stainless hose question

[Guest]

Forgive me if this has been covered, but if i replace my brake hoses as i should and go with stainless hoses, do i still need to replace these every 2 years? Or just when they leak/break/ect?

[SVSooke]

No the hoses should be good unless you let the brake fluid go to sludge.

[habsdoc]

There is no rubber involved in contact with the brake fluid in the new stainless lines. They have a Teflon tube for the brake fluid to flow through.

[Grimly]

I periodically check the stainless hoses I fitted 20+ years ago and the only deterioration I found was physical damage, which would have been avoided if clear plastic coating was available on them at the time of manufacture. In retrospect, some spiral wrap would have probably worked, too.
Some makers say they should be replaced every few years, but I think that's more ass-covering than anything else. I haven't heard of anybody's Teflon hoses go bad, but that's not to say it can't happen.
The most worrisome incident happened when a caliper dropped slightly when I removed it and the hose broke right off the union with very little force - that was mostly down to the maker (or PO), as those hoses were custom-made to length and used screw-on fittings which had been either over or under-tightened. The hoses on that bike have all been replaced, just in case that repeated itself.