I had 95 taps on 4 lines this year and when I pulled them at the end of the season I had 4 or 5 that had a little wood chips stuck in them them that held the check valve open, causing lots of sap to squirt out everywhere upon pulling them. At various times throughout the season when fiddling with the manifold or doing other various maintenance near the pump, sap would rapidly shoot backwards in lines.

Would this still happen if none of the CVs were clogged?

Is it a best practice to pull all CVs a day or two into the season just to check for stuck wood chips? Because I did my best to tap and then NOT touch them at all unless there was an obvious leak, thinking that any unnecessary tampering will hurt yield.

Curious to hear tips and tricks.