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Buying Guide
The hose supplier checklist
A hose supplier wrote this, so read it with that in mind. What follows is the set of questions that actually separate a shop that builds assemblies from a shop that sells them, including several where the honest answer might send you somewhere else.
- Ask what crimp diameter they built to. If they cannot answer, they are not measuring.
- Ask whether hose and fittings are the same brand. Mixed brands mean no valid crimp chart applies.
- Ask what they will not do. A shop with no limits is a shop that has not thought about them.
- Take the old assembly. A good counter reads more from it than from a part number.
- Beware anyone who never says no. Sometimes the honest answer is a dealer part or a specialist.
- Cheapest per assembly is rarely cheapest per year, but neither is the dearest.
Being upfrontWhy a supplier's checklist is worth suspicion
Most articles like this are written so that the company publishing them scores full marks. You can usually spot it: every criterion happens to describe exactly what that supplier offers, and none of them are hard.
A checklist is only useful if some of the answers are uncomfortable. So the questions below are ones we would rather be asked than not, several have answers where we would point you elsewhere, and one of them is a question we would fail on if you asked it about certain work.
Know your own answer to four things: what fluid is going through it, what pressure and temperature it sees, whether it needs to move, and what the ends are. A supplier who has to drag that out of you cannot help efficiently, and a supplier who does not ask is guessing.
Questions 1 to 4Whether they actually build assemblies
What crimp diameter did you build that to?
- A good answer
- A number, and the tolerance it sits within, from the manufacturer's chart for that hose and fitting.
- A bad answer
- Anything vague. A crimp is a measured diameter, not a squeeze, and a shop that does not measure cannot tell you whether it is under or over.
Are the hose and the fittings the same brand?
- A good answer
- Yes, and they can name it. Crimp charts are published for specific hose and ferrule pairings.
- A bad answer
- That it does not matter. Internal dimensions vary within an SAE specification, so mixing brands means no published chart applies to what they built.
Can you build from my old assembly without a part number?
- A good answer
- Yes, routinely. The old part carries the bore, construction, both fittings and the orientation between them.
- A bad answer
- Needing a catalogue number before they will start. That rules out every discontinued and one-off application you have.
How do you know that hose is what it says it is?
- A good answer
- Pointing at the layline. Properly made hose carries its specification printed along the cover.
- A bad answer
- Unmarked hose off an unlabelled reel. If the specification cannot be read, nobody can verify what you are running.
Those four separate a fabricator from a reseller more reliably than anything on a website. More on why the crimp is the thing in crimping versus clamp-on, and the standards behind it in SAE J517 and this note on hose and fitting compatibility.
Questions 5 to 7Whether they understand your application
What is going through it, and does that change the material?
- A good answer
- Asking before quoting, and reaching for a compatibility chart when the answer is a chemical rather than oil or water.
- A bad answer
- Quoting on size and pressure alone. On industrial work the medium decides the tube, and pressure is the easy part.
Does it need to flex, and how tightly?
- A good answer
- Asking where it routes and whether anything moves, then talking about bend radius and flex life rather than just rating.
- A bad answer
- Offering something stiffer because it is rated higher. On a tight installation that is worse, not better.
Why did the last one fail?
- A good answer
- Looking at the old hose and telling you. A shiny flat patch means it was rubbing, and replacing it without fixing that restarts the clock.
- A bad answer
- Not looking at it. The failed part is the best diagnostic information available and it is sitting on the counter.
Questions 8 to 10The uncomfortable ones
What will you not do?
- A good answer
- A specific list. Ours includes bleeding and signing off brake systems, recovering refrigerant, and anything where a moulded OEM assembly with a sensor in it is genuinely the right part.
- A bad answer
- That they can do everything. A shop with no limits has not thought about where its competence ends.
When should I buy the dealer part instead?
- A good answer
- A real scenario. Complex moulded assemblies, anything with integrated sensors, and cases where warranty terms make it simpler.
- A bad answer
- Never. There are applications where a built assembly is not the better answer, and a supplier who cannot name one is selling rather than advising.
What happens if this one fails?
- A good answer
- Bring it back. They want to see it, because a failed assembly tells them something about their own work.
- A bad answer
- Deflection toward the hose manufacturer. Whoever built the assembly owns the assembly.
Ask something they should say no to
Describe an application slightly outside normal hose work. A brake system that needs bleeding and testing. A refrigerant circuit that needs evacuating. A hydraulic problem that is actually a pump problem.
A shop that says "we can sort that" to all of it is telling you something. A shop that says "we will build the assembly, but that part belongs with a brake specialist" is telling you something better.
Red flagsThings that should give you pause
- Unmarked hose. No layline means no verifiable specification.
- Vagueness about the crimp. Not measuring is the most common quality failure in hose assembly.
- Mixed brands treated as unimportant. It is the single clearest sign nobody is reading a chart.
- Published discount tables with no relationship to what you buy. Pricing on volume is normal, printed tiers dressed up as policy usually are not.
- Certifications implied rather than stated. If a supplier holds a certification, they will name it and show it. Vague language about standards is a sign there is nothing to name.
- No interest in the old part. Whatever else is true, the failed assembly is the most useful thing in the room.
CostWhat actually adds up
Cheapest per assembly is rarely cheapest per year. The dearest is not automatically best either, and total cost of ownership arguments are frequently used to justify a premium that does not exist.
What genuinely moves the number:
- How often you fit it twice. A repeat failure costs the part, the labour and the downtime again.
- Whether they fixed the cause. A cheap assembly that comes with "your routing is chafing it" is worth more than an expensive one that does not.
- How long you wait. An hour at a counter versus three days on a dealer order is usually the entire argument, and nothing on the invoice reflects it.
- Whether the specification is on file. The second one for that machine should be quicker and cheaper than the first.
We do not publish a discount schedule, and be wary of anyone who does in an article rather than a quote. Volume affects price everywhere. Tiered tables printed as though they were policy tend to be marketing rather than terms.
Our own answersMarking our own homework
In the spirit of the thing, here is how we would answer our own questions.
| Question | Our answer |
|---|---|
| Crimp diameter | Measured against the manufacturer's chart for that hose and fitting pairing |
| Matched brands | Yes, hose and fittings from the same system |
| Build without a part number | Routinely. It is most of what we do |
| Turnaround | Most assemblies the same visit, six days a week |
| What we will not do | Bleed and sign off brake systems, recover refrigerant, or pretend a moulded OEM assembly is worth replicating |
| Hours | Monday to Friday 7:30 to 4:30, Saturday morning. We are not a 24 hour operation and do not claim to be |
Two counters, Hempstead in Nassau and Oakdale in Suffolk. Hydraulic from 1/8 inch to 2 inch up to 6,000 psi, industrial from 3/16 inch through 18 inch, plus automotive, marine and pressure washer work. See custom hose fabrication and all products.
Proudly serving Long Island since 1964
Sixty years of counter work for Long Island contractors, fleets and shops, from Nassau County and Suffolk County.
There is a reason proximity keeps coming up in this. Research into near-me search behaviour found that roughly 76 percent of people who run a "near me" search visit a business within 24 hours, citing Think with Google. When something is down, the best supplier is frequently the one you can drive to.
Common Questions
Choosing a supplier FAQ
What crimp diameter did you build that to. A crimp is a measured finished diameter matched to a tolerance on the manufacturer's chart, not simply as tight as the machine goes. A shop that cannot give you a number is not measuring, and under-crimped and over-crimped assemblies both look correct.
Yes. Crimp specifications are published for specific hose and ferrule pairings, because internal dimensions vary within an SAE specification. Mix brands and no published chart applies to what has been built, so nobody can say what the finished diameter should have been.
The old hose, every time. It carries the bore, the construction, both fittings and the orientation between them, and it shows why it failed. A part number tells you what it was supposed to be. The failed part tells you what it actually was and what went wrong.
Unmarked hose with no readable layline, vagueness about crimp measurement, treating mixed brands as unimportant, implied rather than named certifications, and no interest in looking at the part that failed. Also anyone who says yes to everything.
They ask before they quote. Specifically, what fluid is going through it, what temperature at both the medium and the environment, whether it has to flex and how tightly, and what the ends are. Quoting on size and pressure alone means the medium and the routing have been ignored.
Sometimes, and sometimes the expensive one is too. What actually moves the total is how often you fit it twice, whether anyone identified why the last one failed, and how long you wait. An assembly built the same day rather than ordered for Thursday frequently saves more than any price difference.
Complex moulded assemblies, anything with an integrated sensor, and situations where warranty terms make it simpler. A built assembly is not always the right answer, and a supplier who cannot name a case where it is not is selling rather than advising.
Know four things: the fluid, the pressure and temperature, whether it needs to move, and what the ends are. That is most of a specification. A photograph of the old assembly and where it routed covers most of the rest.
Ask The Counter
Try us on the hard questions
Send the application, the fluid and a photo of both ends. If the honest answer is that the work belongs somewhere else, we will say so.
Two Counters
Measured, matched and marked
Hempstead and Oakdale, six days a week. Bring the old assembly and ask us what we built it to.