Hi Henrick:
My experience, as documented in the photos, is that the hoses with out the "Strain Reliefs" will crack at the ferrule, while looking as good as new along the rest of the length.
There is with out a doubt a stress concentration at this point. Hence the eight hoses showing identical failures.
I believe I mentioned in the first post that the other hoses on these eight regs were showing the same cracking pattern, but had no yet cracked through at the ferrule, these hoses also had no "Strain relievers" (SPG, LPI, and Octo)
The next post shows photos of hoses from the same shipment, installed at the same time, on identical regs,with the same amount of use, showing no damage at the ferrule,
nor anywhere else along the length on the hose, i.e. they look as good as new except for a bit of normal abrasion, and
no additional corrosion, as a result of the "Vented strain reliefs".
These are simple piston first stages, and they do, by the nature of the radial port layout, put a lot more stress on the primary second stage hose, as it is short and must make the, relatively tight bend to the divers mouth.
The octo hose is longer, and hangs downward when installed, almost normal to the reg port lay out.
The LPI hose makes a gradual bend and is pretty static,
The SPG hose, is relatively long, and held at the divers left side, thus reducing the amount of stress concentrated at that connection.
Eight other identical regulators were set up with identical hoses, on the same day, all with 'Vented Strain Relievers" all of those hoses are in perfect condition, and are still in service.
The amount of corrosion on all of the connectors is identical, hose protector or not, this leaves the one issue of looking for a bubble, which I submit is entirely possible, so my Strain Relievers are periodically slid back to have a look.
Members on ti325v`s troll/ignore list.
RJP
