bottle brushes

[duckbill]

Does anyone have a source for long, stiff-bristled bottle brushes for cleaning hoses? Just a thought- has anyone had success using shotgun bore brushes?

Until now, I've felt satisfied with removing the hoses and thoroughly rinsing in fresh water immediately after diving. Now I'm beginning to see some white spots inside of them. They may be mineral deposits from our hard water, but then again.....

As far as the dangerous mildews which can grow in the things, does anyone know what color they usually are?

I'd use Listerene in the final rinse, but I don't know what it might do to the rubber.

[oldmossback]

Terry

Try one of the bore brushes for muzzle loaders, 50 or 54 cal.

[crimediver]

Seems to me gun cleaning brushes might be too stiff and scratch the rubber hoses. Most bore brushes are bronze. Scratching the hose may actually provide a place for mold, etc. to accumulate. I have seen plastic brushes used to clean bottles such as chemical flasks or beakers that may be kinder to the hoses.

[kgehring]

I just ordered a couple of brushes to try. I will post results when they arrive. I have also found a company that will make me custom length and bristle diameter sizes.

[standingup]

http://site.mawebcenters.com/schaeferbr ... tion_3.pdf
above is a web site featuring coil cleaning brushes for ice boxes. Since they are plastic bristles they should be much safer than gun cleaning wire bristles

just a suggestion

[Greg Barlow]

http://site.mawebcenters.com/schaeferbr ... tion_3.pdf
above is a web site featuring coil cleaning brushes for ice boxes. Since they are plastic bristles they should be much safer than gun cleaning wire bristles

just a suggestion

That looks like the necessary tool. Will we see them added to Bryan's site in the future? My guess is yes.

Greg

[luis]

I use a cleaning brush for a Camelbak hydration bag. It is a soft white nylon round brush design to clean a soft water bag. It is long enough to easily do half of the hose from one end (then I clean the order half from the other end).

It can bought at most camping and outdoors stores. There are several on-line outdoor stores that carry it.

[duckbill]

A lot of good information here. Thankyou. I'll look into these options and am interested to hear Karl's report as well.

To clarify, when I mentioned shotgun bore brushes I didn't mean the bronze type. I remember bronze AND nylon bristled brushes in my muzzle loading kits ( as Michael mentioned) and I wasn't sure if shotgun kits might also have nylon brushes. 50 caliber brushes are only about 1/2" in diameter and I was hoping for something which will fill out the hose, leaving no surface untouched when I am finished. Some of the options offered may do just that. Thanks again for the suggestions.

[duckbill]

With the suggestions so far I had some good leads on where to start my search for a good bottle brush for hose cleaning. I already knew the baby-bottle brushes were too short. So, this afternoon I dragged my rear out of my armchair and downtown I went on a three hour tour. The weather started getting rough.....
First I started at Big-5 to follow up on Luis' idea. I found the hydration bag brushes and they looked pretty good to go for the job, but I decided to shop around some. I also found some 12 gauge nylon-bristled bore brushes, but not the 10 gauge I was hoping to find. I think even 10 gauge would be too small for what I wanted.
So, I went to Wal-Mart to basically walk every isle of every pertinent department to see what I could find. I found basically the same hydration bag brush, but cheaper. Good move from the get-go.
Then I spotted something which I thought might work in the pet supplies area. They were long bottle-type brushes in the aquarium section, but they were WAY too soft. I guess they are for the soft, flexible vinyl aquarium tubing.

Then I spotted it- My hose brush. It was in the kitchen cleaning section next to the mops. It is called a "Reach & Sweep" by Range Kleen (www.rangekleen.com). It is about 26 1/2" long with the handle. The first 3 1/2" of (plastic/nylon? bristled) brush is 3/4" in diameter, and the next brush section is about 8 1/2" long at 1 1/2" diameter. Perfect! The rest is a wooden handle (I guess). It is made for cleaning refrigerator coils, just like "standingup" suggested.
I found that the 3/4" diameter section interfered when I was using it on a hose. I decided to cut it off (so now it is 23" long overall). If you get one of these and try this, be forewarned- the bristles will start to cascade out from between the wires because as some bristles fall out it leaves more room for the ones next to them to fall out, and so on. Using a couple pairs of pliers I twised the ends of the wires tight again and reinstalled the plastic end cap on them.
Anyhow, the brush cost $3.44 before tax. So, pick one up, fill a washbasin with sudsy water, pull up your favorite armchair, and brush all that mildew and gunk from your hoses. Turns out, mine were pretty clean and the aforementioned white spots are still there. Maybe they're just "age spots"

Thanks again for the leads, folks.

[kgehring]

My test brushes arrived. It works great! Just be careful of the metal tip. It is a nylon tube brush #1315 from solobrushes.com
http://www.solobrushes.com/Family.asp?F ... 4&Cat2ID=6

[kgehring]

It is the #1233 brush not the 1315. sorry. Either will work but I like the softer nylon bristles better than the std. bristle brush.

[duckbill]

Thanks, Karl.
Those look like winners too, and the prices look great.