You say you didn't use any 3/16 because you needed more taps on each lateral. Surprise, surprise, by design, you should not put more than 10 taps on a 5/16, but with the drop in elevation you can have as many as 37 taps, and on one line I had 42 taps on a 3/16. Sounds wrong? The reason in the difference is that in 5/16 the sap can pass the air bubbles, (really not air, but gases from the cells in the tree, they are why maple trees don't get damaged when the sap freezes in the tree, that gas bubble takes the expansion of the sap preventing cell damage) In 3/16 the sap doesn't pass the gasses, that's how 3/16 developes vacuum on a slope. You said you have 30-40' of drop over 500'. With 3/16 everything over the 30' elevation will have maximum vacuum if using 3/16, with 5/16 you will be lucky to get more than 3 maybe 4" vacuum, if any. I however don recommend 50 taps on a 3/16 line, split it into 2 lnes. From the 30' rise as you go down hill each tap will progressively have less vacuum, but it still won't be zero until you only have a foot or 2 drop in elevation.
You mentioned up to 500 ft long runs, on 3/16 with the drop in elevation you can go 500 or even more length nut on 5/16 you are hurting your production if you go over 100' length. With the 5/16 tubing there's a saying to remember, "strive for 5, never more than 10" Using 3/16 the best scenario is to have 15-35 taps on a lateral.
Last edited by maple flats; 04-21-2025 at 04:37 PM.
Dave Klish, I recently bought a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.
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