BluBird Rubber Hoses

[rishavrastogi]

Hi All,

Just wanted to put the word out there for the new hose range we are launching. It's called the BluBird. Made in Rubber, it is almost 40% lighter than the traditional rubber hoses (with the same dimensions) and around 30% lighter than the Goodyear hoses.

Also, it exceeds (easily, in fact) the RMA IP-2, has probably the best cold-weather flexibility in class (Flexilla etc. don't crack maybe, but this remains much more flexible), has great ozone resistance and comes with a 10 year warranty.

For more information, you can visit: www.thebluehose.com and watch the video:

It is already on shelves at Menards and will be elsewhere as well, very soon. We are currently developing a distribution network in the US (already have a couple there, but any help/suggestions will be appreciated).

Also, since we do have some stock there, I'd like some (okay, say five) of you to test various products and provide feedback. If interested, please mail us at [email protected] and we can take it forward.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

 

[Loscaldazar]

-50F would be a huge plus for those of us that work up in the frozen north!

 

[rishavrastogi]

Yes! In the video, you see it at - 34 after 3 days. It had actually been around 15 for this piece (but 3 for the competition, so).
Rubber, especially a polymer rich hose like this, does great in cold. As told in the video, this is as flexible at - 30f as the Flexilla is at 0F.
Much better than the usual rubber hoses too. I know I'm bragging, but it's true.

 

[CNGsaves]

Sounds very promising.

Any love you can send GJ way in form of "Group Buy" or discount at retailers like Menards ??

I'd be interested in a couple 50' hoses to "test market" for ya !!

 

[rishavrastogi]

Hi,

BluBird is being retailed at Menards as of now. And they're offering huge discounts (50%) till the end of this month.

And as soon as we've some good stock in our own warehouses in the US (it's there, just not up for b-to-c sales yet), we'll have offers here at GJ as well.

About testing, let's talk on mail. You seem to be our final beta tester.
[email protected]

 

[Loscaldazar]

On sale through 11/30/14. Might see if they will combine it with a rebate or something that pops up.... $14.99 for 50 feet (and I need an air hose).

http://www.menards.com/main/p-2430300-c-12914.htm

I also see your US address is in MN! You are about 30 minutes away from me!

 

[pault28]

I can't quite tell from the picture from the Menards website. I'm wondering if these have brass ends or not. I can't tell if it is a black plastic end or if it is brass with a black plastic cap to not ****** up the threads. I will buy one if is has brass ends.

 

[rishavrastogi]

@Loscaldazar: Yes, we are! That's our main warehouse there! And go grab it at Menards! The sale price has surprised (and to an exten shocked ) even us.

@pault28: All our hoses (except the Jackhammer ones) have brass ends. This one has 1/4" Brass NPT. You're correct about the black plastic thread protector.
So, now that it has the brass ends, please go ahead and use it! And let us know what you like and more importantly not like (only way we make it even better) at
[email protected]

 

[pault28]

@Loscaldazar: Yes, we are! That's our main warehouse there! And go grab it at Menards! The sale price has surprised (and to an exten shocked ) even us.

@pault28: All our hoses (except the Jackhammer ones) have brass ends. This one has 1/4" Brass NPT. You're correct about the black plastic thread protector.
So, now that it has the brass ends, please go ahead and use it! And let us know what you like and more importantly not like (only way we make it even better) at
[email protected]

I'll buy one tomorrow. I currently use a flexzilla which I'm pretty happy with. If this one is better I'll be even happier. For 15 bucks on sale at Menards I can't go wrong.

 

[rishavrastogi]

Great, pault28!
Let us know what you feel about it at [email protected]

Thanks!

 

[bonneyman]

Good low temp specs, but what about high temp specs? In the desert Southwest we don't deal with below zero much but air temps can reach 112, and roof temps can be over 120. We've got hoses stored in steaming truck cabs and hanging on the house in full sunlight. Plus dragging a hose over hot pavement and draping them across cooking roofs are common place.
And alot of guys don't drain their hoses after each use. So, water gets hot - expands - and hoses weaken and/or burst.

I use the Sears Craftsman heavy-duty hoses, black rubber with a hexagonal profile. They seem to hold up well and don't kink. But are HEAVY! So your product has an appeal.

 

[rishavrastogi]

Good low temp specs, but what about high temp specs? In the desert Southwest we don't deal with below zero much but air temps can reach 112, and roof temps can be over 120. We've got hoses stored in steaming truck cabs and hanging on the house in full sunlight. Plus dragging a hose over hot pavement and draping them across cooking roofs are common place.
And alot of guys don't drain their hoses after each use. So, water gets hot - expands - and hoses weaken and/or burst.

I use the Sears Craftsman heavy-duty hoses, black rubber with a hexagonal profile. They seem to hold up well and don't kink. But are HEAVY! So your product has an appeal.

Hi. The base polymer of these hoses is EPDM and since they're so rubber-rich, they'll perform extremely well in high-temperatures. It's similar to the construction used for steam hoses, so you can imagine. EPDM is also used for hot-water hoses.

We do a test called natural weathering. In India, we get the temperatures you are talking about. What we do is put to hoses on the roof and test them after each month - tensile, elongation (overall aging), pressure etc. - and the BluBird hoses have held up extremely well after 7 months of testing (continuous exposure to heat, cold, rain, sun etc.). The test will still go on.

We also test it at 180F too. Water at 180F flows through it for 4 days and then we burst-pressure test it. It performs as good as it does at normal temperatures. Much better than hybrid hoses.

And yes, we have the hexagonal finish as well for water hoses and that helps avoid kinks. And our hoses will be much lighter than anything you've used.
Craftsman are really nice products too though and were one of our benchmarks.

 

[HAP]

Ordered one yesteray.

 

[rishavrastogi]

Ordered one yesteray.

Great! Let us know what you think.
[email protected]

 

[The Cobbler]

I would be interested in testing a length as well

 

[rishavrastogi]

I would be interested in testing a length as well

Hi. Well, we've reached our limit of beta sample giveaways, which was five, unfortunately we won't be able to do that as of now. I hope you understand that we have to draw a line when it comes to something like this.

We'll do it again and you'll know about it.

If you want it sooner, I'd suggest checking it out here:
http://www.menards.com/main/p-2430300-c-12914.htm
It's a steal at that price.

Thanks!

 

[wild cowboy]

Good low temp specs, but what about high temp specs? In the desert Southwest we don't deal with below zero much but air temps can reach 112, and roof temps can be over 120. We've got hoses stored in steaming truck cabs and hanging on the house in full sunlight. Plus dragging a hose over hot pavement and draping them across cooking roofs are common place.
And alot of guys don't drain their hoses after each use. So, water gets hot - expands - and hoses weaken and/or burst.

Not sure where you are in the Southwest, but at my old shop in Surprise, Arizona, temp hit 130+ on multiple occasions, for example, in 1995

I have to say I am a bit skeptical about made in India, the only things I have seen made well over there are food & ******!

 

[rishavrastogi]

Ha, well. I can't say your skepticism is not well founded; but, you know, things change. And rubber formulations aren't much different than food recipes anyway And like with food, can't tell till you smell. So, try it!
All I can say is our claims are well founded as well.

 

[bonneyman]

Hi. The base polymer of these hoses is EPDM and since they're so rubber-rich, they'll perform extremely well in high-temperatures. It's similar to the construction used for steam hoses, so you can imagine. EPDM is also used for hot-water hoses.

We do a test called natural weathering. In India, we get the temperatures you are talking about. What we do is put to hoses on the roof and test them after each month - tensile, elongation (overall aging), pressure etc. - and the BluBird hoses have held up extremely well after 7 months of testing (continuous exposure to heat, cold, rain, sun etc.). The test will still go on.

We also test it at 180F too. Water at 180F flows through it for 4 days and then we burst-pressure test it. It performs as good as it does at normal temperatures. Much better than hybrid hoses.

And yes, we have the hexagonal finish as well for water hoses and that helps avoid kinks. And our hoses will be much lighter than anything you've used.
Craftsman are really nice products too though and were one of our benchmarks.

Thanks for the info!

 

[bear5759]

Hi. Well, we've reached our limit of beta sample giveaways, which was five, unfortunately we won't be able to do that as of now. I hope you understand that we have to draw a line when it comes to something like this.

We'll do it again and you'll know about it.

If you want it sooner, I'd suggest checking it out here:
http://www.menards.com/main/p-2430300-c-12914.htm
It's a steal at that price.

Thanks!

Ordered 2. Hope they're as good in cold weather as claimed.

 

[nic6paul]

I was in need of a hose so I picked one of these up at Menards last night. They were not marked $14.99 but rang up at that price. I have not used it yet but they seem nice. The price was right.

 

[justme-]

I'm skeptical of things made in India as well... quality of workmanship is not something India is known for in the global market. Rubber recipes may be absolute, but attention to detail by workers will alter that. Maybe you keep all the quality made products domestically and this is the first exported item of quality? I've handled enough metal items made there with terrible quality... and assembling a knife or grinding an edge on it is not tough stuff.

I'm open minded to try it out if I happens that I can... if it's good enough could be something to replace the hoses in our shop and our rental dept including our jack hammer hoses. Dissapointing you are introducing the product and only allotted 5 samples tho. We don't necessarily need 25 foot long hoses...1 foot would tell most of us everything we need to know with some time to test it out...and without connectors on it would be fine as well, which would let us test repairability in the field.

FWIW, you need to be advertising to industry, not just dropping your name here and get setup with some larger distribution channel than Menards. As large as they are (to members here) they are nothing in the scheme of things since 90% of the country has never heard of them and has none nearby.

Get some real way people can buy them - online store direct if need be - and get ads to the people who will be using the product.

 

[The Cobbler]

I'm skeptical of things made in India as well... quality of workmanship is not something India is known for in the global market. Rubber recipes may be absolute, but attention to detail by workers will alter that. Maybe you keep all the quality made products domestically and this is the first exported item of quality? I've handled enough metal items made there with terrible quality... and assembling a knife or grinding an edge on it is not tough stuff.

I'm open minded to try it out if I happens that I can... if it's good enough could be something to replace the hoses in our shop and our rental dept including our jack hammer hoses. Dissapointing you are introducing the product and only allotted 5 samples tho. We don't necessarily need 25 foot long hoses...1 foot would tell most of us everything we need to know with some time to test it out...and without connectors on it would be fine as well, which would let us test repairability in the field.

FWIW, you need to be advertising to industry, not just dropping your name here and get setup with some larger distribution channel than Menards. As large as they are (to members here) they are nothing in the scheme of things since 90% of the country has never heard of them and has none nearby.

Get some real way people can buy them - online store direct if need be - and get ads to the people who will be using the product.

I echo these comments

 

[jptbay]

I'd love to try some, and a hose reel too, but Menards won't ship these, and the closest one is 3 hours away.

 

[CNGsaves]

I'd love to try some, and a hose reel too, but Menards won't ship these, and the closest one is 3 hours away.

Update your GJ Profile with City / State and you might get some GJ love from fellow GJer to help you out !!

 

[fivespdcat]

Goodyear hoses for $25 or questionable brand/quality for $15? I'll pay the $10 extra and stick with goodyear. Throwing some hoses on a roof is not a validation plan, that's like building one car and saying it works. Testing requires controlled environments and extremes, while India is hot, where is your cold weather data? Thermal cycling? Pressure cycling? Burst pressure? Quality control? Bending resistance? Not trying to beat you up too bad, but there are established brands, with high level of services for excellent prices and coming in with a sale price that is a few dollars below the best competitor is a hard sale for me.

 

[jptbay]

Update your GJ Profile with City / State and you might get some GJ love from fellow GJer to help you out !!

Worth a shot, I guess!

 

[Loscaldazar]

Goodyear hoses for $25 or questionable brand/quality for $15? I'll pay the $10 extra and stick with goodyear. Throwing some hoses on a roof is not a validation plan, that's like building one car and saying it works. Testing requires controlled environments and extremes, while India is hot, where is your cold weather data? Thermal cycling? Pressure cycling? Burst pressure? Quality control? Bending resistance? Not trying to beat you up too bad, but there are established brands, with high level of services for excellent prices and coming in with a sale price that is a few dollars below the best competitor is a hard sale for me.

To be fair, the goodyear hose for $25 is only 25 feet, while the bluebird hose is 50ft.

It was also stated that they pressure test each hose they make to 300PSI before it ships out.

I'll also say that I picked up one and they seem to be well made- crimping done well, also had no problem with leaks when running 125 PSI through it. Long term will be the real test of course!

 

[fivespdcat]

To be fair, the goodyear hose for $25 is only 25 feet, while the bluebird hose is 50ft.

It was also stated that they pressure test each hose they make to 300PSI before it ships out.

I'll also say that I picked up one and they seem to be well made- crimping done well, also had no problem with leaks when running 125 PSI through it. Long term will be the real test of course!

50 foot 250 PSI Goodyear for $23 shipped prime:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0038M4ZMQ/ref=twister_B00FVUF9SW?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[bob_the_builder]

Any dealers in Canada? I am looking for a 5/8 x 100' garden hose. I was going to by a custom made goodyear one but maybe make sense to try out a BluBird.

bob

 

[fivespdcat]

Any dealers in Canada? I am looking for a 5/8 x 100' garden hose. I was going to by a custom made goodyear one but maybe make sense to try out a BluBird.

bob

These are air hoses, but not sure if the Sears Canada carries them, if they do get a craftsman USA made black garden hose. They're awesome and always seem to be on sale for $20.

 

[CNGsaves]

Hi,

BluBird is being retailed at Menards as of now. And they're offering huge discounts (50%) till the end of this month.

And as soon as we've some good stock in our own warehouses in the US (it's there, just not up for b-to-c sales yet), we'll have offers here at GJ as well.

About testing, let's talk on mail. You seem to be our final beta tester.
[email protected]

Thanks Rish !!

Sent you an email.

 

[CNGsaves]

FOLLOW-UP: Received 2 hoses for beta testing today 11/26/14. Delivered direct from India by DHL !! Thanks again Rish !

Package sitting on cold porch so unpacked in house and tight coils came right out immediately. Hoses flexible and did not retain their compact shape of packaging - - thus, they rolled out straight as they should. Each end has protector to safeguard the fitting, much like Flexzilla. Bluebirds had new smell of rubber hose. Hoses are lighter weight than 100% rubber. The Bluebirds are nice.

Look forward to checking out product in cold weather for upcoming roofing job.

 

[rishavrastogi]

Hi!

Sorry, I didn't notice we'd gone two pages long! Hence my lack of replies.
See, I know the skepticism about made in India, but we are trying our best to get you the best, and consistently so, general purpose air hoses on the market.

Throwing on the roof is just one uncontrolled environment (which too is needed, I think) test we do. Apart from that, we have the regular burst pressure testing, flex testing. About the cold-weather, we've a test report from Akron Labs as well as a reputed company (can't disclose) in the US. The latter shows that BluBird is much more flexible than Flexillas and the Goodyears in cold-weather.
And yes, we test each coil till 400PSI (more than its max. WP of 300) before we dispatch. Apart from these, there are accelerated aging, tensile, elongation tests (all according to ASTM methods) and all only validate BluBird's superiority above the other hoses.
Of course, there will be scope to improve and that's why we sent samples for feedback (which by the way has been really good. I'll let those members share their experience here though).

Also, we've just started with Menards. We were there at the STAFDA show this year to find distributors and reps for this. The response was good and we hope to get it to many retail outlets soon.

And this is not our first export. We've been selling rubber hoses in the US for the last 15 years now. You find hoses made by us (not in our brands till now) at many big box retailers as well as two of the big 4 industrial suppliers.

But the BluBird is our first high-end product.

The water hoses will be available soon. In Canada, we are started with Princess Auto who will have these soon. We were already doing business with both Menards and Princess Auto and hence they are two of the first retailers.

Apache Hose and Belting is one of the major distributors we have and can be contacted for any suppliers. More information on our website - www.thebluehose.com

Thanks!

 

[HAP]

First impressions of the BluBird air hose I bought; I hate the black plastic grab/wear pieces on each end. Rubber would have been a better choice or, leave them off...

R,
HAP

 

[Loscaldazar]

I really like my blubird air hose. Up in the frozen north it has been performing admirably. As I keep saying though, time will ultimately tell.

 

[92integra]

be nice to see you guy's come out with hose whip that would be sweet!

 

[rishavrastogi]

First impressions of the BluBird air hose I bought; I hate the black plastic grab/wear pieces on each end. Rubber would have been a better choice or, leave them off...

R,
HAP

Hi,

We accept that issue with the bend-restrictors not being great quality. However, we've fixed that issue and their quality on the hoses going out of our unit now is substantially better. We will look into rubber possibilities too. Didn't till now because of the price bump they'll bring.

Also, the thread protectors have been improved as well.

Thank you for the feedback though. It only helps.

 

[rishavrastogi]

be nice to see you guy's come out with hose whip that would be sweet!

We'll be out with those soon! Also, the hose reels will be on shelves soon too.
The most exciting one though, I feel, is the jackhammer hose. The weight advantage is magnified in that size and it's super strong too. Should change many things when it comes out in the market.

 

[rishavrastogi]

FOLLOW-UP: Received 2 hoses for beta testing today 11/26/14. Delivered direct from India by DHL !! Thanks again Rish !

Package sitting on cold porch so unpacked in house and tight coils came right out immediately. Hoses flexible and did not retain their compact shape of packaging - - thus, they rolled out straight as they should. Each end has protector to safeguard the fitting, much like Flexzilla. Bluebirds had new smell of rubber hose. Hoses are lighter weight than 100% rubber. The Bluebirds are nice.

Look forward to checking out product in cold weather for upcoming roofing job.

Thank you for the feedback. Would just like to point that the BluBird is still "100% rubber" - by which we mean it's no pvc or hybrid. As rubber, if not more, than the Goodyear rubber hoses. There is carbon, chemicals, curatives etc. though of course so a hose will never will 100% rubber - technically.

Anyway, hope you enjoy it!