Pull & Rinse

So its time to pull the taps.

I am looking for a way to pull each tap squirt some water / bleach soulution into the tap and plug the tap into the "T" .

I am thinking of a bottle with a 5/16 hole drilled into it containing the solution, pull tap, inset tap into hole give it a squirt and plug and move onto the next one.

Then dump a few gallons of the solution into the end of the 1" main line and let it run the full 1100 ft out the end.

Then seal up both ends of main line till next year?

Sound like a good plan? Will it do any good? How do you do it?

I don't do tubing but seem to remember reading here that squirrels love to chew tubing washed with bleach.

What I have done in the past and still do and it seems to work is to use a pump sprayer. I carry water on a trailer and do each tap like you do and plug the end line that goes into our holding tanks. Has worked since we started doing it and I gotten no mold etc in lines.

Ya know now that you mention it I do recall reading something along those lines with regards to squirrels. I am sure others will chime in.

What do you do with your taps and tubing, just pull and plug?

If you read the research by Proctor Maple Research Center you will find out that right now there is no way of cleaning lines that is any better than just letting them go. All I do is pull the taps and hook them to the T or T Cup and let the laterals down so they are not under tension all summer.

http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/tubing_cleaning.pdf

I like the sprayer idea! Don't know why I didn't think of it :)

Thanks for link I am going to read that now. Its hard to believe that just pull and plug is better than pull, rinse and plug but the research is the research.

I use a 4 gallon plastic sprayer with a hand pump (available at any hardware store). I put it in a backpack to make it easier to carry. Pull the tap , squirt and plug. I leave the end tree of the lateral unplugged and put a twig in the hole (so it will still vent, but keep the mudwasps from making a nest in the spout). Then walk back up and drain any water from the droplines.

I turn on my vacuum pump and carry a 5 gallon syrup jug of water from tree to tree. I put a spout adapter into a piece of 5/16" tubing and use that to suck water into the drops. Pull the tap, connect to spout adapter on piece of tubing and insert in jug.

I also use the vacuum to suck water through each drop. I start at the highest lateral and at the end tree and work my way to the main. Then, after all laterals are done, I go to each mainline end and send 5 gallons down each main. I should note that I use hot water.

Brian

Just H2O Russell no bleach?

I use hot water only....Nothing else.

Brian

I've used water and bleach mixed and I have never had squirrels chew the tubing. The native squirrels here know better :mrgreen:

I use my gas powered water pump that I use to collect sap and pump water and bleach up through the lines. Just a little plumbing to go from the 1 inch hose off the pump to the 1/2 inch main line and leave the pump on idle. It will reach the top tap that's at least 50 feet in height no problem.

we noticed with just plain water we got a little green slime by next season. we use just a hint of bleach. never noticed any more critter damage than non bleach

I washed with water for years and my opinion is that is a waste of time , uses too much water and leaves behind water that grows bacteria, and looks like green algea left behind, we now pull taps with the vacuum on and suck them dry or as dry as we can . the idea is to leave very little behind, what is left is sap that turns sour become like vinagar . my tubing I swear looks better now after 4 years of doing it that way than it did when i washed . I also dump less at beginning of season now.

I am all gravity so no vac but what if I hooked the shop vac to the end of my main line turned it on then went and pulled all my taps?

Maybe I will just pull and plug.

We have tapped trees for 30 + years here and have never washed the lines out. The questions seem to be if you put water or anything in can you get it all out? Probably not. For most people its not worth the labor.

I will replace any drops that look dirty and I will replace sections of laterals that look dirty as well surprisingly few. Another advantage of running shorter laterals and more of them find a dirty one replace the whole thing and try to fix the problem. Research also shows that replacing spouts, drops, and lateral line is worth it. So thats what I am doing this is year 5 for a lot of my tubing so I am replacing 1,000 drops and spouts and when I do that I will look to shorten some laterals.

This would be a good poll question.

Pull and plug?

or

Pull Rinse and plug?

If anyone looks at bleach it has sodium in it.That is what draws the critters.If you want to use chlorine use pool chlorine as it does not contain sodium.I have learned by experience about this.I use a quart per 400 gallon truck tank.

I use my vac. system in my own bush and start at top spile and work down to lowest with line cleaner (phosphoric acid) and plug each as I go. In another bush with no hydro available I use a small generator (Honda 2000) and my shopvac to do the same. I then run clean water thru main lines and plug all until next spring and then dump the first run until lines are clean. Seems to work for me.

John

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Originally Posted by 325abn

Just H2O Russell no bleach?

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No bleach! The squirrels like it too much.

Wellp I think I am just going to pull and plug the taps and run 10 gal of hot water down the length of my main-line close the ball valves on eirther end and go fishing! :) Thanks for all the input.

Pulling taps and rinsing on my main tubing run of 600 taps using a 4 gallon sprayer. When I see all the white crappy stuff getting pushed out of the laterals, I can't see how I could get it out just by sucking on the end pipe. It also gives me a chance to make sure there are no gobs of stuff plugging up the fittings. If I had power, I'd probably do both (suck from the bottom and rinse from the top)