Hose Repair Solutions

[aeoliandave]

I thought the cloth hose for the little Premier Vac-Kit was unusualy stiff with age...and yet it wasn't leaking. I noticed that when I inserted the hose in either side of the vacuum the motor would speed up and there wasn't much airflow. Thinking there was a clog restriction clearable with a stick I hit something solid right away.

On closer inspection I could make out a smaller diameter rubber hose. Cut to a perfect length it is a snug fit inside both end fittings and solved the leak problem, alright. Managed to get a pair of hooks into it and pulled it out. The woven hose is now snakily flexible and surprisingly, doesn't leak all that much. I guess the stiff liner kept it from breaking up from the outside and protected the inner layers from exposure to enviromental factors for who knows how many years.

The home handyman that came up with this has a great idea and I recall it's been mentioned here, too. Neccesity is the Mother of Invention and I guess the radiator hose was handy. The problem is the 11/16" inside diameter and 1/8" thick wall. Glad I was able to fish it out as this length is a nice odd size for certain player piano supply lines to distant components - like the sustain pneumatic - when I don't have the proper hose stock handy.

The Premier Vac-Kit is the next hose to get the latex treatment. Wouldn't it be nice to find a ribbed plastic hose closer to 1.24" diameter that just snugly fits inside our lovely old hoses? I'll be looking...

 

[z30soulbrother]

hoses

hi folks while we are on the subject of hoses,could someone tell me the difference between cloth woven and saran, i always took it that saran was the shiny finish 1 am i right?
si

 

[aeoliandave]

Ok, I'll jump in, Simon.

Over here in North America we call it vinyl, what you call saran. Yes, its a shiny braid weave over the hose core usually in contrasting colors to create a pleasing pattern of solid or dashed helical stripes, or in the case of Electrolux, chevron arrowheads. I don't know when the first vinyl braided hose appeared. One would think that vinyl/saran is a much tougher material than cotton for the purpose and yet I find that the later poorer quality vinyl weave strips have a tendency to stretch from flexing and form little loops along the surface. These loops then get snagged on the carpet and furniture and eventually break. Perhaps it was the weaving machinery that was not kept in tight adjustment.

The earlier cloth weave hoses that have been around since the dawn of vacuums are similarly woven with 4-5 parallel cotton threads, to the same pleasing effect. The threads do not stretch and the hose surface remains smooth unless there is some accident that cuts a thread or two - nonetheless, the inherent friction of cotton on cotten prevnts the cut from turning into a run and all you end up with is a non-snagging blemish on the hose.

My 17 cents worth. Dave

 

[z30soulbrother]

hoses

cheers for that mate yea its right what you say the cloth ones seem to be indistructable, but like i said in an earlier thread somehow my parents cloth hose broke by the handle the 1st month (lux z55 in 1951) so they complained obviously to electrolux and got a new 1 sent right out this time a bit more flexible in turquoise! meanwhile dad managed to fix the broken origional brown and they kept it as a spare rolled up in the cupboard. years later we came to use it when the other got blocked and it was so stiff you couldnt do anything with it!!! how about that!!!!


si

 

[charles~richard]

I don't know about other brands, but the first saran Electrolux hose made its appearance in 1956 with the Model Automatic E. Those early AE hoses seem to be quite stout as I have several in excellent condition; indeed the same applies for the other early saran hoses -- F, R and S.

It seems something changed with the G hoses because from there on out, they just don't seem to have lasted as well. I have quite a few saran hoses up through the Silverado and most of them are not in as good condition as my AE hoses. The later, heavy electric hoses are the worst.

With the electric hoses, my guess is that the sheer weight of the hose puts a strain on the weaving causing it to pucker and then, as Dave noted, get snagged on something and break, and then start to unravel. The fact that the puckering happens the most at the two extreme ends would seem to bear witness to this.

I have a very interesting prototype hose that consists of both cloth and saran! The background color, in dark gray, is cloth, and the chevron-pattern weaving, in bright blue, is saran. I was told by an Electrolux oldtimer that a number of these combination hoses were made up as test hoses. Mine is in perfect condition, and is all the rarer because it has a hammertone-blue motor-end coupler instead of chrome.

Of course, ultimately the condition of a hose depends on how it was cared for by its user.

 

[vacuumkid3]

I think it was often found around the ends because that is where the hose stretches the most. The sheer weight of the hose, when in use, pulls down at the end where you hold it, at the top of the wand. This continuous stretching causes the vinyl to pucker, and then that's where it gets caught on stuff and rips. The end near the vacuum is being pulled up by the user, or when you drag the vacuum especially. I see these puckers on my AE hose and G, mainly on the end near the vacuum.

Basically, the vinyl can't stretch as much as it should...then it puckers, and then it can break.

What do ya'll think?

But yes, it is mainly how the owner took cared of it, like Charles said.

~~K~~