This a high quality, durable hose for general light use. Some folks have complained about the hose being smaller inside diameter, but the hose I received was 4.003” ID.The one thing that was misleading, was the OD listed as 4.064”, which, although accurate for the wall of the clear part of the hose, does not include the much thicker black wear strip. My sample measured 4.406” with that taken into consideration.Would definitely recommend and buy again.

This review is for the 5" Flex-Tube PV hose from Flexaust. The hose came in a large, cube shaped cardboard box and was in good shape and clean when it arrived. Even though it was only 25' of hose, the big box was a bit clumsy to carry. According to the Flexaust website, this hose is 0.035" thick and weighs 0.92 pounds per foot, so about 23 pounds plus packaging. The hose was wound around inside the box and was not kinked. This particular size (5") hose fits my dust collector. I only needed about 27" of hose to replace the original dust collector hose. It was very simple to cut, first penetrating the webbing with a sharp knife and then snipping through the helix with side cutters. Contrary to some of the answers to questions here on Amazon, the helix does NOT have wire in it, steel or otherwise. The helix is made of PVC only - this fact can be verified from the Flexaust website. The hose is nice and stiff - not too easy to work with when installing, but exactly what you want once it's installed. My original hose would jump into position when I turned on the dust collector and then kinda vibrate while it was running. This new hose doesn’t move when the collector is switched on and stays firm as a rock while it’s running. Since it’s only a short run, I probably won’t bother to ground it. The two ends of the hose are clamped to the same metal cabinet. All in all I think it’s high quality hose. I have another Flexaust product in other areas of my dust collection system – the FlexStat 4” hose. That particular hose is also smooth inside, heavier than the Flex-Tube PV and DOES have a copper wire running through its ABS helix. The FlexStat is great hose, but I couldn’t justify spending almost $450 for 25’ of the 5” version.

I use this hose to connect woodworking tools to my dust collection system. I've purchased all sorts of hose over the years including the top brands like kanaflex, santoprene (now foxiflex I think) and flexhaust as well as many other cheaper hoses which mostly fall in a general category I'll call crap. This Flex-Tube hose is about the best I've seen. It has a very sturdy external rib, is pretty transparent, and quite flexible even in the 6" size I bought. But there are a couple things worth knowing if you plan to use it in a woodshop dust collection environment. And, no I'm not talking about the so-called risks of pvc for dust collection.The issues you might want to know about are what it will or won't connect to and how. So, for starters, it WILL FIT OVER typical SNAPLOCK type metal pipe used in dust collection. It might take a little lube but it will go on and can be secured with a clamp. It WILL NOT FIT OVER PVC pipe whether that is schedule 40, SDR 35 (ASTM 3034) or Sewer & Drain (S&D or ASTM 2729). All these pvc pipes have the same OD and there is no way this hose can be slipped, stretched or otherwise coerced to fit over it. No way.I had visions of putting my hose ends INSIDE PVC pipe fittings and securing them there with caulk and then using those fittings as quick-connects onto my PVC pipe ducts. There are references to doing this in a number of woodworking forums but I can see now that approach applies only to cheap hoses. The ribs on this hose are far too big. This hose WILL NOT FIT INSIDE PVC FITTINGS. I've only checked with the 6" hose I bought but I'm quite sure this will be the case for 4" hose as well. My first thought was that I could force it in there. Yeah, right. Plan B was to grind down the rib with a dremel tool or in my case a rasp in a rotary handpiece run by a flex shaft off my drill press. After half an hour I came to the realization that I would have to remove the rib almost completely to make it fit and the odds of removing nearly the whole rib without cutting the hose itself were about zero.So, here are some options that will work. You can glue a short sleeve of S&D ASTM 2729 inside the fitting. A short chunk of metal snaplock then fits nicely into that sleeve and you can slip the hose over the snaplock and secure it with a clamp. Note that this will only work with the thin wall S&D. A sleeve of SDR 35 has a thicker wall and you would not be able to get the snaplock inside it. Or, and this is what I ended up doing, you can heat up the pvc fitting with a heat gun, flare it out a bit by gloved hand while it's still hot and then slip (more like wrestle) the hose into the fitting. On the 6" pipe it takes me at least ten minutes of heating before the pipe fitting bell is soft enough to do this. Once you're done heating you've got to get the hose shoved inside the fitting pretty quickly as the fitting cools and hardens fast. Once things are cooled down, the hose is in there pretty much for good I think but I ran a bead of silicone caulk around the hose/fitting joint just to make sure there weren't any air leaks.

I have owned a Parker 10 HP, 8", truck loading, leaf sucker for many years. I am also a Massachusetts homeowner with a huge leaf task in the fall that tired of the $800-900 yearly charge just to have a service vacuum the leaves that I BLEW INTO PILES, and make them go away. I added onto my 4' x 8' utility trailer some 3/4" galvanized steel pipe, and fenestrated tarps from Northern Tool with lots of bungee cords, added the Parker on a front escutcheon board to the trailer walls and I have a serious leaf collection system. It paid for itself in two years. The Parker supplied hose was an 8" diam, black (opaque) 16' rubberized hose. It worked very well for 7 years. Stored outdoors, the UL light took its toll. The last two years required rolls of Duck Tape to repair the holes. Also when it clogged I could not see where the clog was and had to use my roof rake handle with a garden cultivator duck taped to the end to clear it. This year it had to be replaced. The folks who now own Parker only work through their dealers, and the local guy quoted $300 for the replacement 16' hose, that I had to come and collect from far away or pay shipping. I went looking and found a much better replacement here on Amazon. A transparent plastic hose, same thickness, and with much better UL light resistance, and a plastic coil, not mettle. But it was 25' long, and was delivered, at my door, for $220.00. I have used it several times and no clogging. The longer length has helped beyond description. I would strongly recommend this hose. Parker needs to catch up with the times.P Johns MD