eelnoraa
Contributor
As title suggested, I have a failed Phantom brand braided LP hose today. I bought this hose from DGX in about May of 2011. It was a Q4 10 production. So it has been 4 years from first use (by me at least), and 5 years old from date of manufacture.
I consider myself always takes good care of my gears, cleaned thoroughly after each use and store in a closet under the stair, out of sun, out of heat, one of the coolest place in my house.
It is the 22" back up LP hose for my single tank setup. Last use was about a month ago without any issue. When I got the reg out for gear check today, the hose looks normal. In fact, it likes like new. No sign of any damage. When I turned on the tank I heard the sound of air rushing out. This is the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIHmlCvAwZk
You can see I can band the hose to a different angle and stop the leak. Beside replacing the hose, I decided to open it up and see what went wrong. I cut the hose about 4 inches away from where the suspect leaking location, the un-reave the braids.
Here you can see the construction. The most outer layer is the braided material (I don't know what it is called). It is quite tough but also very thin.
The 2nd layer is braided nylon, think parachute core outter layer but thicker. The nylon is very fine. This layer is a bit thicker and very soft.
The 3rd layer appears to be some kind of glue. The purpose seems to be binding the braided nylon layer to the most inner tube, so the braided nylon don't slide around. This glue like material is caking up a bit. I could wipe it off with my finger. Well so far so good.
The most inner layer is just plastic tube. It seems to be the same type used in fish tank. I am not so impressed here.
Zoom in the plastic tube as I un-reave the braided layers. Notice the micro crack on the inner tube. By now, I am not surprised it leaks.
This is the where the break is. A very clear crack. And notice those micro cracks are all along the tube. If not for this break, it is just matter of time these cracks start to fail
Here is the manufacture time stamp. 10Q4. Not that old IMO.
I am very disappointed here. Not because the hose fail, but it fails without any sign. Outside looks clean and perfect, but the inner tube condition is so bad. I still have two other braided hose in use. 1 HP hose from Phantom for my single tank SPG and 1 LP hose from Miflex for my double backup. They both look perfect, but knowing what can happen inside, I am seriously considering change them back to rubber now.
I consider myself always takes good care of my gears, cleaned thoroughly after each use and store in a closet under the stair, out of sun, out of heat, one of the coolest place in my house.
It is the 22" back up LP hose for my single tank setup. Last use was about a month ago without any issue. When I got the reg out for gear check today, the hose looks normal. In fact, it likes like new. No sign of any damage. When I turned on the tank I heard the sound of air rushing out. This is the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIHmlCvAwZk
You can see I can band the hose to a different angle and stop the leak. Beside replacing the hose, I decided to open it up and see what went wrong. I cut the hose about 4 inches away from where the suspect leaking location, the un-reave the braids.
Here you can see the construction. The most outer layer is the braided material (I don't know what it is called). It is quite tough but also very thin.
The 2nd layer is braided nylon, think parachute core outter layer but thicker. The nylon is very fine. This layer is a bit thicker and very soft.
The 3rd layer appears to be some kind of glue. The purpose seems to be binding the braided nylon layer to the most inner tube, so the braided nylon don't slide around. This glue like material is caking up a bit. I could wipe it off with my finger. Well so far so good.
The most inner layer is just plastic tube. It seems to be the same type used in fish tank. I am not so impressed here.
Zoom in the plastic tube as I un-reave the braided layers. Notice the micro crack on the inner tube. By now, I am not surprised it leaks.
This is the where the break is. A very clear crack. And notice those micro cracks are all along the tube. If not for this break, it is just matter of time these cracks start to fail
Here is the manufacture time stamp. 10Q4. Not that old IMO.
I am very disappointed here. Not because the hose fail, but it fails without any sign. Outside looks clean and perfect, but the inner tube condition is so bad. I still have two other braided hose in use. 1 HP hose from Phantom for my single tank SPG and 1 LP hose from Miflex for my double backup. They both look perfect, but knowing what can happen inside, I am seriously considering change them back to rubber now.
