Aluminium spouts

[western mainer]

How are the aluminium spouts to use ? Do they stay in the trees well? or is the a better one's to use with buckets. 30 years ago we used the galvanized spouts, we are going to get back in to making again and there has been a lot of changes over the years.
Thanks Brian
Dunham farm

[KenWP]

The pot metal spouts work okay after you get them in the tree. They are so soft they need the gizmo to pound them in the tree.

[Fred Henderson]

I am useing 300 of the Alu spouts and like them. They warm the tap hole up quicker that the steel ones.I will add more next year.

[Dan W]

I have a mix of cast, steel, aluminum, and stainless spouts (5 different types). I like the aluminum best. No rust to deal with They stay in the tree, clean up well with a brush on a cordless drill, and they don't bend out of shape and collapse like the stainless. I also have a mix of steel and aluminum buckets that have various size holes in them. The cast spouts I have are difficult to use with the aluminum buckets because of the small holes in them. Every time I buy buckets it seems I get a different style of spout with them. If I could find a cheap way to switch to plastic 5/16 spouts with buckets I would. But for now I think I am going to switch to all aluminum by next year.

[adk1]

what is the proper way to tap in a 5/16" Leader hookless aluminum spout? There is no tab on it like the larer 7/16" spouts. Do most use rubber mallets?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Just a steel 16 ounce claw hammer works good. Key is to hit them nice and square on the end and you shouldn't have any problems with them!

[Fred Henderson]

The ALu is very hard in these spouts. Use a regular claw hammer and it won't damage them.