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Old 12-25-2015, 03:56 PM   #3
Foot Stomper
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Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 1,252
Re: Air hose size for painting

The 3/8' hose is fine. The length can be a problem. For a dramatic example, imagine a 500' foot 3/8 hose and trying to push or pull air out of it compared to a 2 foot 3/8 hose. The change is dramatic. And as dfwright mentions above, use high flow fittings for all your tools.

To this end, try to use as short a hose a possible for three reasons; 1) more air volume to use at your discretion 2) more air pressure to use at your discretion 3) less hose is far easier to manage while spraying. Coils in excess hose like to uncoil into freshly painted doors, kink up against the back side of a tire and cut off supply plus restrict your air supply.

Background:
While in the warehouse distribution business of body shop supplies in Canada, I learned dealing with USA suppliers/manufacturers that nobody offered a 35' "booth hose" that are almost exclusivity used in Canada. Nobody in Canada uses a 50' air hose in the booth if given the choice to use a 35'. We even went so far as request (from new super flexible hose manufactures) 35' custom hoses from USA suppliers and were asked "Why 35?!?'".... Now you know why too! 25's are too short and 50's are too long. We only sold 35' air hoses for the booth unless it was a truck shop or other large booth requirement. This particular manufacturer found it to be such a good seller, they now list it in their regular catalogue and offer it in the USA. I don't want to advertise for them, but PM me if you really need to know who I am talking about.
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Last edited by Foot Stomper; 12-25-2015 at 04:17 PM.
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