Airhog Armored Fill Hose Exploded

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T

txaggie929

Member
May 11, 2015
262
33
Texas, United States
Hey all, 

Posting this as a safety alert. I received a new 3' Airhog armored microbore fill hose yesterday and went to use it for the first time today to fill up my Vulcan. 

Cracked valve as normal to begin slow fill. Within a few seconds, the armor on the hose end closest to the gun exploded. That was a couple hours ago and my ears are still ringing pretty bad, as it sounded like a firearm being discharged in my home office. 

I contacted Airhog and they stated this has happend to a few other people with the armored hoses. They said the manufacturer they are getting the hoses from had a bad crimper, allowing air to escape past the hose and into the armor. They stated they had sent back all the hoses they had and had tested all hoses that have been sent out to date, but are unsure why hoses are failing at a later date after being tested. 

To my knowledge, I have not seen any alerts from Airhog regarding what they indicated to me is not an isolated incident. This is very much a safety issue as it takes no time at all to build hundreds of psi coming from a 4500 psi tank. 

At this time, they stated they are sending me another hose and are asking for the failed hose to be returned. 

So please, if you have one of these armored hoses, use extra caution as I am not the only one this has happened to. 




MOD EDIT: MOVED TO AIR TANKS SECTION
 
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Airhog is indeed taking care of the issue and my intent was to inform people of a possible issue, not degrade or throw anybody under the bus. Crap happens. I just don't prefer crap to happen under high pressure. I know there are plenty of items I have bought as extras or intended to use immediately, but then didn't get around to it for a couple weeks/months. This could be the circumstance for somebody else and wanted others to be aware. Anxiously awaiting my new hose. I have no complaints with my Airhog tank or valve assembly. 
 
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This dude's underwear is just fine, thank you! 
I talked with Van Jacobi and he states that the tubing that he used was manufactured in Italy which is the leading producer for this type of tubing. He believes AirHog is still using this tubing ( and he believes most of the other supplliers use hose from Italy as well). He told me that if the hose becomes kinked there is a risk of the hose to burst. A new or old hose can become kinked and both should be replaced if you see this. He told me that this does happen from time to time even using the best materials.

It appears that the new owner of AirHog has corrected the problem. If the new owner has not cut any corners, I would say IMHO that AirHog and Joe B's product are comparable and thus direct competitors. If I was in the market for a tank today, I would choose between these two companies. My issue was not with the gauge (although I like not having glycerin in my gauge and a deadhead) but the strong sales techniques. Had Joe B made the sale ($3000), I would not have met my close friend and airgun mentor, Van Jacobi. My friend nor I have any vested interest, in AirHog. I have been quite happy with my tank set-up from AirHog and chime in just to make sure new airgunners know they have a choice. 
George W. Harper DDS, FAGD
 
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I am not familiar with the Airhog hose,so can only go by the pics posted.But how does wrapping a 3000+psi hose with what looks like truck airline hose rated to much less burst pressure be claimed as "armoured".Seems to me the outer blue plastic hose is only a protective cover.So an internal hose(high psi)leaking into a outer hose of lower strength is only going to end one way.Short term tinitis.
 
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As I already explained, they had an issue with their crimping machine thus allowing a leak between the actual Micro bore hose and the outer protective sheath. Basically this was a high-pressure balloon.

They have already sent me a replacement hose that I should have by Saturday. In addition I had only bought a three foot hose and they were out of those as a replacement, so they have sent me a five foot hose instead.

In my opinion they have handled the situation at this point. However, I sure would have not minded them comp'ing me the hose because of the damage to my hearing and causing me to drop my rifle as I was holding onto it when this happened.

The only thing I think they should have done is post on the boards that they sponsor that they had had this issue and to use caution or recall all the ones they had sold.
 
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