Cheap air line....Garden hose??

[fbc]

I'm looking for 40M of air line on a very tight budget, looking on ebay i can get 3/4" garden hose with a working pressure of 10 Bar pretty cheap. I will be using 8 Bar max.
Any advice/experiences ?

Thanks.

 

[piman]

Hello FBC,

we use 10 bar hose for water and it tends to start leaking fairly quickly on our normal mains water pressure. It's used frequently, basically as a awash down hose but I don't think it likes being pressurised for long periods.

Alec

 

[tigler]

Couple of issues. Water hose is rated with less safety factor than air hose, because if an air hose burst it is potentially more dangerous than a water hose. Garden hose is the lowest of the low, generally speaking, so it will only have 2 to 2.5 to 1 safety ratio, air hose is 4 to 1 or more.
Also, air hose is designed to withstand continuous pressurisation without degrading, garden hose is only intended for intermittent use.
You will also probably find that garden hose will try to tie itself in knots when used on air.
There is good and bad garden hose of course, some of the good garden hose is usable as air hose without being too far from a proper air hose in durability, one that I wouldn't have too much concern over is Tricoflex, a yellow coloured water hose. Only the genuine one though, it has many imitators.
All the above assumes the comparison between rubber air hose and pvc garden hose.

Coincidentally I have a 40 mtr of 3/4" I.D. pukka rubber air hose available, new in factory wrapping, you can have that for £40 + shipping if thats any good to you ?

 

[fbc]

I should of mentioned that i'm not concerned with the 'usablity' of the hose, it will be used to supply air to several machines so will be installed and left undisturbed. I just dont want something that will leak and require maintainece, i want to install it and forget about it.

I've also seen reinforced PVC air pipe, which looks alot like garden hose although is a bit more expensive. What is the differnce between reinforced pvc hose and rubber hose? Will rubber degrade with the mositure in the air or exposure to sunlight?

Thank you for the offer Tigler, any idea what postage would be on it?

Thanks.

 

[tigler]

PVC hose supplied for air SHOULD have a thicker wall and higher tensile reinforcement, although it will never be as good as rubber. As you are using this for continuous service on air you really need to use rubber, it will not be affected by the atmosphere, sunlight, moisture etc.
Delivery on that coil will be £10 for a 48 hr delivery.

 

[Shox Dr]

I've used braided 1/2" garden hose for yrs without a single problem

 

[tigler]

You got lucky !!

 

[fbc]

Do you have any info about the hose tigler? Whats the working pressure/burst pressure?

Thanks.

 

[Shox Dr]

You got lucky !!

I dont think luck comes into it. I've also got a crimped rubber hose that is not as old and it started to perish about 4 years ago.

Air lines are no different to Power leads, look after them and they will last you

 

[tigler]

I dont think luck comes into it. I've also got a crimped rubber hose that is not as old and it started to perish about 4 years ago.

Air lines are no different to Power leads, look after them and they will last you

Much depends on the materials used to make hose, quality hose is made from virgin compounds of the correct type for application, any hose made as such will last a very long time.
The vast majority of small bore airline made today is imported from who knows where and made entirely or partly from recycled rubber waste and will last accordingly.
You pays your money and make choice.
Good quality hose isn't cheap and in normal circumstances the only way to be sure of getting a quality product is to buy from a good source.
We were frequently losing customers to cheaper competitors only for them to come back with their tail between their legs because their half price hose had failed in a fraction of the time of what we had originally supplied them.
It's a bit like car tyres, they all look similar, but some cost more than others, eventually you find out why !!

 

[tigler]

Do you have any info about the hose tigler? Whats the working pressure/burst pressure?

Thanks.

I would need to physically check to be certain, but from memory it's 15 bar working and 60 bar burst, the minimum it will be is 10 bar WP and 40 bar BP. It is definitely rayon textile reinforced, rubber inner and rubber outer.
The next time I'll be at my storage place is next Tuesday, I'll check the spec to confirm and let you know.
Don't be mislead by the price, this is a quality hose, it's just remnant stock from a business I once had. The price I'm asking is a fraction of it's original market price.
Actually it's part of a quantity of hose I was about to put on ebay.

 

[drivewasher]

I used good quality pvc braides water hose in our tyre bay. It did work on fixed machines but it swelled up as if the inner liner seperated from the outer. I changed it for dedicated air hose, when i removed the pvc hose it went all saggy like it's knicker elasyic had gone.

 

[langy]

I plumbed my workshop in 15mm copper years ago, cheap and works great

 

[brookie456]

I plumbed my workshop in 15mm copper years ago, cheap and works great

Next step for me, decent hoses are heavy too - hard pipe and a short flexible should stop my trips to the top of the garden to straighten things out
5 years ago, went to B&* to buy 18" of 15mm copper pipe, no can do - have 64 foot - thanks Langy, given me the kick I need to get going By the way, nice work on your site and thanks for all the input

 

[langy]

cheers mate, glad to help.

Next step for me, decent hoses are heavy too - hard pipe and a short flexible should stop my trips to the top of the garden to straighten things out
5 years ago, went to B&* to buy 18" of 15mm copper pipe, no can do - have 64 foot - thanks Langy, given me the kick I need to get going By the way, nice work on your site and thanks for all the input

 

[Pete.]

My local air brake supplier does a black plastic line that is specifically for air and isn't very expensive. They also do push-fit connectors for the same line. Might be worth a thought if you don't need huge volumes of air to each machine.