Silver ion taps....available yet?

[Groves]

Couldn't decide where this question should go.

A lot of guys that will use these are on tubing. Mine will be on tubing, but just long enough to stay in the bucket :)

I'm in a warm weather state, so keeping my taps from clogging with bacteria sounds grand.

Anyone know whether these silver ion taps are available yet?

[KenWP]

If you could find the old post and find the web site it might tell weather they are made yet or not. Mountainvan might know also.

[Gary R]

CallMaple Innovations at 607 746 6215 or www.mapleinnovationsllc.com. There add was in the Maple News.

[Homestead Maple]

Dr. Tim Perkins of Proctor Research had some posts recently on the subject of the check valve taps that will be introduced to sugar makers soon and had some comments on silver in taps. Here are his comments:
The response to the first question would take a really long message. Many of the products that use an antimicrobial chemical (not silver) -- these aren't permitted in maple use (unless you want to get it registered with the EPA as a pesticide....in that case I hope you have lots of $). Even antimicrobial silver could not be advertised as a way to keep tapholes cleaner...it can only be advertised as protecting the actual product the silver is incorporated into from becoming fouled with microbes. You likely won't see any mention of it increasing sap yields....that would trigger the EPA to consider it a pesticide and start asking questions. Relatively few products use silver (some doorknobs, socks, drinking fountains and other things do). The relative efficacy and longevity of efficacy in those cases varies greatly due to contact, soiling, the material it is being used in, etc. One problem with silver in maple applications in particular seems to be that the sheer number of microbes can rapidly exhaust or overwhelm the ability of silver to migrate through the "carrier" particles to the surface. We're talking sugar water....and lots of microbes (millions per cc of sap). This problem isn't unprecedented....ozone is a great disinfectant for water systems, yet it utterly fails as a disinfectant for sap, due to the number and variety of microbes in the system, and the protective effect of sugar on the microorganisms. It is a fascinating subject. As I said, we are not the first to look at antimicrobial silver in maple. It was tried decades ago, but abandoned. There are a couple of papers with some mention of the subject. The other good point this subject highlights is the need for good research, and in maple systems, more than one season of research. The first year we worked with it seemed good (almost as good as the CV). The second year it absolutely didn't have any effect whatsoever. Perhaps others can make it work, but I'd need to see the studies to show it.