pvc fitting breakage

[Acer]

Was reading the wet dry setup thread and noticed folks were commenting on pvc fitting breakage.

Unfortunately all my sap from 1200 trees will be coming in through 10 separate 2 pipe ladders. Am I in for a nightmare of breakage or do you lose a few and it settles out? That's like 30 fittings that are pretty much guaranteed to freeze wet nightly.

Dean

[Maplewalnut]

I tried PVC for the first time last year for a pump line from my tank to suagrhouse Granted there were a few spots not sloped correctly to drain but I had nothing but problems fixing cracked and leaking fittings after those spots frooze overnight. I replaced it with black pipe this year and will never go back to PVC for anything in the sugarbush.

[Acer]

its black pipe witc pvc insert fittings

[Russell Lampron]

Dean I don't think you will have any problems with those fittings. The white ones that you glue together (schedule 40 pvc) are the ones that crack and break. I have never had a problem with the ones that I use with black plastic. They make stainless ones that you can swap in if you do have problems.

[Amber Gold]

I'm taking a risk and will be building my ladder w/ PVC. I have a manifold w/ 3 lines coming in at the ladder. There's less fittings, all glued joints so there's no vac. leaks, and less hose clamps which get can get pretty expensive. If I have problems with it freezing I'll just rebuild it with poly pipe.

[farmall h]

And so the purpose of a sap ladder is to do what? Bring the sap up to the main line? Seems like a rather expensive endeavor. Is it because the bush is on extremely flat land?