Stainless steel tubing spiles?

Anyone have experience using stainless steel taps for tubing? I see over on the SmokyLake site that they offer these in 50 packs for (presumably) 5/16" drops. I'm a small operation without plans to ever exceed a couple hundred taps on the line, I inherently like the idea of making the investment up front and then using material year to year...do they face any of the risks of increased microbial activity, though?

Just looking for any hands-on experience, I'm also considering the check-valve style for next year.

I use the SS taps from Smoky Lake for my bags and have for the last three years. Once season is over, just boil and let them air dry. Then I place them in a zip lock bag for next year. I really like them.

We never did it but talked about it. Our plan was going to be to have 2 sets and swap them out every year. The unused set would get a good cleaning and reused every other year. There will certainly be unseen microbial activity so a good cleaning is needed. Probably still not as good as a new tap.

I didn't see how many were available, but I did notice that Bascom's has them listed under the used category.

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Originally Posted by motowbrowne

I didn't see how many were available, but I did notice that Bascom's has them listed under the used category.

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OH nice, I was just on Bascom's site - I'll check it out.

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Originally Posted by mainebackswoodssyrup

We never did it but talked about it. Our plan was going to be to have 2 sets and swap them out every year. The unused set would get a good cleaning and reused every other year. There will certainly be unseen microbial activity so a good cleaning is needed. Probably still not as good as a new tap.

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Interesting, I'm not sure if I'd buy a second set if I'm investing in the one...if I have few enough taps, I should be able to clean them before the next year.

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Originally Posted by Pdiamond

I use the SS taps from Smoky Lake for my bags and have for the last three years. Once season is over, just boil and let them air dry. Then I place them in a zip lock bag for next year. I really like them.

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Cool, that's good to know...sounds like (from your signature) that you have a very similarly sized operation to me. I did 100 taps this year as well, 50 on buckets and then 50 on drops into 5 gallon pails.

When we had our farm, we bought the first batch of these from a supplier we know. They clean them in an ultra sonic cleaner. I just bought Ron several for his birthday.

We bought 100 with hooks for buckets and had 200 on lines, 100 or so of which were on vacuum. I have nothing bad to say about them, I'll be adding another 200 for next season!

I have used stainless spouts on my lines since I started. Originally I purchased them from Bascom’s. They were made by a company in VT which has since gone out of business. I bought another batch from Smoky Lake and actually prefer those because they have a lip to grab onto so they can be pulled out more easily.

At the end of the season I soak them in hot water and use a pipe cleaner to remove any gunk on the insides. Boil then lay them out on a few cookie sheets and dry in the oven. Seal in ziplock until next summer. I like the fact I’m not throwing away as much plastic every year.

I see Bascom’s stainless spouts for $1 each. Even though you’d have to pay shipping, I’d recommend the Smoky Lake spouts.

SS spouts sounds like an interesting option. I would think you'd also invest in an ultrasonic cleaning system too which could be a handy device for cleaning ss evaporator components at the end of the season.
Ken