3/16 question

[maplenutter butter]

I'm sure this has been answered before, but I'm going to ask again because I don't understand.

Next season I'm going to add another woods that has about 300 taps in it. It all slopes one way, with awesome slope on it. I plan to run a 1" mainline along the bottom sloping towards my collection tank. I plan to put a shur flow pump on it. My question is on my laterals, if I use 5/16 I can only put 5-7 taps on a run. How many can I put on a lateral if using 3/16? I believe its 30??? If this is so, why can we have more on 3/16 than 5/16 with vacuum or do you only put 5-7 taps on 3/16 since there is vacuum already?

Thanks, Tommy

[DrTimPerkins]

3/16" tubing on slope uses the weight of the sap help in a small tube to pull on the air/liquid remaining in the uphill part of the line. This weight generates vacuum in the line once you have about 5 taps, but you can put up to 25 taps on the line without causing overloading. 5/16" tubing doesn't do this (unless you really overload the line with taps) because the sap doesn't fill the entire tube most of the time.

On a hybrid system (pumped + natural vacuum), vacuum is additive. So any vacuum you have due to natural vacuum in the line is ADDED to the vacuum in the mainline. So if you get 20" in the 3/16" tubing due to slope, and you pull 10" in your mainline with your pump, you can achieve the maximum vacuum achievable given your level of leaks, tree gas production, and elevation limitations.

[maplenutter butter]

So it would be way more beneficial for me to use 3/16 because ill get natural vacuum plus ill need to run less line, since ill be able to hit more trees on less runs.

[DrTimPerkins]

So it would be way more beneficial for me to use 3/16 because ill get natural vacuum plus ill need to run less line, since ill be able to hit more trees on less runs.

Most likely. You will want to ensure that the system is very tight. 3/16" is less tolerant of leaks than 5/16" (with a vacuum). 3/16" tubing should also be rinsed, or at the very least, drained extremely well at the end of the season to prevent stuff from growing in the lines and plugging it.

[325abn]

I was thinking the max taps on 3/16 was 35 - 37 not the 25 mentioned above.

[DJ87]

You will have higher vacuum at your bottom trees with less taps.

[DrTimPerkins]

I was thinking the max taps on 3/16 was 35 - 37 not the 25 mentioned above.

You can if you have very good slope. But probably better not to go to the very max possible unless you need to for some reason. Having that many taps also is putting a lot of eggs in one basket. One leak on that one line affects all the other trees on that line. That's OK if you're really diligent about leak checking, otherwise safer to cut back a little bit and spread out the risk.

[turnpike]

After a few years of 3/16, I've reduced the max number of taps on lines from 30 down to 25 and I will probably go to 20 next year. Watch the droplines on your lowest few trees during good runs and if the sap in them is bobbing up and down and having a hard time getting down into the lateral, then you have overloaded that line. At 30 taps, I have had the taps on the lower trees dry up and quit running before the upper taps did on the same line later on in the season. My thinking is that the tapholes were contaminated by all that backflow of sap.

[Cody]

Good advice,like to see the sap racing down that dropline.

[eustis22]

so I have a maple at the very end of one of my 3/16 next to the collecting barrel. Should I be running that drop into my line or will that affect flow from up the hill?