4" Flex Hose - Harbor Freight
#10
Does anyone have any experience with the Harbor Freight 4" flex hose ?

I purchased a 10' section from a local tool distributor and didn't find out til I got it home that the I.D. was 3.70" No amount of push / pulling and 'encouraging words' would stretch it enough to fit over a 4" connector. So it will be returned.

The question is what is the I.D. of a Harbor Freight 4" flex hose ? It appears to get decent reviews but is only available on-line.

If it is a 4" I.D. it will be a cheaper alternative. Even with shipping.

Thanks, Bill
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#11
(03-13-2018, 11:29 PM)wjt Wrote: Does anyone have any experience with the Harbor Freight 4" flex hose ?

I purchased a 10' section from a local tool distributor and didn't find out til I got it home that the I.D. was 3.70"  No amount of push / pulling and 'encouraging words' would stretch it enough to fit over a 4" connector. So it will be returned.

The question is what is the I.D. of a Harbor Freight 4" flex hose ? It appears to get decent reviews but is only available on-line.

If it is a 4" I.D. it will be a cheaper alternative. Even with shipping.

Thanks, Bill
It does get good reviews.  I have never seen anything at HF worth 5 stars so it might be a good product.

Check with Amazon, unless it HF comes with free shipping, you might save money if you have a Prime account.
A carpenter's house is never done.
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#12
I have some; I bought a couple pieces of it when I bought my HF DC.

I never actually measured the inside diameter of the hose, but it is extremely tight on 4" fittings I've bought from other retailers.  I did get it to work, but there *may have been* an off-color word or two used in the process.

It has been durable stuff.

I wouldn't buy it again.  I just gave away a piece to a friend with the caveat that it was a bit tight.
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#13
PSI Woodworking sells a 50' section of hose on Amazon for $63 - a lot cheaper than Harbor Freight.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006F...UTF8&psc=1

I haven't had any problems using it with any of my tools or fittings. I just bought a bunch of keyed hose clamps to go with it. I use sharp scissors and lineman pliers to trim them into sections I need. I'd recommend it over Harbor Freight.
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#14
I bought a dust collector which I bought and came with a whole bunch of quality piping and hoses.  The effort it takes to get a 4" hose over schedule 35 PVC pipe is significant.  It takes about a half hour and some choice words.  If I lived somewhere I could drive down the road and find the proper connectors to make this junction correctly, that is what I would do.  But since I would have to guess and mail order the parts and not sure if they would fit and if they did not fit, I'd likely be too lazy to return them so would likely be wasting money and effort.

I carry the pipe into house with the hose and use a putty knife to slowly push the hose up the pipe while watching T.V..  It's a pain to do and not worth the effort but that is how i do it.
A carpenter's house is never done.
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#15
I have 3 different brands of 4" flex, and every one of them measure something like 3 3/4" ID. I guess that's why Woodcraft offers 4" flex adapters (I think they are made my Woodstock) to get it to fit onto anything.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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#16
Fitting any of the 4" flex hose over 4" I.D. hard pipe is a challenge. Finding some way to shrink the end of the pipe (either with fittings, kerfs, or heat in a form for PVC) is the usual approach.

But it is possible to stretch flex over pipe where it clearly does not fit. The key is to find a way to soften the plastic so it stretches, and to untwist the spiral metal so it opens up the diameter enough to get it onto the pipe. Heat or solvents (not both!) will soften the plastic, some flex works better than others, and it still takes some finesse to get the hose on the pipe.

Or you can put the flex into the belled end of a PVC pipe, and seal it with tape.
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#17
The current hose sold by harbor freight is ok but it's nowhere near as good as the hose they used to sell in their dc package kit. The current stuff isn't nearly as durable as it has a gummy vinyl plastic now. I still have two sections of the old stuff and it's better quality than the stuff at woodcraft and rockler. I wish they still sold it... 
    
      As for fitting over 4" pvc... Good luck cause pvc is measured by I'd not od. You will need to reduce the diameter for any 4" hose.
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#18
(03-15-2018, 09:31 AM)Robert Adams Wrote: The current hose sold by harbor freight is ok but it's nowhere near as good as the hose they used to sell in their dc package kit. The current stuff isn't nearly as durable as it has a gummy vinyl plastic now. I still have two sections of the old stuff and it's better quality than the stuff at woodcraft and rockler. I wish they still sold it... 
    
      As for fitting over 4" pvc... Good luck cause pvc is measured by I'd not od. You will need to reduce the diameter for any 4" hose.

Robert:

Thanks for the reply.

To clarify I am trying to fit a 4" flex hose over a 4" O.D. diameter quick disconnect fitting called FazLok.

I did find one in a black hose sold by my local tool distribituor that slipped over the 4" O.D. FazLok connector with minimal effort. This black hose MAY BE what FS7 referred to from PSI in a previous response but I am not certain.

Bill
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