At 11:51 PM 1/3/2006, Peggie Hall wrote:

>Not much. The original SeaLand "OdorSafe" hose
>was SeaLand's private label brand name for
>AVS96, made by Australian Global
>Services...proven in independent testing to be
>at least 16x more resistant to odor permeation
>than any other hose in the world. However,
>shortly after Dometic—a European mfr who
>specializes primarily in RV equipment--acquired
>SeaLand from N.A. Taylor, SeaLand switched to an
>Italian hose mfr whose hose didn't even come
>close to the permeation resistance of AVS 96 in
>the aforementioned tests...SeaLand calls the
>Italian hose "OdorSafe Plus." They don't promote
>it...in fact, now recommend hard pipe for some
>installations and even sell fittings to connect hose to hard pipe now.
>
>Meanwhile, AussieGlobe
>http://www.aussieglobe.com/avs96.htm is now
>selling their AVS96 hose direct here in the
>US--and for a LOT less than SeaLand charged for
>it, or for their new OdorsafePlus...$5.50/ft,
>cut to any length vs. nearly $9/ft for SeaLand in min. 50' coils.

I have written to SeaLand asking them about
this. This is their response. In their
attachment, they included a Practical Sailor
article concerning an test developed by
SeaLand. That article does not refer to any
other pvc type white hoses except the
Odorsafe. Here is the response of Dometic
(Sealand) which I am posting with their
permission and which follows. I asked Dometic to
comment on the various negative comments on
sailing lists as to the Australian hose. I
suggested that they google "Odorsafe Italian Dometic".

I guess it is time for Practical Sailor to do another article.


Alan



Dear Mr. Sugarman:

It is unclear why your request information on our
OdorSafe Plus hose ended up in our Italian
colleague's hands. For your information, our
site is www.dometicusa.com. The domtic.se site
leads to our corporate office in Stockholm. We
are in the midst of restructuring the global
Dometic site to be more user friendly. I apologize for the inconvenience.

In any event, I will respond to your
inquiry. In the way of background, testing for
permeation rates of flexible hose was developed
here at our facility in Big Prairie, Ohio. We
began a project to understand the cause of hose
odor permeation on boats several years ago. It
was apparent that a test method for determining
the resistance of a hose to permeation by various
gases (generated by decomposing waste material )
did not exist and we developed one to as a means
to compare various hose materials. I have
included a copy of an older article from
Practical Sailor magazine that will provide some
background on our hose test methodology.

With our newest version of OdorSafe Plus hose, we
did test the new hose formulation against our
current OdorSafe hose and it did indeed exhibit a
20% improvement in resistance to odor
permeation. These tests were performed in our
own facility and are comparative between our
former OdorSafe hose manufactured in Australia
and the new OdorSafe Plus manufactured in Italy.

In my opinion, the correct hose is only a partial
answer to avoiding hose odor
permeation. Eliminating unnecessary valves and
hose runs which retain standing sewage are even
more important. I have attached a few Powerpoint
slides that may be of further value. If I can be
of further assistance, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Ed McKiernan, President
Dometic Corp. - Sanitation Systems
Big Prairie, Ohio, USA
Tel: 330 496 3211
Fax: 330 496 3220
Email: ed.mckiernan@dometicusa.com


<file://j:\eudora~2\attach\Practical%20Sailor%208%20Way%20Hose%20Test.pdf>
Practical Sailor 8 Way Hose Test.pdf
<file://j:\eudora~2\attach\Practical%20Sailor%208%20Way%20Hose%20Test.pdf>=
 
Practical Sailor 8 Way Hose Test.pdf

<file://j:\eudora~2\attach\HOSE%20ODOR%20PERMEATION%2001106.ppt>
HOSE ODOR PERMEATION 01106.ppt
<file://j:\eudora~2\attach\HOSE%20ODOR%20PERMEATION%2001106.ppt>
HOSE ODOR PERMEATION 01106.ppt

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