Marking Miflex Hoses

[kelemvor]

So, as most of us know miflex or any kind of braided hoses have a finite lifespan. The manufacturer of genuine miflex hoses recommends replacement after 5 years. That's not a matter of opinion if you're not in the know. The manufacturer includes warning paperwork when you buy one.

Unfortunately, the hoses don't come marked with a born on date.

I replaced all my hoses two years ago.. foolishly I kept the old ones as spares.. gradually they got mixed in with my new ones and now I have no idea which is old and new.

I need a way to permanently mark a braided hose with a purchased date since I can't determine date of manufacture. Any suggestions? I was thinking sharpie would eventually fade away to nothing. Maybe I could use a dremel to engrave them on the ends? The marking needs to last for 5 or 6 years.

Side note:
Those of you who eschew the use of miflex, please don't derail this thread with your preference for rubber hoses. Make another thread or something.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

keep refreshing the sharpie as it fades out? color coded tape? oil based paint marker?

 

[tbone1004]

I thought some of the ferrules had date codes stamped into them.

If you don't like that, then I'd use a dremel engraver and mark the ferrules with the year purchased

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

that's probably your best option if you have the hand control.

 

[Paul M]

Get different colours of sharpie and mark them to correspond to a simple spreadsheet. Cross reference the date and approximate number of dives used, to the colour.
Perhaps a few wraps of coloured electrical tape or coloured rubber bands would work as well.

Its important to note, from the Miflex website:
"The Suggested time scale for considering replacement of your hoses under service is circa 5 years or 500 dives as also recommended by the majority of diving equipment manufactures and en standards."

500 dives can be within 6 months to a year for a dive professional - and/or a Scuba Junkie

 

[lexvil]

Toss them and start over, toss them in a box and send them to me.

 

[kelemvor]

Get different colours of sharpie and mark them to correspond to a simple spreadsheet. Cross reference the date and approximate number of dives used, to the colour.
Perhaps a few wraps of coloured electrical tape or coloured rubber bands would work as well.

Its important to note, from the Miflex website:
"The Suggested time scale for considering replacement of your hoses under service is circa 5 years or 500 dives as also recommended by the majority of diving equipment manufactures and en standards."

500 dives can be within 6 months to a year for a dive professional - and/or a Scuba Junkie

Heh.. I wish I had that problem. I get around 60-70 dives a year. I like the "put something on them" idea. Perhaps a 1/2" of colored heatshrink around part of the hose would do the trick.

Toss them and start over, toss them in a box and send them to me.

I think I will probably have to do that unless tbone is right and I can find a date code. Do you really want a box of hoses that could very well fail? I guess it's not THAT critical as you can just switch to your alternate, but I'd prefer to avoid the problem myself.

 

[lexvil]

Heh.. I wish I had that problem. I get around 60-70 dives a year. I like the "put something on them" idea. Perhaps a 1/2" of colored heatshrink around part of the hose would do the trick.



I think I will probably have to do that unless tbone is right and I can find a date code. Do you really want a box of hoses that could very well fail? I guess it's not THAT critical as you can just switch to your alternate, but I'd prefer to avoid the problem myself.

I inspect them fairly often, anything iffy gets cut and tossed. Since the issue came up, not only have dates been stamped into one of the metal ends by most makers (really hard to see sometimes) but the suspect material has been replaced with something the suspect won’t be an issue. I think the 5 year life is an over abundance of caution on their part but not a horrible practice. If memory serves the usual failures were on hoses used in some very hot dry places, I could be wrong.

 

[flymolo]

perhaps a little colored ziptie indicating the year you put it the hose into service

 

[Brett Hatch]

Order colored miflex. Start with red. Next time you buy, get orange, then yellow, then green, and so on in rainbow order. You can always tell the relative age of two hoses by cross-referencing with an actual rainbow. When you loop around to red again, throw the old red ones out. Perfect!