PVC, PU or Silicone: A Buyer's Map of What We Actually Extrude
Three material names appear in almost every hose enquiry, and they are not interchangeable. Here is what each one is for, in the terms a factory actually uses when it decides which line to run.
What is in the catalogue
Our PVC range covers steel wire hose, braided reinforced hose, transparent clear hose, garden hose, air hose, suction hose and discharged hose, in both food-grade and industrial-grade constructions. The PU and silicone range covers transparent, braided, steel wire and air versions of each. Since 2019 we also produce rubber sheet products: stud sheet, CR, SBR, NBR and EPDM sheet, silicone rubber sheet, EPDM foam sheet, NBR solid cord, PVC transparent sheet and PU solid sheet.
That is a wide catalogue, and the useful question is not which material is best. It is which material is correct for one job.
The division of labour
| Material | Where it wins | Where it is the wrong choice |
|---|---|---|
| PVC | General transfer, water, air, suction and discharge; transparent food-grade constructions; the widest size range and the lowest cost per metre | Hot service, and anything needing high abrasion resistance or resistance to aggressive solvents |
| PU | Light, flexible air lines; abrasion resistance; good clarity; coils tightly without taking a set | Heavy suction duty, and hot or high-pressure service beyond its rating |
| Silicone | Flexibility that has to survive temperature; surfaces that must stay soft and non-marking | Pressure duty, abrasive slurry, and any application where cost per metre dominates |
Three enquiries that usually pick the wrong material
A garden hose asked to do farm work. PVC garden hose is built for domestic pressure and sunlight. Dragged daily behind a pump, it wears through at the same spot within a season. The correct answer is usually a layflat or a heavier agricultural construction, not a thicker garden hose.
A PU air line asked to handle suction. PU is excellent at pressure and abrasion, and poor at resisting collapse. Under vacuum it flattens. This is one of the most common mismatches in small-equipment workshops.
A silicone hose bought for pressure. Silicone buys temperature and flexibility, not burst strength. When a buyer substitutes it for a reinforced PVC pressure hose, the failure is usually at the wall rather than at the coupling.
How to enquire so you get the right answer first time
- Medium: water, air, powder, chemical, food — and its concentration if relevant.
- Pressure or vacuum, with the working value and whether it is steady or cycling.
- Temperature: the working temperature, and the cleaning temperature if the hose is washed in place.
- Movement: fixed run, dragged, coiled on a reel, or flexed continuously.
- Environment: indoors, outdoors, UV, oil mist, abrasion from the ground.
Five lines of information is enough for a factory to propose a construction. A material name alone is not, which is why so many first quotations come back wrong and get compared on price anyway.
Send the five lines above and we will tell you which material family we would run it on — and which one we would not.
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