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Thread: Stainless steel vs plastic health tubing spouts

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2014
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    Default Stainless steel vs plastic health tubing spouts

    Hi I wanted to know the pros and cons of using 5/16 stainless steel tubing spouts vs 5/16 plastic tubing spouts. I have heard from some that sap leaks from the ss taps and not from the plastic ones. I am asking this because I ordered some 5/16 plastic tubing spouts from bascom maple but they sent me 5/16 stainless tubing spouts by accident with no extra charge. I just am wonding of I should keep these are see about getting them changed.
    Thanks mr. Red maple

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
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    Barnet, VT
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    Research says that a new plastic spout will give more sap than a "cleaned" stainless.
    William
    950 taps
    3 X 12 Thor pans on a Brian Arch
    CDL 600 expandable

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
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    Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
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    If they are new they should produce the same the first year but will decrease in following years. You could always use them this year and then sell them and start using the plastic spouts next year.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
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    northfield, CT
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    I thought stainless was the exception to that rule as stainless could be sterilized good as new
    11x29 sugarhouse
    2x8 airtight arch homemade with waterloo flue pan, welded syrup pan and parallel flow preheater hood
    250gph cdl ro
    1100+ taps for 2014, approx 1000 of them vac
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Crowh...5582993?ref=hl

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2014
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    I was just wondering if anyone has had sap leaking problem with the taps. I heard you can boil these taps so wouldn't that sterilize them and sap flow won't reduce?
    Last edited by Mr. Red Maple; 02-04-2015 at 06:21 AM.

  6. #6
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    Jan 2006
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    Oneida NY
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    Maybe Dr. Tim could best answer that. I have no experience with SS taps.
    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.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2009
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    UVM Proctor Maple Research Center, Underhill Ctr, VT
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Red Maple View Post
    I was just wondering if anyone has had sap leaking problem with the taps. I heard you can boil these taps so wouldn't that sterilize them and sap flow won't reduce?
    Sap leaking does happen with some types of taps. Depends on the specific design, but most spouts will have a little sap that leaks for a brief period of time right after tapping. After that, it depends upon the taper of the spout, how they're seated, and whether they heave. I've heard others say that SS spouts will heave a little more than plastic spouts, particularly polycarbonate spouts, which tend to stick very well in the tree. Admittedly we don't have a tremendous amount of direct experience with SS spouts here at PMRC (for a variety of reasons).

    As far as sanitizing spouts, you can certainly clean SS spouts better than plastic, but new plastic is the "gold standard". Extremely well-cleaned SS spouts will do close to that, but simply boiling will not remove all the dried up material on the spout (which provides a substrate for biofilms to form on).
    Dr. Tim Perkins
    UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
    http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
    https://mapleresearch.org
    Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
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    Killingworth, Connecticut
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    If you are interested I have new clear check valve spouts I would be willing to trade. Nothing against the CV I have more than I need and would like to try the stainless spouts.

    Nathan
    860-604-8115
    123 taps 2012
    175 taps 2013
    250 taps 2014
    3 Sap Haulers & 1 Maple Widow
    2X6 Smokey maple pans

    http://smilebox.com/play/4d7a41784e5..._playback_link

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
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    charlton ma
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    I have 1500 stainless spouts set up and like them a lot. Buy them once and you can pass them down for generations. I boil mine , blow them out with a compressor and then bleach them and rinse. After the trees swell up a bit the taps do not seem to have any leak problems.

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