Thread: Airline fittings - Which Type?

Original made in Japan Nitto all the way, China nitto works but is rubbish. Aluminium nitto fittings are good for decorative purposes.
Garden hose? hoselink made in Australia.
https://www.hoselink.com.au/view/About-Hoselink

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=r...tings&tbm=shop

For convenience, I like types that don't need to have a sleeve or anything pulled back when connecting.
Some Nitto like that, but not all. For frequent connections, it's luxury by comparison.

Jordan

In my experience I have found no such thing as 'good' fittings. I've tried them all: Nylex, Pope, etc, as well as all the cheapest and most expensive, all either leak, won't grip the hose, or just pop off the tap fitting. The worst are the cheap plastic and the expensive brass ones, the plastic ones don't last and the brass one are an absolute disaster: leaking, popping of the spigot. I replace the O ring on the male spigot at regular interval, that goes someway to stopping the leaks at least

Hoses are another sore point, so many advertised as kink proof - what a laugh. Bunnings have hoses from $9 right up to many, many times that, the most expensive proclaiming to be 'kinkproof'. Even the most expensive of them will kink, albeit not as easily as the cheapest, but they still kink. designing a hose that will not kink is pretty well an impossibility I think. Once it has looped around at least one full turn, it is going to kink unless you stop to untwist!

I've found the nitto fittings at supercheap to be quite leaky. Maybe I got a bad batch? I have to commend supercheap on their club card credit scheme though - if you shop there make sure you get a card.

I've got an ARB compressor in my car - not sure what fittings they are but different to nitto. Are there adapters between nitto and whatever ARB use?

With water hoses - gardena are great. On the other hand, I bought a super dooper non twist flex hose (can't remember brand but well known expensive with a so called non twist rating of about 10 out of 10) which is the most annoying piece of cr*p out there. It is really soft in the sun and once a twist gets beyond it's capacity it just folds up into about a dozen kinks. Good for hose reals only.

Originally Posted by WelderMick

I've found the nitto fittings at supercheap to be quite leaky. Maybe I got a bad batch? I have to commend supercheap on their club card credit scheme though - if you shop there make sure you get a card.

I haven't bought any from them for a year or so but they used to have two levels of Nittos with one being about 30% more than the others. The more expensive ones have "Genuine Nittos" but that doesn't mean much these days. I have both in my shed and haven't found any difference between them but they are are all still relatively new.

Originally Posted by Ropetangler

I am tempted to go with these claw fittings of similar, they are unisex, so less inventory to carry, they are very rugged, but a bit too cumbersome I expect for some situations.http://www.brierleyhose.com.au/clawCouplingsSG.php and you certainly wouldn't want to drag it over the new car
Rob

Those are Minsup or Chicago fittings. They are bulletproof and the seals are replaceable, plus they have provision for a safety clip. Just be aware that there are two versions, Minsup A and Minsup B, you guessed it, they're not interchangeable. Their only downside is that you need reasonably strong hands to disconnect and connect them, (very difficult to disconnect under pressure, which you shouldn't do anyway). It's not shown in the link, but there is also a 2 1/2" version, they give you a real workout trying to connect them!

Another type of hermaphrodite fitting is the Storz, as used by fire brigades in NSW.
They are very reliable, but often need a pair of hook spanners to dis/connect.
They were patented in Switzerland over 100 years ago.

Jordan

Originally Posted by WelderMick

I've found the nitto fittings at supercheap to be quite leaky. Maybe I got a bad batch?...........

No, not a bad batch. You simply boght their "Nitto compatible" fitting, instead of ther "Genuine Nitto" fitting. It is unfair to judge a product by how good its unlicensed copies are. And yet people often do exactly this sort of comparison, not only with small items such as these but they do it with machine tools like lathes too.

Nitto compatible fittings are made in China. You can get 5 to 10 of them for the the price of one genuine made in Japan fitting. It's not the same thing, even if it looks almost the same.

By the way, it is the same with Ryco couplers. I looked up the eBay link someone posted a few posts earlier, and it said there explicitly "Ryco compatible". And not Ryco genuine or made by Ryco. If you want the real thing it costs more.


Garden hose: I have tried many.
- Very cheap hose: useless, stay away, goes to landfill within 2 or 3 years
- Budget hose (used to be marked with one yellow line) kinks easily and survives only a few years in the sun - then it becomes stiff and brittle, and with the stiffness the kinking gets worse. Goes to landfill in 5 years.
- Intermediate quality (used to be to yellow stripes) better, lasts about 10 years, but gets sticky in the sun
- Top quality (used to be 3 stripes) the oldest I still use are now 20 years old, but sticky

The problem is that in the sun the plastic material releases the softener that was used to make the plastic. It is this smelly stuff that sticks to ones hands and does not want to come off with soap. Once the softener is gone and dried, it leaves a stiff hose behind. I personally think this may be due to poor UV protection of the plastic raw material used to make hoses - even expensive top grade hoses.

The best hose that I have found is the top of the line Gardena Premium UV stabilized anti toersion and anti abrasion. The German manufacturer gives 25 years guarantee. I bought a few 12 and 18mm ones 6 years ago when Bunnings first began to import these. It stands up well in the sun, so far I have not noticed the dreaded "stickyness" of the softener leaving the product like on most locally made hoses. They were very expensive though, but in my opinion worth every cent.

I've found all garden hose whether cheap or expensive goes hard in winter and softens up in summer. I have good quality Gardena hose out the front on a hanger and cheap stuff out the back on a similar hangar, both go hard in winter and soften up in summer. Although even the Gardena is tending to stay hard all the year round now. Both kink, but the cheap stuff kinks a lot easier. Not hard to see why, the cheap stuff's walls are nowhere near the thickness of the Gardena. Both are around three years old now and due for a replacement. I might try some of that bluish clear type hose with the reinforcing next time, it appears to be thicker than the rest. Either that or one of the hoses in an enclosed reel.

Originally Posted by nadroj

Another type of hermaphrodite fitting is the Storz, as used by fire brigades in NSW.
They are very reliable, but often need a pair of hook spanners to dis/connect.
They were patented in Switzerland over 100 years ago.

Jordan

We use them here in the Tasmania Fire Service as well. Top quality fitting and with the correct seals can handle either vacuum or pressure applications. I like them a lot more than the "instantaneous" couplings used on our 25 and 38mm lines, which have had a lot of problems with deforming if dropped and the fittings sourced from different manufacturers or even batches not fitting together - really handy at a fire when your hoses won't connect together. I have also seen the "instantaneous" couplings uncouple themselves if a hose is twisted before full pressure is applied. These are also known as "Forestry" fittings.
http://www.new-line.com/fittings/fir...restry-adapter

If you want genuine Nitto don't shop in cheap auto supply stores, use engineering suppliers and take plenty of money with you. I bought most of mine thirty years ago and none leak and never have. I left some out in the weather for months and apart from some surface rust they still work.

Bit late to the thread, but as mentioned, for air, I've been through a bayonet system (Pem maybe?) then Ryco and now Nitto. Apart from the preponderance of dodgy Nitto copies that begin to leak if you look at them the wrong way, they do offer higher flow than other fittings.

For water, as mentioned, genuine gardena. We've run wholesale and retail nurseries, our mains pressure is 800kPa and as long as the 0-ring is OK, Gardena doesn't leak, and provided the fitting isn't *really* old, they don't let go.

Oddly enough, for a time we put used shotgun cartridges over the tap fittings to preserve the o-ring. After a few years, we realised it made no difference.

I use the Jamec style, been using them since the late 70's. In West Oz, u can get them at Veneables. Replaced all my air tools that came with the Nitto style with Jamec, including my arb diff lock compressor & hose. Never had a failure with them. Seen some el chepos down at bunnies, bought a pack of 3, total crap, plastic coated brass, did not fit the original metal Jamec fittings.

Those big fittings from Ropetangler mentioned are used in mining, like one forum member said, you need strong hands to get them to mate together, use the clip, they fly apart if you dont, lesson learned for me back in 1976 working as a TA with fitters on a mine site, dam hose stood on itself like a big angry snake whipping around the workshop, scared the bejesus out of me.

Layflat hose is what I use in the yard, similar to firey hose, water propels thru sorting out the kinks as gets to the end. Have thought of using hydraulic couplings for the hose, like everyone else, tried lots, all leak, fly off the end etc.

DD