Blower Hose

It is time to replace the blower hoses. The old stuff appears to be dryer hose that you would use for your clothes dryer at home. Do you recommend stepping up to the pay window at our local Marine supply store or can I just use dryer hose? In addition, the old hose was just attached to the blower with zip ties. Should I use SS hose clamps intead? Thanks for the help.

Duh!

This is such a great site. I searched for Blower Hose and answered my own question. However, I would still like to know the best way to attatch the hoses. Thanks.

The zip ties will do the job quite nicely.

Thanks Paul! Zip ties it is.

Zip ties will work fine, but I'd use big hose clamps if you can get them. They're removable.

Al Hose

I never really finished the writeup on my stbd sail locker rebuild. I replaced the old hose that was punctured in many places and had been torn (during mounting?) w/ 3" Aluminum hose. Now I know the hose won't be compressed or punctured easily. Fits nicely behind the 'wall' and the airflow is amazing. I am sucking hot air out of the engine room. Other discussions about the value of this exist but I just decided to do it. Less smell onboard when the engine is running.

Engine Smell

If your goal is to reduce engine smell while underway, one modification you might consider is to re-route your crankcase breather tube to the side of your air intake. The fumes from the positive pressure and blow-by from our engine were pretty bad, and the cabin smelled terribly whenever we ran the engine for more than a few minutes (which was way more than we should have when cruising). This modification completely eliminated the engine odor in the cabin.

While I have read about many other folks doing this, I have also read that some do not recommend it as it can mess up the pressure inside the engine. I had about 600 hours of operation that way with no concern, but I still don't know whether it is really safe - though it is effective.