Silicone Hose

SMSW

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I bought a Motion Pro aux fuel bottle for working on bikes when the gas tank is removed. It came with a 3' piece of black rubber(?) hose, but I'm going to add to that. I would like the extension hose to be transparent or translucent so I can see fuel in the hose.

Is Silicone hose safe for occasional use for regular pump gasoline? I've used vinyl in the past but after a couple of uses it gets hard and I end up throwing it away.
 
Occasional use maybe, but see below......

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One of the things we find gets asked often is can your silicone hoses for used for fuel? The simple answer is no, standard silicone hoses are porous and therefore not suitable for oil or fuel.Sept 1, 2021
 
SMSW said:
I bought a Motion Pro aux fuel bottle for working on bikes when the gas tank is removed. It came with a 3' piece of black rubber(?) hose, but I'm going to add to that. I would like the extension hose to be transparent or translucent so I can see fuel in the hose.

Is Silicone hose safe for occasional use for regular pump gasoline? I've used vinyl in the past but after a couple of uses it gets hard and I end up throwing it away.
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What if you got a length of rubber fuel safe hose and put a clear filter in the middle? You'd then have your extension, a clear sight area, and an added filter.

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Silicone hoses are used a lot for vent and vacuum hoses but not good to run fuel through. Gasoline will soften the silicone and cause it to swell.
 
What you are looking for is called Tygon, Google that and purchase the appropriate ID and length.
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Tygon is a brand name of a tubing manufacturer, not a type of tubing. Tygon also makes silicone tubing, which is not suitable for gasoline. Tygon makes very high quality tubing, but it still will need to be the correct type for gasoline.
 
Andrew Shadow said:
Tygon is a brand name of a tubing manufacturer, not a type of tubing. Tygon also makes silicone tubing, which is not suitable for gasoline. Tygon makes very high quality tubing, but it still will need to be the correct type for gasoline.
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Yeah, you are correct, but in 40+ years of messing with engines, I've never once heard it referred to as anything else. So search for "tygon fuel tubing", does that work better?
 
Andrew Shadow said:
Tygon is a brand name of a tubing manufacturer, not a type of tubing. Tygon also makes silicone tubing, which is not suitable for gasoline. Tygon makes very high quality tubing, but it still will need to be the correct type for gasoline.
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I cruised the Tygon website. They make a tubing that is fuel and oil safe and has 55 or 65 durometer hardness. I think that will work. I plan on using one of those lab type clamps to stop the fuel flow thru the tubing. I initially wanted silicone because it is flexible, soft and I thought it would not harden with use like the cheap vinyl tubing I use for brake flushing. And Mcmaster has one of their huge warehouses 20 minutes from where I live.....
 
rwthomas1 said:
Yeah, you are correct, but in 40+ years of messing with engines, I've never once heard it referred to as anything else. So search for "tygon fuel tubing", does that work better?
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For anyone familiar with Tygon, it isn't an issue. Not everyone is however. For those who are not, simply being advised to buy Tygon tubing could be misunderstood to mean that anything stamped Tygon is a fuel safe tubing. I was simply pointing out that that isn't the case, and that even if they did buy Tygon they need to get the right stuff.
 
Andrew Shadow said:
For anyone familiar with Tygon, it isn't an issue. Not everyone is however. For those who are not, simply being advised to buy Tygon tubing could be misunderstood to mean that anything stamped Tygon is a fuel safe tubing. I was simply pointing out that that isn't the case, and that even if they did buy Tygon they need to get the right stuff.
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I understand where you are coming from, Andrew, but I would hope anyone on this website* would think to cruise all the different Tygon hoses. It is also pretty evident when googling "Tygon hose" that its only a brand and they have a zillion different types. It didn't take long at all to find the fuel rated tubing.

*Perhaps naive of me, but I prefer to think folks are smarter rather than dumber.
 
SMSW said:
*Perhaps naive of me, but I prefer to think folks are smarter rather than dumber.
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Based on experience, with any dangerous substance like gasoline, I don't make that assumption.

It took me a few seconds to clarify the need to look for fuel rated tubing, be it Tygon or otherwise, which cost me nothing and could save an incident for someone reading this.
 
Andrew Shadow said:
Based on experience, with any dangerous substance like gasoline, I don't make that assumption.
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I started this thread because I did not know if silicone* tubing would handle gasoline. Speedbleeder website sells silicone tubing to bleed brakes, and I thought it might work for me - its soft and supremely flexible. However, I did not see any fuel ratings like for fuel line hose and decided to ask here. People do things I consider dangerous, like pipe compressed air with PVC pipe regardless of what others say. On one hand I agree with your approach, on the other, people have to take responsibility for what they do. That includes making sure the material they use fits the usage.

*I did not see any warning NOT to use this for gasoline. Had I researched it more, I probably would have found something. I took the easy way out...ask more knowledgeable folks here.
 
Clear fuel line for small engines like chain saws is easy to find. Larger diameter clear fuel line might be a little more difficult. I don't know, I have never looked for it. I would just buy a portable fuel line assembly that is sold for outboard boat motors like the below. They are clear, long, flexible, fuel rated, large enough inside diameter, easy to find and cheap. They are only $15.00 or $20.00. Marine supply stores might even sell the tubing off the roll as a replacement item.
 

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Andrew Shadow said:
Tygon is a brand name of a tubing manufacturer, not a type of tubing. Tygon also makes silicone tubing, which is not suitable for gasoline. Tygon makes very high quality tubing, but it still will need to be the correct type for gasoline.
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Interesting... I've been using Tygon tubing in semiconductor processing equipment for four decades. Never realized that there where different Tygon materials. Different physical dimensions sure, maybe even a color, but in my circles it was always expected to be the same clean-room grade, solvent resistant material which I would've certainly expected to tolerate petrol.

Probably because for our applications there was only one ... or appeared to us end users be only one ... material.
 
It might. Depends on the tubing I guess. Tygon has a whole range of tubing, and specialty tubing for stuff that I don't even know what it is. They have many that are recommended for many different chemicals, and they have many that they do not recommend at all for various chemicals including gasoline.
 
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