[Randy Brutkoski]

I thought they were easy and quite fast to use. The CST that is. I really liked them alot. I have 2 bushes and 1 of them has CV spouts and the other has CST's. I cant really compare the 2 because where i have the CST spouts are in a bush that has alot of soft maple which my other bush has all sugars, 4000 of them.

[jcb]

i used 200 of these yes u can see right into the tree .. the things i learned u cant make up drops with taps on them ... u need to set the tap then push your drop on because u cant push and turn 90 cause the slip on the tap pulling taps is a bit different cause a tap puller doesnt fit i had to mae a new one put i cut the drop just behind the tap popped the tap in my pouch and then i could count them in the sugar house ...they seemed to produce well ... as far as loosing a inch of line each year if u took in any of the talks they say to change the drops each year .. i cut every tap out of the woods this year and will be switching to these only

Change the drop every year? Whats next, put up all new pipe line every year. If you cut the drop off every year you run the risk of damaging the tee so now you have to buy new tees. This is starting to sound more like a way to drive up sales not sap yeld. I can see the contact point with the tree needing to be changed but not the drop line.

[Farmboy]

I got a sample from the local dealer and you can remove them by pulling it out of the drop line by hand. I'm going to try 200 on tubing for the first time this year.

[bigtreemaple]

Lapierre also offers a 90 degree angle clear spout which allows the spout to be tapped in while it is connected to the drop. It also allows tapping the spout in tighter should it loosen or not be set tight enough in the first place. The 5/16 slips on the same as the straight model and they are available in 5/16 or 1/4 inch. I used the straight ones last year but will use the 90 degree this year.

[Thad Blaisdell]

I used the 90 clear last year and will again this year on the same 4900. I had/have mixed feelings on them. About 50% of them seemed to leak (micobubbles I will call them) where the drop connected. The seam where the spout is made had a slight ridge that allowed some air, very little but still some that you could see. Noted I still ran around 27.5 vacuum during the season. Also I found that the material used was very hard and brittle and liked to loosen in the tree. I think a softer material would tend to stay in the tree easier when it freezes as the hole contracts it would absorb some of the stress rather than getting pushed out. I had one day at a certain elevation all along the hill, about 300 taps were pushed out, 50 of those were out of the tree. I am going to use CV's on my new taps and if I like those better I will switch everything next year.

[Smitty]

2011 will be my third season on 5/16 clear spouts. I tryed 100 in 09, liked
them so much, i ran 250 in 2010. they seemed to perform well and are very
easy to install and remove . The 5/16 tubing slips on and off fairly easy.
I am very satisfied with there performance and plan on using this season.

[TapME]

Peace: I'm going to use these spouts this year and hope to increase the volume of sap by having a new spout. I am under the impression that these clear spouts are also bio-degradeable which caught my interest. It was either this one spout or new stubby's.

[tecumseh]

would putting them out in the woods before tapping, this fall, defeat the newness of the spout? I want to get the best production I can.

[DrTimPerkins]

would putting them out in the woods before tapping, this fall, defeat the newness of the spout? I want to get the best production I can.

Put the new spouts out while tapping -- not before. All the tubing work can be done ahead of time though.

[tecumseh]

why? and how much extra sap can I get with new clear spouts?