old tubing taken down

[howden86]

I am and will be taking down old tubing, Is there any reason to keep it or parts of it for something

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I use pieces of old 5/16 to put my side tie wires through where they go around a tree. I usually try to save Y's etc from the main line.

[Haynes Forest Products]

By the time you cut out all the good parts if any with the tubing being so hard and brittle you will damage most of the tap and Ts. Then there's the cuts and missing fingers:mad: I found its better to toss it all and start over. Plus if the tubing is that old the fittings are old as well and will fail under the stress of new tubing.

[PerryW]

Much of my sugarbush is piped with used tubing.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Howden86 Asked about OLD tubing so that is why I gave the answer that I did:rolleyes: The problem with mixing new with old is they start to fail at differant times. I expect sections of woods to need replacing over time and then its all goes to the bonfire and you start over all new.

[DrTimPerkins]

Used tubing isn't necessarily bad, however it's pretty well established that there is a loss of yield of about 10% per year (for at least the first 4-6 years) for each year of use in a system. This applies even if the tubing is washed and is primarily due to progressive microbial contamination of the system. So if you start with used tubing, you will not get the maximum yield from the system.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Dr. Perkins,
Have there been any studies where only the mainline is used? I know that any contamination anywhere is not good but it would seem to me that used drop lines and laterals would be a bigger problem than used mainlines. Thanks,
Doug

[steamvalleyFarms]

Question about the 10% loss. I am still pretty new to the tubing systems. So do you still get a 10% loss per year even using a new spout adapter each year? Or is this just with used spouts and used tubing?

Thanks,
Rob

[DrTimPerkins]

Dr. Perkins,
Have there been any studies where only the mainline is used? I know that any contamination anywhere is not good but it would seem to me that used drop lines and laterals would be a bigger problem than used mainlines. Thanks,
Doug

The mainline is thought to be a far smaller source of contamination problems than lateral lines. Thus no studies yet, and none planned.

[DrTimPerkins]

Question about the 10% loss. I am still pretty new to the tubing systems. So do you still get a 10% loss per year even using a new spout adapter each year? Or is this just with used spouts and used tubing?


A new spout adapter each year will result in a slightly smaller drop in yield. Phrased more appropriately, using a new spout adapter each year will result in a 10-15% improvement in sap yield (under vacuum and probably also gravity tubing systems) from what you would normally get with a system at a given age.

[PerryW]

From what I've read..

with gravity systems; putting up used tubing would just fine as long as you replaced the spouts and droplines each year since there is little splash-back in gravity systems.

My sugarbush has tubing ranging from new to 25 years old. Each year, I replace some of the older sections with new tubing. If any the old tubing still has some life left in it, I drag it up to the top of the hill and use it to tap those scattered maples that I was too cheap to buy new tubing for.

[Sugarmaker]

Perry,
Sounds to me like you are getting all you can out of your investment.
As for changing the spouts each year? I am not going to do that for a while.

Regards,
Chris