As others have said in their comments, this was an excellent product, strong and easy to use. This was my first time tapping maple trees. In the warm afternoon sun, on February 27th, 2018, in Gilmer County WV (where we have a vacation home), I used a 5/16 bit to drill in 1 1/2 inches as said, on the sunny side of the tree over a big root. As the sap was already running, I scooped out the damp saw dust with a little stick. I tapped my spiles in until they stopped, only about an inch in. I was confused by this, and worried, but my hammer was bouncing back and that's when they said to stop! Soon I saw a drip of sap come through the tube. As others did, I had drilled holes in 2 liter soda bottle lids using a bit that was an odd ball size, I forget what. I made sure it was a snug fit. I tapped 7 trees. 2 were duds. But I did get 6 liters of sap the next day! I found 2 more replacement trees that flowed well. But a noreaster came through with warm rain so for 2 days I barely got 1 liter. I have to say that with all that wind and rain from a violent storm, my taps and bottles were all perfectly fine! They were on a steep hill too. That's another testament to this product. When the storm passed we had freezing nights again, and warmer days, and all in all I got 25 liters of sap from Tuesday to Sunday. Sap was still running, but I had to pull my taps on Sunday afternoon as we were leaving our vacation home on Monday. They were easy to pull out simply by twisting a little back and forth. None of them broke. I used an outdoor Bayou banjo cooker that we hooked to the natural gas line for the evaporation on Sunday. That worked out well. I got a filter stand that was nice, that could rest on the edge of my indoor cooking pot, and I put the (wet) filters in that and ran the "almost syrup" through. As I started to boil inside, I also started to boil 4 8oz Mason jars. I boiled the jars for 10 minutes and then stopped the flame and put a vegetable steamer on top of the jars to put the lids in for steaming. I covered the jar pot. Meanwhile my sap was still boiling away. My candy thermometer seemed defective and I didn't trust it. But when the sap got to being uniformly amber and the boil changed, I decided to stop cooking. It may be too thin but it tastes so good! I had already cleaned my outdoor cooking pot so I set up my filter stand and wet filters again, took tongs and pulled out a (still warm) jar from the jar pot (having removed the steamer basket of lids) and put the jar in the big pot under the filters and poured in my syrup. I put the lid on the jar and tilted it around to sterilize the cap. I filled 3 and a quarter jars, which is a bit more than expected, telling me I stopped boiling early. But I remember going to Vermont and getting syrup from a farm and it was thinner and delicately flavored like mine. I plan to keep the jars refrigerated so I didn't worry about heating the jars to seal them. All in all it was a very fun experience which I plan to repeat many more times as long as I can get to my vacation home at the right time of year.I went overboard and spent about $270 on supplies including this kit, cute jars, filters, filter stand, big cooking pot, cooker, and connections for the natural gas. I also drank a lot of Cherry Coke Zero to have enough bottles! (I was going to use our fire pit but I was worried about having dry wood since we don't spend much time in WV in winter, so I got a cheaper cooker to use with propane. But our propane tank was older and didn't have the right connection, and as I was figuring out what to do, my husband said we should connect to natural gas. But my cooker could not be used with natural gas so we got the more expensive model and a natural gas adapter. Problem solved for about $75 more including connections.)

I was a first time boiler. I have 10 or so large sugar maples in my yard that I've always dreamed of tapping. I finally did a bit of research and bought this kit and I'm so glad I did. Let me save you the time searching for other kits — get this one! The directions provided were put so perfectly and simply that I had no problems or issues taping the trees. We heard it was a slow taping year here in Southern Connecticut but we still produced roughly 6 gallons from 6 taps between 3 trees (2 taps per tree). And to us, that was perfect for a beginner! It was fun, the steam from the boil is intoxicating, the time outside with loved ones was appreciated and the product delicious! We started out using saved milk and water jugs but ended up buying food grade white 3 gallon buckets from the paint store. I'll be ordering another kit so next season I can tap all the trees on the property.

We got these taps to try our hand at maple syrup tapping for the first time this year. My kids and I were delighted to try it. The price was right for a pack of 10 so we didn't figure we had much to lose.The package came with instructions that guided us through how to drill the hole into the trees. We used old milk and juice jugs and drilled a hole in the lids of those as well for the tube to fit in snugly and keep all the debris out. It worked very well! The length of the tubes was really nice - we didn't have to bend down so far to tap the trees - we did them at a nice height and still had plenty of room to let them hang down and go into the jugs.I was a little skeptical that the taps wouldn't work as nicely as a metal tap - those are the only kind I had ever seen. But these plastic taps were very well made! I figured out after we tapped our trees (by watching a youtube video) that we tapped them into the tree a bit too much - I thought they had to go all the way in - but they just have to be snug. I was worried that because we did that we would have a really hard time getting them out, but we used a pry bar and got them out without any problem.We were excited to have such great success our first attempt at tapping. :)

Everything worked great and I successfully turned gallons of sap into a fair amount of maple syrup. Looking forward to doing it again next year, and extremely happy with my purchase. I knocked off one star on durability because I really struggled getting some of the splines OUT of the trees after the season. Maybe there's some trick to doing it without damaging the spline, but I was about 50/50 on successfully removing them without destroying them.The best thing in the kit was the instruction sheet. Made things very easy for me to get going quickly. Very happy this was in there, and it was written for the level of the complete novice. Thank you!One thing I didn't really use was the recipe cards. There are millions of recipes online, so these cards weren't useful to me. However, I would love for the kit to include a guide as to "next steps" for people who want to "up their game." For example, perhaps a recommendation for a device to hold the filters in place, or proper containers to use for filtering, or anything that would help me expand.All in all, I'm glad I bought this and would recommend it to anyone who wants to get started.

Very easy to use. First time tapping trees for us and these were great. Just wish the tubes were a little longer, but they do work!

This was the first year I have made syrup. The taps went In well and flowed well. They are plastic so be gentle. I haven’t broke one yet. The tubes could be a little longer. I used five gal buckets on the ground. The filter works good but buy a bunch more they clog fast. Overall I’m happy with them and will use them again next season.

I ordered 1 of these 3 years ago and have since ordered 4 more. They're easy to use and durable. I've loved using them to learn how to tap and have increased my production/ordered another set, each year.

Worked well, all taps inserted and removed easily without damage. Excellent sap drainage with tubing system. Great starter kit.

This was great value for a starting kit for tapping trees. Easy to use and straight forward instructions.

worked great!

Finally used them and they are the first taps I have used that allowed leaking around the taps. I only used 7 of them and 3 are leaking opposed to the other set I have which are smaller and have no leaks.