Sealand hose revisited.

[Ed Schenck]

Just wanted to relate my Wednesday experience with Sealand hose in case some of you are getting ready to replumb. I have decided that the reason Peggy recommends not heating the hose is that 1) she never actually installed any or 2) since she lives in the South it must have been at least 100 degrees when she did install it.On the vented-loop(bronze) mounted on the bulkhead I could not begin to get the hose on. Not even with a hair dryer to warm it and Edge shaving cream to grease it. So I removed the loop from the bulkhead to get better leverage, still no luck. Then I removed the head and took the hose and loop into the cockpit, still no way that hose would go on that bronze loop. Finally I took the vented-loop and the Sealand hose and went to the marina shop. I put the loop in the big vise and borrowed their heat gun. Finally I got that sucker on far enough to properly clamp it!!Next trip to the boat I get to install the other end of the hose on the holding tank.

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

Methinks the problem was the loop, not the hose

That hose IS stiff, but it shouldn't have been THAT hard to put on anything (and yes, I have installed it many times). I suspect that if you'd measured the OD (outer diameter) of the loop, you'd have found that it's either bigger than 1.5" or that it's not exactly round. Fittings, unfortunately, are made to very sloppy tolerances...it's not at all unusual to get one that's either oversized or undersized...in fact, someone else posted just recently (may have been on another site) that he'd gotten a tank fitting on which the threaded end wouldn't tighten.Sorry you had the problem...been there, and you have my sympathy.

 

[Steve Dion]

That is the biggest complaint I've heard about

Ed:This is the biggest complaint that I have heard about this hose. EVERYONE that has tried to install it complains about trying to get it on the fittings and trying to bend it around corners.Now once you have got it installed, NO ONE COMPLAINS!

 

[Don]

Right Steve, but on a 37.5 ...

I will admit that when I used the Sealand hose on my 31' I ultimately heated the hose to get it to bend. There was no other way.I'm eyeing my 37.5 now for replacement. Looks like it's a straight shot with the hose so I'm not dreading the task quite so much.31' was the worst.

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

Hold on...I just re-read your post, Ed...

I misread it the first time...I thought you said you had heated with something other than heat gun. If you didn't heat it, no wonder you couldn't get it on a fitting. I've never recommended against heating hose--ANY hose--to get it onto fittings...In fact, I don't how you'd get any hose on a fitting without heating it. However, I do recomment using a blow dryer instead of a heat gun unless you really know what you're doing with a heat gun, 'cuz it's too easy to melt the hose. And I've never found that dunking it in hot water heats it enough. What I do NOT recommend is heating hose to make it go around a bend that's tighter than it wants to go...that weakens the hose and can cause it to kink in the bend. If it won't bend that far, break it and insert an inline radius fitting--which you'll prob'ly have to heat the hose get it onto.

 

[Randy S.]

A tip

Just went through this (finished the last fitting last night) and you're right - this was the most difficult hose fitting I've ever had to do. As Peggy mentions, bronze (cast) is notorious for rough surface and sloppy tolerances, mcuh worse than machined fittings. The others shouldn't be quite as bad. KY Jelly seemed to be as good as it gets; hair drier helps, but I'd be very cautious about a heat gun. I don't recall where exactly I heard it, but was told that the anti-permeability capability of the OdourSafe hose can be compromised with too much heat (and a heat gun is defined as too much heat). If that is indeed true, and you wind up in that situation, you may have just wasted that significant investment in OdourSafe. A better bet is to sand down the fitting a tad.The trick I re-discovered in this latest project is one I had forgotten. You may not be able to employ it, but if you can it helps a great deal: it applies to all hose with a coil reinforcement. You heat the hose (I've used hot water and hair dryer successfully) to soften the material *between* the coils. Then you put the hose on with a twisting action - either clockwise or counterclockwise - which unwinds the coil (ever so slightly y'understand).....kind of like screwing the fitting into the hose. If you just try it a little at the beginning, you should be able to figure out pretty quickly which direction loosens the coils and which direction tightens them. In my case I was able to prefit the fittings in most of the joints - one end was a screw-in fitting and the other a PVC weld (that's a piece of cake to fit in place). In one joint I even had to spin an entire pump around to thread the fitting in - but still much easier than trying to stuff that

 

[Bob Talley]

Hose Problem

I had the same problems installing the new Sealand hose on my H34. Finally gave up and switched to a different product. I'd rather do it (change hoses) more frequently than try to battle the installation with this hose.

 

[Steve Dion]

Bob T.

Bob Talley:We replaced our hoses (actually someone did it for us) over 10 years ago. We used the no-odor stuff from West Marine. We have not had any head odor in all this time. The price of the stuff we purchased was in line with the Sealand hose costs today. I do not know that the Sealand hose was available at the time.When we did this we replumbed the head from the direct discharge configuration to a system that ALWAYS pumps into the holding tank and then the option to either pump the tank overboard or throught the deck fitting.I would prefer the Sealand hose but if it that difficult to install why bother!

 

[Tim Leighton]

HOT WATER

I can't believe it....I'm actually going to disagree with Peggy! I hope I don't get hit with a lightening bolt!!! OK, it is only a very small disagreement, so maybe it will be a small bolt. Wife would probably agree it would do some good. Replumbed my entire system (H31 '85 vintage) last year (and just before I sold it...how stupid was that!?). Used Sealand per Peggy's recommendation. Had absolutely no trouble running the stuff and found using BOILING WATER (or very close) worked just fine getting the hose on (and off if necessary) tight fittings. Mere hot water won't work, it has to be just about boiling and plunging the hose in the water for 15 seconds or so was perfect. Like I said, just a small issue. Peggy still has the best advice around.Tim Leighton (S/V "Magic")