flat tubing

[kaltag]

i got some vinyl tubing for my setup and the coil was too compressed so all the tubing is pressed near flat! it's not kinked or creased and i would like to know how to return it to somewhat round if possible. any ideas?

[natopotato]

well when that stuff gets warm it gets realy soft so i duno but maby if u set it in the sun then pump some water thruogh it? perhaps?

[Daemonfly]

Actually, thats a pretty good idea. Warm it up & it should be a bit softer(various techniques avail.).

[cack01]

Puy it in some water and microwave it. Becarful though b/c you don't want to make it look like you caused it to be defective, that is if you want to return it after you heat it.

[Diggrr]

Remove it from the reel, then hook it to the end of your garden hose. When it's full of water, plug the end.
The pressure and the sunshine should take care of the rest. It should easily stand the pressure of a household water system without expanding too far, just let it sit out the afternoon sunbathing.

You should try just plain sunshine with the tubing off the reel, first. Vinyl tubing has a pretty good "memory", and should return to round by itself with some warmth to accellerate it.

[Theorie]

Don't even worry about it. That is how my hose was when I bought it and I just left it how it was and installed it. It went back to a normal O shape after water ran though it for a day.

[GWN]

When you do finally install the hose in your system use hose clamps on the flattened part of the hose to make it an O shape again then after a while you can remove the hose clamps. That's what i had to do:p

[masitti]

When I had vinyl, I used a hair dryer to bend it. I strongly recommend you get better tubing... it restricts airflow, looks bad, and is VERY hard to work with. Check out ClearFLEX tubing... it has a tighter bend than Tygon, and is about half the price of Tygon as well.

[Iron Hawk]

why does it look bad?

[masitti]

Originally posted by Iron Hawk
why does it look bad?

It gives your tubing a flat appearence and doesn't look consistant throughout... I just prefer the look of round tubing than flat tubing. :p

[NoKtEm]

my tube is kinda flat .. (tygon) and the water pressure isn't high enuf to make it round

but after countless disasters i'm way too lazy to fix it right now.. so flat tubing is all good for me =)

[Lumen]

Originally posted by NoKtEm
my tube is kinda flat .. (tygon) and the water pressure isn't high enuf to make it round

but after countless disasters i'm way too lazy to fix it right now.. so flat tubing is all good for me =) sup:)

[Iron Hawk]

mario, what size wall did your tubing have? I would expect 1/16 wall tubing to get flater much easier than 1/8 wall tubing.

[masitti]

Originally posted by Iron Hawk
mario, what size wall did your tubing have? I would expect 1/16 wall tubing to get flater much easier than 1/8 wall tubing.

I had 1/16" with the vinyl, which probably got flatted easier than the 1/8" - the ClearFLEX I have is 1/8" wall. It sure is big tubing to deal with, but doesn't get flat and is very flexible.

[m2kewl]

i used to have 1/16" thick vinyl and it sucked bad...ended up getting the clearflex and tygon from recommendations on this forum and it rocks now!! :)

[kaltag]

thanx guys i actually used the sun and microwave techniques along with a hairdryer. it still didn't go back to completely round but it helped. however when i installed all the tubing it flattened out and kinked all over so i had to use alot of elbow fittings in it. when money allows i'll get some tygon or clearflex.

p.s. where can i get those kinds of tubing the cheapest?

[Pcmod]

Where can I get clearFLEX tubing?

[masitti]

Originally posted by Pcmod
Where can I get clearFLEX tubing?

You can get it here... http://www.flextubing.com/ClearFLEX60.htm