Question Is there a best practice for which hoses should be rubber be flex?

[Ares1590]

Setting up my long hose primary donate routing and I was planning on all rubber hoses except the inflator hose being flex since it won’t really have a chance to get loose and float around anyway and figured it would save weight.

In general though is there a guideline for which hoses should be rubber vs flex?

 

[PEDiver]

All rubber. I used to have a few braided hoses kicking around but have since replaced them all for a lot of the reasons mentioned already (floaty, rough on the skin, exterior seems to break down over time and become prickly, etc.). Just do yourself a favor and go ahead and buy rubber vs. having to upgrade later

 

[eightytwenty]

Your attention to detail merits praise but I think your weight savings is negligible. I’d prioritize uniformity of hose material (rubber, of course) for inspection and replacement purposes.

Hard agree on all fronts. Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[rongoodman]

I had two braided hoses on my secondary reg fail on a trip out to Cocos last fall, at least to the extent of bubbling enough for other divers to notice. I'll stick with rubber from now on.

 

[rjack321]

The flex hoses work really well for the Air 2 inflator. You DIR guys think you know everything, but apparently NOT!

well we are in the DIR forum, if you're expecting to find AIR2's here you are in the wrong place

 

[eightytwenty]

well we are in the DIR forum, if you're expecting to find AIR2's here you are in the wrong place

He's trolling. I suppose some people have nothing better to do.

 

[Ares1590]

I decided to do rubber for everything for simplicity

 

[bipolarbear]

I use both.

Long hose is normal rubber - I need it to be negatively buoyant and don't want it floating around if it comes unstowed. Same reasoning for my necklaced reg hose.

My SPG is Mi-flex. I know there are some reliability concerns with HP Mi-flex hoses but I haven't had a problem yet. Mi-flex is a little bit smaller than normal rubber HP hose and I find it easy to identify when I have a lot going on on that d-ring.

I also use Mi-flex for my stage/deco bottles. I find the combination of Mi-flex and rubber stage bands makes it very easy to deploy/stow the hoses.