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I'd like to shorten a Hansgrohe Techniflex hose. The spot that the pipe nipple comes out of the wall is too low and the handshower can hit the tile.

Here's a pic. I already broke one hand shower this way.

hose too long

The Techniflex hose is a silver flexible hose that has been great, no kinks, flexible, no uneven surfaces to gunk up.

The fitting on the end is shown in the attached pics. It's clearly a brass piece that fits into the cut hose end, with a collar crimped to hold it in place. The od of the hose is a hair under 5/8 inch (I don't know the id). The crimped collar is 35/64 final dimension (aka 0.546 decimal inches).

Anyone recognize this setup? I think I can get the brass insert out by cutting the crimped collar, and I'm wondering whether a PEX crimper could secure it (after cutting the hose). Looks like it is a stainless steel ring.

I'm thinking maybe it is a "stainless steel press sleeve" like Viega or Apollo make? I guess this might be the 1/2 nominal size?

Techniflex crimped collar show crimped size

Techniflex crimper collar

Threaded end

Maybe this:

Apollo sleave crimped

isherwood
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jameshowison
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    A decent suction cup (or ceiling mount, depending what you've got) hook to hold the hose a bit higher seems much less likely to cause grief than attempting to re-crimp a hose where you probably can't source the correct crimp sleeve and crimper and are attempting to hack it with what you can get. – Ecnerwal Apr 21 '23 at 16:37
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    Those press fittings usually require special(expensive) equipment. If they are like hydraulic hose fittings, they require high pressure. Most pex fittings leave a bump/ridge and are not smooth for skin. – crip659 Apr 21 '23 at 17:54
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    Very unwise to do such a thing, but I must admit I do not understand the problem you are have with this handheld shower. – Jim Stewart Apr 21 '23 at 21:06
  • @JimStewart the hose is too long, so the handheld unit hits the floor if it's dropped. You know, things in the shower can get slippery. – Huesmann Apr 22 '23 at 13:54
  • I don't drop mine, but if I would drop it, it would strike the rubber (now PVC) non-slip mat in the tub/shower I use. I wash our 25 lb dog in the tub and benefit from the length of the hose to wash the underside of the dog. But if the length bothers you, the best solution would be the stick-on hook proposed in the comment by @Ecnerwal. – Jim Stewart Apr 22 '23 at 15:50

2 Answers2

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Instead of trying to re-crimp an end, remove as much as you want from the middle and reconnect the two pieces with a barbed connector.

enter image description here

They come in various materials and colors, and with or without a central flange as in this picture.

jay613
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  • For what it's worth, this makes a ton of sense, but given that this particular hose is much thicker walled than regular pex, (od of 1/2, but id of 3/8 pex) you still have to deal with crimping it. I suppose you could use a cinch band (3/8" cinch definitely worked), but those don't give a great finished look. – jameshowison May 05 '23 at 00:58
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Thanks to all for the questions and comments.

All sorted!

Showing reinstalled handshower now not touching the floor.

I was able to do this with the Apollo 1/2 inch Stainless Steel sleeves ($8 for a 10 pack) and the matching crimper sold at Home Depot (~$60) e.g.:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Apollo-1-2-in-Stainless-Steel-PEX-B-Crimp-Sleeve-10-Pack-PXSS1210PK/301921350

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Apollo-1-2-in-and-3-4-in-PEX-B-SS-Sleeve-Tool-69PTKH0014SS/301921148

I don't have confidence that this would hold under real pressure, but for a hand-shower the joint is never under real pressure. But, no sign of leaks, even with the higher pressure button setting on the hand shower.

Unnecessary details below

I bought an Amazon Warehouse version of the techniflex 63" to experiment and one fortuitously came with the hand-shower end entirely off. Otherwise it's a long, awkward process of hacksaw work that destroys the factory sleeve entirely.

The Apollo sleeve is quite a bit bigger than the factory one.

Apollo 1/2 uncrimped compared with factory sleeve crimped

The factory sleeve is much more like the Viega 3/8 stainless steel sleeve (~14.7mm), the od of the barbed insert is exactly the same as Viega 3/8, so I ordered some of those. But no way the 3/8 viega slips over the OD of the technifex tube (which is way thicker than pex-b), and in any case I could not find a reasonably priced crimper for 3/8 Viega pex crimping.

Uncrimped Viega 3/8 sleeve compared with crimped factory sleeve

FWIW, I also tried the copper rings in the 3/8 size but those also wouldn't slip over the end. I tried compressing the end in a few ways but that was hopeless. Eventually I decided just to try the stainless steel Apollo 1/2" sleeves.

I had to crimp in a few different places down the sleeve, including the flare at the hose end of the crimp, because the female threaded end (chrome) won't fit over that flare otherwise.

Apollo 1/2 primed sleeve with flare flattened

In the end the longer sleeve shows more than the factory one, and there is a little waviness from crimping the flare of the sleeve, but it doesn't look bad.

Showing crimp coming further down techniflex

jameshowison
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