Flooded shop floor from a bad extractor hose, almost ruined a customer's bumper

Last Tuesday in Tulsa, our dust extractor hose split at the seam while we were sanding down a 2018 Camry quarter panel. Water backed up through the unit and dumped about 15 gallons onto the concrete right under the paint prep area. I caught it before it pooled near the bumper, but the mess took 4 hours to dry out with fans and tack cloths. I've since replaced that hose with a steel-braided one and now check it for cracks at the start of every shift. Has anyone else had an extractor dump water mid-task, and what did you do to stop it from happening again?

2 comments

2 Comments

rosew371mo ago

My first extractor flood melted a shop vac motor and my pride in one shot.

thomas_roberts1mo ago

Wait, did you check the steel-braided hose for kinks where it bends near the extractor? I had a buddy who worked at a body shop over in Broken Arrow, and he thought he fixed his flood by upgrading to a similar hose. First week in, the braided sleeve chafed through the inner liner right where it hooked around a support bracket, and he got a geyser all over a fresh primer job. He figured it out because the drip sounded different, like a slow faucet instead of the normal hum. Took him a whole day to trace it back to that hidden pinch point, and now he wraps every bend with rubber gasket tape. Sounds like you're already on top of the daily checks, but those braided ones can be sneaky about wearing from the inside out.