Taming a PU Hose

[pelligrini]

Taming a PolyUrethane Air hose, is it possible?

I picked up a Kobalt 50' air hose from Lowes and finally hooked it up today with a new regulator and filter. It was very unruly when I took it out of the box. I stretched it out a couple times last night and again today.

Is there a trick to handling these things? It seems to want to coil and kink a lot. I only have a 15' or 20' rubber hose, but it's pretty easy to lay out. I don't have a reel. I plan on keeping it in a coil in my compressor cart. The coil length will be a little longer than a hand to elbow coil.

I do like the length and the light weight. It's not the easiest thing to use right now though, especially when taking it out of my cart.

[cabinetman]

I bought one just to try it out at home to air up tires. It's a PITA to use walking around cars without it kinking or coiling up. All of my hoses have been rubber. The light weight is the only plus that I can give it. I don't like the way it handles either. When it sits out in the sun for a while it seems to relax a bit.

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[LCHIEN]

Here's the plus and minus with PU hoses as I see them.
First on the good side - they are much lighter in weight and smaller in diameter than equiv PVC or rubber hoses. They have much, much lower temperature problems than PVC, the PVC gets stiff starting around below 50 F. They are very flexible when bent along the length (bend radius of about 2.5 inches). They don't have bad memory (memory means it wants to keep a bend when the bend has been in it for a while, like being in a coil or on a reel).

ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE. PU hoses, they have high friction against themselves and other surfaces so when tangled they don't slide well to pull out. Trying to pull one around a car where it gets wedged under the tire is fruitless. Another problem which seems to be the one vexing the OP, is that they don't flex well in the axial direction that is, they resist twisting.

That last item means, when you take a coiled up hose (lets say with 20 loops) and want to get it laid out straight & flat on the floor, then you'll have to untwist it 20 times. Otherwise it will look like a spring with 20 coils. It you untwist the end it will take 20 full turn twists but then it will lie very flat on the floor.

Likewise if you have a flat hose laid out straight nicely and you want to put it in a coil to store it, then for each loop you gather into a coil, you will need to put a twist in the remaining loose end of the hose. That's where I always cuss it because if you don't get the twist out it kinks up. A rubber or PVC will have a lot more give rotationally and you can store it with quite some twist built up in it.

One thing I think might help a lot is putting the PU hose on a reel rather than coiling it by hand. I haven't done this yet but I believe it will roll up nicely and have no memory when pulled off. The reel will keep it from picking up a lot of rotational twist when stored or released.

The way I'm handling the hoses today, I keep them coiled in about an 12-15" roll. When I need to use it I will toss the coil on the floor near the source, with the inlet end on the bottom. Lift the coiled hose, pull the inlet end out and attach it. Then take the outlet or tool end and pull it to the work area. It will have the spring look to it, but I'l twist the tool end as many times as it takes to make it flat back to the remainder of the coil by the source.

Now I'll use my tool with minimal pulling and tugging against the weight of the hose or fighting the memory of the hose and any coiling. That's the part I like. When done, I drop the disconnected tool end and disconnect the inlet end. I pick up the remainder of the coil I left near the source with my left hand (and yes, I can hold the entire 50' hose in one hand between my thumb and forefinger, another thing I like). Using the right hand, I form a loop with the free end and join it to the coils in my left hand, as I do so I twist the free end so it rolls the hose over. If the free end of the hose is flat on the ground there isn't much resistance to rolling it like that and it goes on quickly. And doesn't take much effort to put this baby back into a storage coil.

I hope that helps. I for one won't go back to PVC for sure. Rubber, probably not either.

[pelligrini]

Yea, I think I'll go with a reel. I checked out some reels at HF today. They are all too big for the place I want to put it. I thought about using an extension cord reel, but the coils might be too tight for the hose. I'll probably fabricate some narrow reel with a good size diameter for my cart.

Almost seems like five 10' sections with swivels on each end might make it easier to handle.

[LCHIEN]

Yea, I think I'll go with a reel. I checked out some reels at HF today. They are all too big for the place I want to put it. I thought about using an extension cord reel, but the coils might be too tight for the hose. I'll probably fabricate some narrow reel with a good size diameter for my cart.

Almost seems like five 10' sections with swivels on each end might make it easier to handle.

with the PU hose lack of memory and its flexibility, a extension cord reel might be just the ticket. I see an on-line spec for a 1/4" PU air hose, it says 2.5" bending radius, so one of those orange extension cord reels (if the hub is 5" diameter) would be fine. If you have a short whip hose on your source, then you can leave just a short inlet end hanging out of the reel.

[pelligrini]

I might try an orange reel. I've got one that has a crank handle and should be easy to mount. The Kobalt hose did behave better this afternoon. I thought It might be the larger coil I put on it, but it might have been me just taking more care laying it out.