Source for Anti-Kink Springs?

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PaulHilgeman

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I have an area in my brew rig that really needs an anti-kink spring for safety reasons. It is for the 1/2" ID silicone tubing, so it would need to be 3/4" diameter, maybe 4-6" long would provide for a nice gentle bend if the hose isnt positioned properly.

I have been searching here and on google and cant find much of anything... maybe I am just not using the right terminology.

Thanks,
Paul
 
I am thinking I have a spring on my garden hose nossel that probably work. I think it is one of those 5 dollar ones at HD that I use as a shut off valve. Might check out the garden department and see if you could use something there.
 
hose_connector_with_shut_off_with_single.summ.jpg


Like that.
 
Well since this is silicone tubing, it cant be too stiff, otherwise the spring wont yeild and it will just kink after the spring.

I know that I have seen them before, I just cant find them!
 
Yeah than that is too stiff. Maybe from the inside of a large water heater hose? I know some of them have that spring in them if big enough.
 
I dont know your situation, but why not just add an elbow?? The link contains a BobbyM video where he demonstrates this.
 
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It is an odd position where I have an tankless water heater that has a 4' silicone tube coming off of a plumbing stub.

99% of the time, it feeds up into the mash tun to provide strike water and on-demand sparge water, it works perfectly for this.

1% of the time, when I want to do things like cleaning or am just being careless, I have to 'think' about the connection and make sure I dont kink it. If the water stops flowing out of it, pressure and steam quickly builds in the tankless heater and the input hose blows off. This is good because it is a quasi-fail-safe, as the water that is then streaming out of the hose is tap water, but the tankless heater will then begin to vent steam out of the inlet, and that is not safe.

This could be cured by additional copper plumbing, but my rig already has enough of that, or I could install some sort of flow sensor (but that still woudlnt prevent an over-pressure situation, just the steam hazard), but this is just such a simple solution that I want to go the strain-relief route.
 
yeah I built all 3 of my silicone tubing with an elbow on each end. the tubing just threads onto the male parts and I didn't notice any leaking when I used them.

-=Jason=-
 
Good idea, maybe those will work, but 3/4" tubing is awfly large to be bending!

Maybe I will just have to plumb something up!
 
I love that spring idea. I could use that in my setup. I will keep my eyes open for something like that. I will let you know if I find anything.
 
You said you needed 5-6 feet, so why not pick up some flex conduit.

3/4” inch 25 feet for $10.77
032886042218lg.jpg


25 feet of 1/2” is also available for $9.47.

You might find it cheaper to locate an electrical contractor with some in stock.
 
Good idea, maybe those will work, but 3/4" tubing is awfly large to be bending!

Maybe I will just have to plumb something up!

The pieces themselves are not tubing, they are tightly coiled springs used to prevent kinks while hand bending tubing such as brake and fuel line. I was going to suggest these as well.
 
yeah, i know what they are for, but my point was, do many people bend 3/4" tubing, that is the size that I would need.

I am thinking the conduit idea would be perfect, I have some actually in my basement, it probably is 3/4" too.

Thanks everyone, helpful and resourceful as usual.
 
Unless you need the tube permanently bent into position, I wouldn't worry about it. The tubing bender will just bend with the weight of the hose.

I was just trying to figure out a very similar problem. The bender is a simple, cheap, and rather elegant solution.
 
the bending spring a straight spring steal and will not want to stay in a curve.
you want something like these
http://www.gates-unicoil.com/

any auto parts house should be able to get them

Thats what I went with:

IMAG0117.jpg


sorry for the dark pic, but it worked perfectly for 8 bucks. I cut one side of the soft steel piece, bent it back 180 degrees to make a nice way to mount it to the pipe.
 
I used some 3/4" plastic split wire loom like this and zip tied it where I needed it. Prevents it from kinking for only a couple bucks.
 
Revising this old thread to see if there are anymore pictures of peoples setups? I'm worried about my hose kinking where I can't use eblows
Thanks!
 
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