If you’ve ever stood in a parts warehouse, staring at a rack of plain, unmarked rubber hoses (that’s our “Other Hoses” line, for the uninitiated), you know that hardness isn’t just a random number stamped on a spec sheet. It’s the quiet decision that makes a hose work for your pump, your process, or even the tight space you’re trying to fit it into. As someone who’s spent the last 12 years sourcing and supplying these workhorse hoses to small manufacturers, construction crews, and food processing facilities, I’ve seen what happens when someone grabs a hose that’s too soft for the job, or too stiff to make sense. Today, I want to walk you through how to pick the right hardness—no confusing jargon, just the stuff I’ve learned from standing right where you are. Other Hoses
First, let’s talk about what “hose hardness” actually means, because I swear, most people mix this up with a shoe’s hardness or a rubber eraser’s. We measure it with a durometer, a small tool that presses a tiny point into the hose’s surface and gives a reading on a scale from 0 to 100. The scale most people use for hoses is the Shore A scale, which is for softer, more flexible rubbers, and Shore D, which is for stiffer, harder materials. For our Other Hoses line, 99% of what we supply falls between 40 Shore A and 85 Shore D, so that’s the range we’re focusing on here. A common mistake I see is assuming “higher number = better.” That’s not true. A Shore 85 hose is amazing for moving heavy, abrasive gravel at a construction site, but it’ll crack if you try to bend it around a 90-degree pump inlet, something a Shore 55 hose would handle like a dream.
Let’s start with the most important factor to weigh first: what’s the hose going to be moving, and what conditions is it working in? I always tell customers to break this into three parts: the fluid inside, the environment outside, and the pressure it has to hold. Each of these interacts with hardness in a way that’s non-negotiable. If your hose is moving something heavy and abrasive—think sand, concrete slurry, or metal shavings, like a lot of our construction and mining customers deal with—you want a harder hose. Abrasive materials wear away at rubber like sandpaper, and a softer hose will develop tiny grooves and tears in days, not weeks. I once had a small construction company come to me two years ago, complaining that their regular garden-variety hose wore out in three days when they were trenching for a new sewer line. They’d grabbed a Shore 50 hose, which is super flexible and cheap, but it was no match for the sharp sand and gravel they were moving. We swapped them to a Shore 70 Other Hose, and that same hose lasted their entire 6-week project with only minor scuffing. That’s the difference hardness makes.
On the flip side, if you’re moving something that’s not abrasive, or if your hose has to bend a lot—say, it’s part of a portable water pump for a job site, or it connects to a kitchen sink’s sprayer, or it’s routed around a tight corner in a manufacturing machine—softer is better, up to a point. A Shore 50 to Shore 60 hose is flexible enough to twist, coil, and fit into tight spaces without kinking, which is a huge win for anything that needs to be moved or adjusted regularly. I remember a food processing customer last year who was having issues with their ingredient transfer hoses: their old Shore 65 hoses were too stiff, so every time their line operator had to clean the machine, they’d have to cut and reattach the hose because it wouldn’t bend to reach the drain. We recommended Shore 55 Other Hoses for that application, and they told me later that they cut hose waste by 40% in the first month alone. The key here is: flexibility needs will almost always trump abrasion resistance, but only if the fluid or pressure doesn’t require hardness to hold up.
Next up, pressure. This is where I see the most expensive mistakes happen. Hoses have a pressure rating, and that rating is directly tied to their hardness. A very soft, flexible hose won’t hold pressure well because the rubber can stretch too much under load. If you’re moving anything under pressure—air, pressurized water, chemical blends, or hydraulic fluid—you need a hardness that’s firm enough to resist bulging. For low-pressure applications (under 100 PSI), like a garden hose or a vent line, Shore 45 to Shore 55 is perfect. But for medium pressure (100 to 300 PSI), like sprayers, small power tools, or process lines, go up to Shore 60 to Shore 70. High-pressure applications, like hydraulic hoses for construction equipment or pressure washers, need Shore 75 to Shore 85 hoses, because those won’t bulge or burst under that kind of force. A customer of mine who runs a pressure washing business learned this the hard way: they used a cheap, flexible Shore 50 hose for their hot water pressure washer, and it burst mid-clean on a residential driveway, soaking their van and the customer’s new deck. Swapping to a Shore 70 Other Hose fixed that problem immediately, and they haven’t had a pressure burst in 18 months now. Hardness isn’t just for wear—it’s for safety, too.
Wait, but what about temperature? That’s another big one that people forget. Rubber gets softer when it’s hot and stiffer when it’s cold, so the hardness rating we print on the spec sheet is at room temperature (73 degrees Fahrenheit, to be exact). If your hose is going to be working in extreme cold—say, -20 degrees Fahrenheit for a winter construction project, or a cold storage facility—you need to adjust for that. A Shore 60 hose that’s flexible at room temperature will get stiff and brittle at -20, and it’ll crack when you bend it. For cold environments, I recommend going 5 to 10 Shore points harder than you’d pick for room temperature work, because the cold will soften the relative hardness. On the other end, if you’re working in high heat, like a furnace exhaust line or a hot oil transfer, rubber can soften a lot as it heats up. So for high heat, go 5 to 10 points harder than normal, because the heat will make the hose feel softer than its spec. I once had a bakery come to me with hoses for their oil transfer line that kept melting after a week, because they’d picked a Shore 60 hose for 180-degree oil, but that Shore 60 softens to almost Shore 40 at that temperature. Swapping to Shore 65 fixed that, no more melting.
There’s also a middle ground for applications where you have both flexibility and abrasion needs. A lot of our agricultural customers deal with this: they need a hose that can bend to attach to a tractor, move fertilizer that’s slightly abrasive, and hold up to sun and rain. For that, we usually recommend Shore 60 to Shore 65 hoses. They’re flexible enough to coil and bend around equipment, but they’re firm enough to resist scratching from fertilizer granules and hold up to the pressure of a sprayer. I keep a set of spec cards in my pocket for these exact scenarios, because it’s easy to overthink: if you’re not moving rock, and not working at 200 PSI, don’t go harder than Shore 65, because you’ll pay for extra stiffness you don’t need.
Now, let’s talk about the common mistakes I see people make, because even with all this, it’s easy to grab the wrong hose. First, buying the cheapest hose. 9 times out of 10, the cheapest Other Hose on the rack is a Shore 50 that’s been formulated to feel soft, but its material is low-grade, so it won’t hold up to pressure or wear, even for a low-demand job. Second, assuming all hardness scales are the same. We use Shore A for all our flexible and semi-rigid hoses, but some suppliers use Shore D for similar hardness levels, so always double-check the scale when comparing specs. A Shore 70 D is way harder than a Shore 70 A, and that’s a mix-up that’ll break your hose faster than anything. Third, not testing before you buy. We always encourage customers to buy a 1-foot sample of the hose they think they need before placing a full order, so they can test its flexibility, see how it handles their fluid, and make sure it fits their application. Last year, a small machine shop was ordering 500 feet of Shore 65 hoses for their coolant lines, but when they tested a sample, they realized it was too stiff to fit through the tight routing in their machine. We swapped them to Shore 60, and that sample fit perfectly, so they didn’t waste thousands of feet on the wrong product.
At the end of the day, choosing the right hardness for an Other Hose isn’t about picking the highest number or the cheapest option. It’s about matching the hose to what it’s going to do: if it’s for moving abrasive material, go harder; if it’s for bending and fitting, go softer; if it’s under pressure, bump that hardness up a little. Temperature and environment matter, too—always adjust for where your hose is working, not just what it’s moving. If you’re still not sure, or if you have a unique application that doesn’t fit these general guidelines, don’t guess. We’ve been supplying these hoses for over a decade, and we’ve probably worked on something similar to your job. We’re here to help you test samples, adjust specs, and find the right hose that won’t wear out in a week, or break in the middle of a project. Whether you’re a small business owner needing a few hoses or a big manufacturer looking for bulk orders, we can work together to make sure you’re getting exactly what you need. For more information or to discuss your specific requirements, feel free to reach out to our team to start a conversation about your hose needs.
Other Hoses References
- Rubber Association of America. (2019). Durometer Hardness Testing for Rubber Hose: Best Practices for Industrial Applications.
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). (2021). Hose Safety Guidelines for Pressure and Abrasive Material Handling.
- Plastics Industry Association. (2020). Shore Hardness Scales and Their Application in Industrial Hose Manufacturing.
Taizhou Yuanying Plastic Technology Co., Ltd.
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