Peak I Apex II Hose Replacement

Reid, I used the Apex stove off and on for ten years and mine pulsed most of the time , high pressure or low pressure. rather enjoyed it. Have read common sound from this type burner. 14" hose should be fine don't think stove will care. Stay safe

 

I think the manufacturers provide a short hose to prevent users from looping the hose over the burner when it's lit. If you can avoid that, I think you'll be fine. A longer hose can also be an issue if the only control valve is the one at the pump. The longer the hose, the more delay between adjustment and effect at the burner. Of course, this won't apply to an Apex II with a valve at the burner!

The braided cover on the hose is mostly to prevent abrasion (and other) damage. So just keep an eye on it.

....Arch

 

Another resurrection of an old thread and a first post for me.

I think I bought my Apex II, guessing now, 35 years ago and in the early years it took a hammering, regularly used camping in Scottish winters including a few nights in snow holes.

We used it in parallel with a MSR Whisperlite and the Apex II certainly proved itself to be a more controllable stove to cook on, even if the MSR was super lightweight, cool and trendy.

So it gained a lot of sentimental value and when my son discovered it was leaking from a split in the hose where it joins the bottle, we shed a tear. Parts availability dried up years ago so it’s been in the back of a cupboard for the last 10 years. Then I fell upon this thread …

First job was to dig out the Dremel and see whether I could cut off the clamped hose ends as per the OP. Mostly guesswork but with a nothing lost nothing gained attitude I carefully worked my way round the copper ferrules a little at a time and carefully pealed them off, not actually as difficult as I was expecting and no damage to the internal connection halves:



I then set about sourcing some suitable braided hose, not as easy as I expected to find the correct size and hoses are measured weirdly. Most hoses I tried were slightly too large for the fittings and I thought I’d got it sorted with a section of motorbike braided brake hose, but this proved to be slightly undersize and due to the braiding there’s no way it’ll expand to fit, the barbs on tne fittings are just too big:



After some more research into hoses I ordered a length of “AN3 stainless steel braided hose” suitable for brake fluid, oil and fuel, plus some proper fuel hose crimps (and of course a proper crimping tool!):



The new AN3 hose looked exactly the same size as the brake hose but with a good push it slid onto the Apex II fittings and was easily secured in place with the hose crimps. Amazingly if I’d had all the correct bits to hand the whole job would have taken maybe 20 minutes, as it was I’ve been working on this for weeks!



Interestingly the hose now looks very similar to many of the new stoves available whereas the original Coleman hose looked oversize. I’ve also kept the hose a little longer, I felt the original was slightly short.



The proof is always in the pudding, but it now works great. I replaced the fuel bottle washer because that was leaking (nothing new there) and I’ve repositioned the burner tube slightly to ensure it’s fully inserted, but all in all thanks to the info on the forum it should be good for the next 35 years.



Stu.

 

Thanks for posting. Post delayed in moderation as it contained outside links (the images) on a new account. It's possible & preferred to upload images directly in your post. No need for hosting images off-site.

 

Welcome to CCS.

 

Thanks Spiritburner, I’d assumed wrongly they needed to be hosted elsewhere, oops, not overly techie but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it!

Thanks Ed

 

@Bobbins Wow! Great job!n Good info! I have 8 Apex'es and I want to do the same thing. I found different parts but I may like your parts better! Much thanks!

 

@Bobbins I initially commented how much I enjoyed your post over 18 months ago (OMG! How time flies!)! I have just begun to dig into this and I have question for you. Do you happen to recall the I.D. of your new STAINLESS STEEL BRAIDED FUEL LINE (S.S.B.F.L) and if the inner hose was very thin white "plastic"? The brass fuel barb on the APEX is 3/16". The original APEX STAINLESS STEEL BRAIDED FUEL LINE (S.S.B.F.L) was much fatter than your new one with a thicker black "rubber" inner hose and also had a 3/16" I.D. I assume your new thinner S.S.B.F.L uses the thinner white "plastic" or technically a PTFE inner hose with a 3/16" I.D. Can you let me know if that is true? I feel almost certain that must be the case and your guidance here would be a big help!!!

I just rebuuilt my 1st (of 8) APEX stoves using new, thinner S.S.B.F.L. with a thinner inner white PFTE hose with a 3/16" I.D. I crimped it on using a 1 ear crimp-on hose-clamp and there were no leaks over 2 fuel bottles worth of testing. HOWEVER, the brass barbed fitting does rotate completly freely inside the white PTFE inner hose. Call me crazy, but that can't be a good thing!!!

My 1st research on google showed traditonal crimp-ons do not work with PTFE due to its non-compressability. Multiple sources stressed the extreme probabiltiy for fuel leaks regardless of 1-ear or 2-ear crimp-on clamps or worm screw clamps. I would tend to agree with after I saw the fitting rotate inside the PTFE tubing making is failure seem to me to be painfully obvious and logical.

My 2nd research is to contact you to learn to learn anything I can from your experience. I can't seem to source a S.S.B.F.L. in rubber with both a 3/16"" I.D. and a STAINLESS STEEL BRAIDED outer sheath. Any help would be most appreciated. Thank you!

Ron