Stainless braided hose

[GeorgeHurst]

Hi,

I'm looking for some stainless steel braided hose to replace the two heater pipes in the engine bay with. I've had a really good hunt for the best prices online, ebay, kit car suppliers etc, but the cheapest I can find is about £13 p/m for 1/2" bore pipe.

I'm wondering if one could use plumbing stuff for this? I was looking on Screwfix and found (for £2.50 p/900mm) 'Flexible Tap Connector' with the following description:

"15 x 1/2" x 900mm. Stainless Steel braid. 15bar working pressure. Compression x BSP. Not suitable for potable/drinking water."

My first question is, how can one tell the internal bore of the pipe itself? I believe the 1/2" refers to the thread of the connectors at each end of the pipe. Do specific pipe bores correlate with specific thread diameters?

And my second one is, is 15bar ok for use in the engine and will the pipe stand the temperature of the water?

If anyone has used plumbing gear to do this or knows of somewhere I can get this hose cheap I would love to hear from you.

Cheers
George

[billlobban]

Try http://www.bes.co.uk. Unfortunately most of these braided hoses for plumbing come complete with threaded or solder connectors in your case the 1/2" refered to is the 1/2"bsp threaded conection

[bmcecosse]

You will have all sorts of problems with that! What's wrong with good old reliable thick wall rubber hose ?

[jonathon]

What about a simple overbraid, using the existing hoses.

[GeorgeHurst]

Thanks for that link billlobban.
BM - nothing wrong with it but stainless braided hoses just look so much better! ;) Will plumbing hose be much worse, should I only use hose explicitly sold for automotive use?
Jonathon - that was my first thought, however I can't find it for a decent price anywhere. Perhaps I am just being tight though, do you have any recomendations for a supplier?

[jonathon]

I'll have a look tomorrow

[Longdog]

Hi George, I used Silicon hose for my heater hoses on the grounds of durability and appearance. I obtained these from a company called Hyphose in Southampton who specialise in hydraulics. They will almost certainly carry the kind you are looking for or have some suggestions, hope this is of help, Andy.
P.S They are on the web.

[Longdog]

The i.d of tap connecting hoses are approx 6 mm and I think the max length is about 450 mm. I have fitted a few.

[alzax3]

They also have a tendancy to colapse if twisted, which you really wouldn't want! Overbraid looks pretty so long as you can tidy up the ends (I've got a length of rad-hose sized stuff hung up in the garage waiting for something!) but it does hide possible early warning of failures.

[GeorgeHurst]

Thanks Andy, I'll drop them an email in a minute.
It looks like tap hose is out of the question and I need to stop being a skinflint

[GeorgeHurst]

Hyphose have just the ticket - overbraid in 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" sizes, all for reasonable (the cheapest I have seen yet) prices - should be enough of a range to cover all the hoses that I want to and will save me a packet. Cheers Andy