tubing into a 5 gallon bucket

[aunt stellas gardens]

I recently acquired a connection of a Restaurant owner who will be saving us 5 gallon food grade buckets With Lids-(bonus).
I was thinking we could try tubing to run our sap into the buckets. I know there is tubing that is used to run water from the pump in backyard ponds. Is this the type of tubing I should buy? Or should I try and hang 5 gallon buckets on the tap? I am afraid the weight of the sap will pull out the tap. Anybody have any thoughts on this idea? Do I have to buy special tubing to rig this up or will ordinary hardware store stuff work?
On another note, I have started pushing the new shed idea with a large overhang that will serve as the Sugar Shack.

[briduhunt]

I use 5 gal bakery buckets with lids and pipe from the tap to the bucked. I use a drill bit the same size as the OD of the tubbing I uses so there is no channce of water or dirt getting into the sap. I would recomend that you use food approved tubing. You can purchase a roll of tubing from the sponsor of this site "The Maple Guys" and it is fairly cheap and last for years. Hanging from the tree does have several problems as blowing off and weight to lift off. I place the buckets on the ground with a weight of some kind on top to keep the wind from blowing them over.

As for you shed always go as large of a shed as your budget will allow because I like others built a shed 10' x 12' thinking it was large enough and before my first season in it I already realized it was to small. They always say "go big or stay home".

[KenWP]

You can buy food grade tubeing from a hardware store but it is a lot more money then buying it from the maple suppliers. The only problem is they only sell it in 500 foot lengths and if you don't want that much it can be a pain. My supplier here has white maple tubeing he will sell in shorter lengths but not the blue line.Also running into 5 gallon pails give you a lot of room for the big runs that you might get. There are members on here that hang 5 gallon pails on the trees also with good results.
By the time the night is over you will have lots of ideas posted beleive me.

[tessiersfarm]

I run over 100 - 5 gallon buckets like that. Be careful the tubing doesn't lay on the bottom of the bucket because it will freeze and prevent sap from flowing as early. Lately I have been drilling a 5/16 hole in the bucket and using a tap on each end so there is no tubing in the bucket to freeze. Just place the tap high enough so you have gravity flow to the bucket and plan on the snow melting so your tubing will reach all season long.

Good luck

[brookledge]

If you drill a hole in the bucket the same size as the OD of the tubing then you need to allow for ventilation otherwise the bucket with a sealed lid will become presurized and you will get less sap.
If you use pails with sealed lids then you are better off drilling the hole for the tubing bigger and then putting a tee on the tubing inside the pail so that the tubing can't slip out.
Keith

[3rdgen.maple]

I was told by a guy who ran tubing into buckets to make sure the tubing just went inside and does not sit down in the pail. He said many times he would check buckets in the day with sap in them and if he collected after dark they would be empty cause the tree sucked the sap back up.

[vermaple]

I was told by a guy who ran tubing into buckets to make sure the tubing just went inside and does not sit down in the pail. He said many times he would check buckets in the day with sap in them and if he collected after dark they would be empty cause the tree sucked the sap back up.

The new check valve adaptors will prevent that.

[firetech]

Here's my 2 cents worth. Last year we set 320 taps on 160 5 gal buckets all with lids. My program runs like this. 2 tree saver spiles on 2 seperate(18''-20"long) peices of maple tubing with a t joining them together and then a piece of tubing to get them to thru the bucket lid the 5/16s drill bit seem to make a very tight seal from the lid to the tubing never more than 6''. By doing this the lid will have an achor point on those windy days and no water or dirt enters the sap. Only snap down the lid lightly as it is a pain to undo the lids at collection time and you prevent the sap being sucked back into the tree. On very windy days we don't pick up the sap if we do we will use baleing twine to tye the buckets to the trees. Lots of kind people help us too by stopping and setting buckets up right from time to time. The advatges of this system are that you can make the spile harness that cost about a $1.50 per tree during the winter and the buckets are free for the recycleing just wash and sanitize before using. I'm now the proud owner of over 200 5 gal buckets and have reached the limit for me on this style collection system. Have fun and wash your buckets now while is is still warm.

[aunt stellas gardens]

Talk about a quick turnaround when it comes to answering questions! This site is faster than the bank teller line.
Do the Maple Guys have a catalog that they mail out? I need to familiarize myself with the terminology you people use. I still have no idea what some of the equipment is that you all talk about so often. We are in the primitive stages of this maple disease. I traded some tomatoes and morels with the chef. Good trade!
We are do it yourselfers when it comes to construction projects but we (he) are also procrastinators. I'll take a 20 by 30 building but that might be too big of a project to hide from zoning officers.;) Thank you all for the advise.

[brookledge]

Nancy and mike
You should get some manufactuers catalogs. You can get them either through a distributer like the Maple Guys or straight from a manufactuer like Maple pro, Leader etc.
Then there are some large distibuters like Bascom's that print up there own catalog
Also you can got to their web sites.
good luck

[red maples]

becareful using those 5 gallon buckets...they are food grade but what was in them???? sometimes they are used for pickles that brine garlic flavor will taint your sap/syrup...and it doesn't come out by washing, if they had potato salad or cole slaw or something more of a neutral acidity then they are fine!!! learned from experience didn't have enough to boil yet stored it in a few buckets that once had pickles got garlicky syrup!!! no kidding still ate it though!!! didn't do that again.

[buxtonboiler]

I use the 5 gallon buckets also. I found that it works better if you drill a hole in the bucket itself about 2 " below the top. This way, there are no holes in the lid for rain to seep down through. it also helps to put a short drop loop in your tubing before it enters the bucket to help rain and dew from following tube into bucket.

[Gary R]

I run both pieces of tubing through a 3/4" hole. The tubing only extends 4" into the bucket. I tie something around the tubing inside the bucket. This creates a "drip leg" for sap that wants to run back the outside of the tubing and onto the ground. I've seen this happen when you go to the bucket and the ground wet and the buckets empty. I would avoid running the tubing to the bottom of the bucket. It could create back pressure that would reduce your sap flow. I put a rock on the lid to hold it down. I've also had 4 gal. of sap in a bucket hanging on a tap with no problem. I wouldn't get too worried about a little dirt or water in the bucket. Real maple buckets with peak lids have big openings exposed to the elements.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have used 5 gallon pickle buckets for about 15 years and hot pack syrup in them, leave sap in them, etc and have never had them impart any off flavor in the syrup and probably some of them still have a faint dill pickle odor. Not saying this will be the case for every off smell bucket, but has been the case for me.

[firetech]

I think you may want to watch what and how you handle your buckets. Case in point last year we put some hot syrup into a bucket that strawberry/kiwi icecream flavor base. When I opened the bucket later in the summer it had a definate strawberry smell and flavor. I bottled it up in 1/2 gal jugs and sold it for $10 sold out quickly and explained to the customers what they are getting. One lady came back the next day and bought 3 more jugs.

[KenWP]

Proves that maybe it wasn't all bad. I found out the hard way not to put hot syrup in a pop bottle by the way. The bottle shrunk form a 2 liter to a 1 liter with syrup flowing all over the place. I am leary about putting syrup in bottles other then syrup jugs after that.

[3rdgen.maple]

I had one of those shall we call a maple emergency once and had to get a container quick. I dumped out the water in a gallon water cooler and put hot syrup in it and watched it melt into nothing. Never will I put syrup in anything plastic again unless it is a syrup jug.