reworking my tubing

[steve J]

I want to up grade to larger evaporator and I have never been pleased with production level of what tubing I have installed. When I installed it I tried not to go over 10 to 12 taps per line. But I think my issue could be the length of some of those lines as two of the runs are probably 100 foot in length amd I correct that is far to long?

[Haynes Forest Products]

If its gravity you want more taps per run. Do you then run 100ft after the last tree? Slope is your friend after the last tree to get the natural vacuum.

[steve J]

This is a Steep hill that extends the full width of my property 400ft. and since I had a small rig I tapped only the largest trees with all the lines running back toward the center of the property were they join a 3/4 black water type line that runs about 60 feet to a holding tank. My thought was that if I ran a black 3/4 line horizontal to the hill down near the base and ran several verticle lines to the hill down to it tapping all tappable trees that I could easily have over 200 on that black line. If I did this in some cases there could be 30 feet from last tree tapped to line.

[maple flats]

That sounds better. When possible you are best running your main (and branch lines) at 2-4%, 2% is poor but do able. Then run the laterals as straight up the slope as you can. If a slope is so long you get too many taps run a branch line half way up. On gravity you should go like 15 or even 20 if steep but on vacuum you're best with 5 or 6 per lateral.

[Haynes Forest Products]

SteveJ are you using vacuum if not plan on it soon.

[farmall h]

SteveJ, should work. My hillside is so steep I have to tap on "all-fours" in some places. That's why I bring the dog with me,:lol:

[danno]

I saw gravity vacuum running at it's best this weekend - it was pretty cool. I run my taps on vacuum, but as I was cleaning my taps this weekend I had the vacuum off and was pushing water and air up the mainline. A fitting let go and the water ran down the main while I was still pulling taps. The vacuum created by the water running down the main was prety darn good for gravity.

So, I'd say, without vacuum, the more taps you can get on a lateral the better.

[steve J]

Thanks everyone for there input and you confirmed my beliefs that I was not running my lines very effectively. So that will be good project for the summer.