I just wanted to jump in here with some food for thought on these air
lines.
I have a bunch of different grades and qualities of air lines that I
bought or acquired over the years. What I have noticed is that how and
where you use them seems to dictate how long they will last.
If you only use them inside, on a concrete floor, never drive over them
with vehicles, they seem to last indefinitely. If you have a hose that is
used on a gravel driveway and gets run over a few times, that hose will
wear quickly.
I actually kind of place my hoses depending on service. I use cheap ones
for "hard use" and better quality ones for the inside stuff. When the
cheap ones fails, its never been "dramatic." Just air leaking out of the
hose.
As with most HF items, you get what you pay for. But in most cases, I
found that I don't need the industrial quality for my shop use.
Case in point, when I was installing my car lift, I needed a heavy duty
hammer drill. These items are expensive and I knew I don't really have a
normal need for them. So I when onto HF ebay auctions (they used to do
this for their clearance items.) I found a brand new hammer drill, on bid
for $0.02 NO RESERVE. In fact, they had about 20 of the same ones listed.
It was a flat rate $12.50 for shipping.
I paid exactly $12.53 for a brand new HF hammer drill. It did the job,
and to my surprise, it did it well. I've used the drill a few times over
the years If it died the next time I used it, I wouldn't sweat it. Now,
if I was a contractor that needed to depend on that drill to make money, I
would have bought a high end, name brand from a local dealer.
YMMV, but for me, the very few times that HF stuff turned out to be
unusable junk is WELL outweighed by the times that I've save hundreds of
dollars on tools and was surprised.
One last thought, find a HF store near you and go check it out. (Even if
it is a few hours away.) It's a fun trip, bring a buddy or son and make a
"male bonding" experience out of it. The "local" HF store is 1.5 hours
from my house, and all the staff there now me by name! 8>) When you are
there you can pick up and feel the item(s) you want to buy. My other
advice bring lots of money! 8>)
(Am I the only one here that normally has girlfriends that would rather
see me go to a strip club than a HF store?)
Moose
"Be as beneficent as the sun or the sea, but if your rights as a rational
being are trenched on, die on the first inch of your territory." Ralph
Waldo Emerson
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