Purpose of O-ring on Bosch VAC005 5 meter dust collection hose?

Hi all,

I hope this is not off-topic but I haven't been able to find any answers online. A while back a bought one of these and I love the length and flexibility but there is one thing I can't figure out.

It came with a thick O-ring mounted in the groove at the attachment end. You have to remove the ring in order to fit the 35mm dust ports on Bosch tools and I have a Bosch adapter to adapt to 1-1/4" ports. With the O-ring in place it doesn't fit any vac attachment I own and I have them in 1-1/4", 1-7/8" (Ridgid), and standard 2-1/2".

So my question is what does the O-ring do?

A link to what the hose looks like is here:

Amazon.com: Bosch 16.4 Foot Vacuum Hose, 35mm VAC005: Home Improvement

a lubricated oring is often used to hold parts in place or resist parts sliding apart.
.
when oring is dry often parts will not slide together. obviously spitting on it can be messy and a regular oring lubricant might not be close by always

What is the increase in diameter of the attachment end with the O-ring?

Would you think that a O-ring is needed if the hose was being used to clean up a liquid on the floor.

And since DMF_TomB mentioned lub:

Glycerin is something I use on rubber O-rings.
I have a water filter housing that has six inch diameter rubber O-ring. The directions for the replacement filter says to use a silicone based grease.

A petroleum based oil might cause a rubber O-ring to expand.

rons said:

What is the increase in diameter of the attachment end with the O-ring?

Would you think that a O-ring is needed if the hose was being used to clean up a liquid on the floor.

And since DMF_TomB mentioned lub:

Glycerin is something I use on rubber O-rings.
I have a water filter housing that has six inch diameter rubber O-ring. The directions for the replacement filter says to use a silicone based grease.

A petroleum based oil might cause a rubber O-ring to expand.

Click to expand...

Your question got me thinking so I got the ring out of the tool box where its been sitting and rolled it into the groove on the Bosch connector. It's incredibly close to 1-1/2" and a quick internet search shows 1-1/2" as a connector size for swimming pool vacuum hoses. Why that would have been placed there at the factory is a mystery since the photos always show the groove empty but perhaps somewhere in the handling of the product someone got curious, tried it, and forgot to remove it.

That is probably what the manufacturer intended. Not sure but it sure would make hose hunting a lot easier.

If that was my attachment I would shave down the rubber to whatever works or buy what does fit and work. Cutting rubber is something that is painful to me. Never comes out right. The groove/o-ring is there for a seal and it should be used.

A customer contact at Bosch should tell you what is going on.

rons said:

That is probably what the manufacturer intended. Not sure but it sure would make hose hunting a lot easier.

If that was my attachment I would shave down the rubber to whatever works or buy what does fit and work. Cutting rubber is something that is painful to me. Never comes out right. The groove/o-ring is there for a seal and it should be used.

A customer contact at Bosch should tell you what is going on.

Click to expand...

It actually won't fit a 35mm port with the ring installed. Without it the rubbery nozzle must be twisted to push in fully, especially the dust port on my Bosch plunge router base.

Shaving down is exactly what I'm considering doing to the thicker portion of the rotating coupler. It looks as though it wouldn't need much shaving to fit the 1-7/8" Ridgid accessories such as the floor cleaning attachment. Right now I use the optional Ridgid adapter that connects a 2-1/2" nozzle to 1-7/8". If I push the Bosch 35mm in far enough it's a snug fit inside the forward portion of the adapter but it would be nice to have one less part to handle. After using the hose for portable tool dust collection I use the Ridgid floor sweep and extension tubes for general cleanup.