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Best Hose clamps?

K

Krazy_Joe

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 29, 2004
Messages
472
I was wondering what hose clamps i should get? Ive heard of people using the plastic zip ties but i wonder how well they hold compaired to a worm-drive clamps. The plastic zip ties would be cheaper choice... hum.... :confused:
 
I would get the real metal hose clamps, rather than zip ties. A few cents gives you a lot of assurance you aren't going to have any connections coming loose anytime soon.
 
My experience with the metal worm clamps was pretty bad. They don't squeeze in a perfect circle, as one side is flat. It caused my tubing to oval and leak. I replaced them with wire zip ties, using pliers and a screwdriver to pull them tight as possible and they work perfectly. Wire ties are also a lot less tacky then those metal clamps.
 
Bionic_Tuna said:
My experience with the metal worm clamps was pretty bad. They don't squeeze in a perfect circle, as one side is flat. It caused my tubing to oval and leak. I replaced them with wire zip ties, using pliers and a screwdriver to pull them tight as possible and they work perfectly. Wire ties are also a lot less tacky then those metal clamps.
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There are wire zip ties?! Where did you get them? I figured that what you said might be an issue plus ive heard the slits in the metal clams cut the tubes up... and i dont want that to happen if i end up getting the tygon hoses... mucho $$. I want the best hold without damaging the tubes
 
Oh I said wire because that's what they're for. I use the plastic ones, it sounds cheap but they really do the trick. Just turn the slide away from a case window if you have one and it looks pretty good.
 
Actually if you're using Tygon you probably will be able to get away with the zip ties, I could probably not use any on my connections and not have any problems for a while... The tubing grips the barbs so well.
 
Zip ties would work on really flexible tubing like ClearFlex because you could tighten pretty well with that elasticity. I prefer good old metal worm drive clamps... they're cheap, last forever, and work the best. :)
 
Metal worm-drive for me. They don't leak in my car, and they don't leak in my computer. If you tighten them a lot, the slots will mess the tubing a bit, but the tubing is so thick that it doesn't matter too much.
 
ditto to the above post about metal clamps.. they're a real hassle when trying to REMOVE leaks from your system, seriously.. it was 3 days trying and finally i gave up on the metal ones. I switched to the nylon ones on all the critical connections and nothing's leaked :).

flip
 
plastic/nylon clamps that come with some kits are pretty good if you tighten them well (i.e. with pliers). I like worm drive metal clamps the best though. Either tighten them just so the tubing won't come off, or tighten them to hell and back. If you tighten in between they will oval and leak, as mentioned above.
 
what it comes down to is how much time you want to spend

all these devices perform the same task. They hold the tubing to the barb and prevent slippage. If you are for quick and easy use a zip tie. Just make sure you tighten it with pliers as tight as they can go. If you want security/peace of mind use metal worm driven hose clamps. They'll cost a bit more though..
 
If you have leaks with metal worm drive clamps then you are using the wrong size. If you get too large of a clamp the hose will oval up around the barb and it will leak.

I had to buy the smallest worm drive clamp I could find, I forget what the size was but you just about have to completely unscrew them to get them onto a hose-covered barb.
 
I've had hoseing split because I tighten the metal clamps down to far and the edge cut the tube.
So now I use 2 or 3 zip ties on each joint instead.

Luck..... :D
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Blue Falcon said:
If you have leaks with metal worm drive clamps then you are using the wrong size. If you get too large of a clamp the hose will oval up around the barb and it will leak.

I had to buy the smallest worm drive clamp I could find, I forget what the size was but you just about have to completely unscrew them to get them onto a hose-covered barb.
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This post reminds me
Home depot (at least around where i am) has a 2 sizes that will fit... too big and too small. I found some perfectly sized hose clamps at a small auto shop i was at and they fit perfectly and there was no leakage (i had a little leakage problem before). Just a thought.
 
don't use worm drives that are too big, they do make ovals if you put them on smaller tubes.. if you look at the 10-pack bags of them they have the range of tubing size that it will fit.. if you wanted .75" don't get the ".5-1.0inch" get the ".25-.75" the sizes overlap, get the one that when it is opened all the way it just barely fits on teh tube.. it won't do the oval thing, plus they look alot neater..

osh carries 5 different sizes, they go them in 10-pack pags handing on teh wall and just under htem should be individual ones... the smallest size just fits over my tygon tubing, don't get the next size up even tho it says it fits.

worm drives havn't cut my tygon, the smaller size worm drive's holes are also smaller and it makes it less of an issue... my other computer the worm drives 'cut' the tubing, but its really insignificant its more it scraped the surface a little :p its not a problem.
 
ace hardware had several sizes of smaller hose clamps, sold individually. I'm going to cut a small chunk of hose and take it in to get the best fit. They were less than 50 cents each IIRC.
 
Stainless steel worm clamps all the way here.
I havent cut/split a tube yet and I will always suggest them.
 
cool guys thanks for the sugestions!! Im thinking I will pick some up along with my hoses this weekend.
 
my polarflo tt cpu block came with some nylon fasteners... you pinch them together and they lock... are they any good... or should i replace um?
 
Krazy_Joe said:
my polarflo tt cpu block came with some nylon fasteners... you pinch them together and they lock... are they any good... or should i replace um?
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those are the plastic clamps i'm talking about... If you tighten them with pliers they're actually quite decent because they tighten in a circular shape. Pain in the ass to get off though...
 
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