Question What's the expected lifespan of a HP/LP hose?

[happy-diver]

Yeah mine are tested on a tank washing gear after diving
Yeah then mine are tested on a tank preparing for diving

in between there is the artistic mural of The wall of hoses

and then there is another installation The boxes of many more hoses

Yeah the older they are and the more you've got the longer they last

 

[BoltSnap]

Yeah mine are tested on a tank washing gear after diving
Yeah then mine are tested on a tank preparing for diving

in between there is the artistic mural of The wall of hoses

View attachment 711715

and then there is another installation The boxes of many more hoses

Yeah the older they are and the more you've got the longer they last

Poetry about HP/LP hoses?? You are awesome!!!!

 

[Couv]

Just food for thought and only my opinion. I co authored the braided hose failure and counterfeit braided hose issue in Alert Diver 18 months ago. I still use braided hoses because they are more flexible and minimize my jaw fatigue. I live in North Florida cave country and can dive daily.

My recreational salt water rig gets new hoses every 3 years as they only get 50-60 dives per year.

My fresh water cave diving sidemount, deco and stage bottle all get changed out annually.
This keeps everything in my personal comfort zone.

Hi @DogDiver For the type of diving you do, I can certainly understand your concern. For the type of diving I do your schedule is on the conservative side. I'd love to have your discards. I'd be more than happy to pay for shipping if you'd send them to me. PM/DM or whatever we are using today for messages please.

 

[Gone for diving]

I have vintage hp hoses, with 3/8 hp ends on them, and are perfectly fine,
I dive it till it's a problem... (why I dive doubles
My first set of regs 20 year old are perfect fine.

Those hoses that have tiny bubbles coming from the surface liner, where there is a tiny row of holes..... means the crimp has backed off, and a tiny bit of recrimping with a hydraulic hose crimper will fix that.. (do not over crimp)...
I have access to a crimper, so most people should not, or can not try this,

 

[rob.mwpropane]

I have vintage hp hoses, with 3/8 hp ends on them, and are perfectly fine,
I dive it till it's a problem... (why I dive doubles
My first set of regs 20 year old are perfect fine.

Those hoses that have tiny bubbles coming from the surface liner, where there is a tiny row of holes..... means the crimp has backed off, and a tiny bit of recrimping with a hydraulic hose crimper will fix that.. (do not over crimp)...
I have access to a crimper, so most people should not, or can not try this,

We actually have a crimper at the shop... I was thinking of doing this. Doesn't hurt to try. I haven't thrown any of them away because I'm a dive hoarder and they just looked too nice to go, lol...

 

[rhwestfall]

I've had hoses go on the first use and others now at 30+ years still going fine....

 

[rob.mwpropane]

I've had hoses go on the first use and others now at 30+ years still going fine....

And I get that... it's the luck of the draw. 3 hoses in 3 months seems like a lot to me. I am not @happy-diver with 7000 hoses hanging on the wall. I might have ~ 25-30 in use between all the different regs sets / kids / wife / etc. That means 10% of my hoses leaked in the 1st 2 years of use (actually, 2 leaked right away).

 

[Couv]

Curious,
One of my trusted HP hoses has the following printed on it. Can anyone decode the very last part? What is L.030831/A??

@DiveGearExpress used to have an article in their library explaining some of the markings on crimped hose ends. I cannot find it at the moment, hopefully they will chime in. In particular, how the marking indicate the date of manufacture.

 

[DiveGearExpress]

@DiveGearExpress used to have an article in their library explaining some of the markings on crimped hose ends. I cannot find it at the moment, hopefully they will chime in. In particular, how the marking indicate the date of manufacture.

We don't have a tektip, but I suspect you are remembering a safety notice we had on some rubber hoses a few years ago. EN250 compliant hoses will be marked on the swaging crimp with one or two letters (a vendor ID such as "D") and then three or four digits indicating month/year the hose was assembled (such as 1222 woud be December 2022). Some rubber hose raw materials will also have screened marking along the length indicating a date the hose material itself was manufactured, but that's not required by EN250 as long as the crimp date is present.

Dive Gear Express literally ships many thousands of hoses a year... we shop them hard for price and availability so at one time or another we've used every major OEM of hoses in the industry. So here is one of those "industry secrets"... none of the major scuba equipment vendors make their own hoses in house, they buy them from the same OEMs we do... frankly just about everybody who needs hoses in volume does. Since the unfortunate closing of Danicorp in California, today most SCUBA hoses come from off-shore suppliers. The raw hose material comes from just a handful of vendors. Where the finished goods come from doesn't really matter much... all of the major OEM's leak test each and every hose they ship, and we leak test them AGAIN before we ship. Regardless, we see a certain low level of "infant mortality" in the hoses shortly after they are received by the customer. Once they successfully get through the infant mortality period, hoses will often last for many many years... but we still recommend the OEM industry guidelines of 5 and 500 replacement. There are plenty of divers who literally never perform routine periodic service on their life support equipment (including regulators and BCDs), and plenty who perhaps are excessive in doing so... it is a personal choice.

Based on our long experience, what we can say for certain is ... hoses are a HIGH FAILURE RATE item regardless of brand, construction, materials... today we don't detect any statistically significant differences. High pressure hoses fail more than low pressure hoses. If there is any other circumstance that seems to trigger higher than normal failure rates, it might be pressurizing hoses when they are really HOT (i.e. they've been baking in the sun for a long time.) The other circumstance is shorter hoses (especially the 6 and 9 inch hoses) also seem to have higher failure rates.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

We don't have a tektip, but I suspect you are remembering a safety notice we had on some rubber hoses a few years ago. EN250 compliant hoses will be marked on the swaging crimp with one or two letters (a vendor ID such as "D") and then three or four digits indicating month/year the hose was assembled (such as 1222 woud be December 2022). Some rubber hose raw materials will also have screened marking along the length indicating a date the hose material itself was manufactured, but that's not required by EN250 as long as the crimp date is present.

Dive Gear Express literally ships many thousands of hoses a year... we shop them hard for price and availability so at one time or another we've used every major OEM of hoses in the industry. So here is one of those "industry secrets"... none of the major scuba equipment vendors make their own hoses in house, they buy them from the same OEMs we do... frankly just about everybody who needs hoses in volume does. Since the unfortunate closing of Danicorp in California, today most SCUBA hoses come from off-shore suppliers. The raw hose material comes from just a handful of vendors. Where the finished goods come from doesn't really matter much... all of the major OEM's leak test each and every hose they ship, and we leak test them AGAIN before we ship. Regardless, we see a certain low level of "infant mortality" in the hoses shortly after they are received by the customer. Once they successfully get through the infant mortality period, hoses will often last for many many years... but we still recommend the OEM industry guidelines of 5 and 500 replacement. There are plenty of divers who literally never perform routine periodic service on their life support equipment (including regulators and BCDs), and plenty who perhaps are excessive in doing so... it is a personal choice.

Based on our long experience, what we can say for certain is ... hoses are a HIGH FAILURE RATE item regardless of brand, construction, materials... today we don't detect any statistically significant differences. High pressure hoses fail more than low pressure hoses. If there is any other circumstance that seems to trigger higher than normal failure rates, it might be pressurizing hoses when they are really HOT (i.e. they've been baking in the sun for a long time.) The other circumstance is shorter hoses (especially the 6 and 9 inch hoses) also seem to have higher failure rates.

Exactly why I didn't say where the hoses were bought... no point as they all come from the same place.

Thank you for your detailed response, always informative.