Washing manifold

[steven safford]

As it will soon be time to clean pipeline, I was wondering if someone had plans or ideas on how to make a manifold to hook up air and cleaning solution. Also I used clorox and water mix and the squirrels had a field day. What can be used that will not encourage them to eat tubing&fittings.A 22 rifle works good ,but is time consuming

[sweetwoodmaple]

See "Tube Rinsing" on the Tubing installation forum.

Brian

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have a Tanaka gas pump and I hooked it to the end of all my laterals and mainlines via the blue lamp 1/2" connector with 4 lateral connectors and it flushed them great and they look like brand new inside. I bought a 5 lb bottle of the granule form pool sanitizer chlorine which isn't supposed to have any sodium and mixed it about 10 to 20 times stronger than pool dose. :D

[brookledge]

Steve
I use Calcium Hypoclorite instead of Sodium Hypoclorite(bleach). I get it from a pool supply store. When mixed it smells just like bleach except there is no sodium in it which leaves a salty resdue that those squirrels love. Since switching I have drasticly reduced the number of chew holes. It was recomended to me a couple of years ago by a producer who has over 5,000 taps and is very happy in the way it works.
Keith

[Maple Flats]

As for the manifold I use my 1" 1.2 hp gas sap pump and built the manifold On the in side I have a 1" Quick coupler that connects to the pump hose, next is a tee with an air inlet coming from the side and I have a ball valve to regulate air flow and a swing check valve to keep water from backflowing into the air line if water pressure should ever exceed air pressure, my compressor hooks up to the air inlet. Continuing to the nozzle, I have a ball valve to open and close for air water mix and then the opposite quick coupler to finish it out. On each pipeline I have the proper quick connector and all I need to do is drive my tractor with my sap transport tank full of water to the downhill end of each pipeline and hook up the manifold to the pipeline , the air hose and the pump. I have a long enough air hose that I do not need to transport my compressor. I start the pump and run the air about not quite half open on a 1/2" ball valve because my compressor is only 2 hp and that is where it keeps air flowing into the manifold and not run low on air. With this I open 3 to 5 taps at a time and they dance around a lot, I close all but 2, open 3 more and go back to close the next three and proceed like this all the way to the end, working up each latteral. Always keeping at least 2 open or the pressure pops something apart. I do always seem to get a little wet but not soaked. I don't wear a raincoat but you could, it would help. Doing it this way I can clean my 140 taps on pipeline and only use about about 40-50 gal of water. I use chlorine from a pool supply which is supposed to not have the salt which mice and squirrels like and then follow it up with plain water. After the plain water I blow the lines out with air to remove as much water as possible and then leave it all closed until just before next season and rinse it again at that time the same way. This time it is cold when you get too wet, be careful. I hope this helps you and is not too confusing. After I made this set up and used it once I saw in the Leader catalog that they sell one very similar, but I have not seen one up close to see if they did it any differently.

[Maple Flats]

I saw a manifold in the newest Leader catalog made of plastic pipe and fittings, looks somewhat similar to mine , if they had it before I made mine I might have bought one, but mine works fine just a little heavier and bulkier than theirs.

[Maple Flats]

I recently walked my lines checking for damage. I used the calcium chloride (pool chem) for washing and I am finding a lot of chewed tubing. I rinsed thuroughly after washing but still finding too much chewed. I will start replacing it in Dec or Jan and will update at that time. Last year I had far less damage and used chlorox. Any ideas?

[brookledge]

I know that I switched to calcium hypoclorite and noticed a reduction in damage. I was told to use it by a larger producer (over 4,000 taps) and he recommended it to me. I have used it for 3 years now whereas before I used bleach.
What concentration did you use?
Keith

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I used the pool chlorine this year and only found 4 or 5 spots out of probably 5000' of lateral lines. :D

[Maple Flats]

I'll need to see if I can find my concentration I used, don't remember. I have it written down in my log at the sugarhouse, all I need is to remember to look it up when I am down there next time.