Male/Female Hose Connectors for Battery Fill Up
Are connector hoses like the one pictured considered a control greater than PPE for filling batteries? Using these hoses takes away the risk of overflow or any fluids being splashed out of containment. Are face shields still required?
Comments (6)
Anything is better than PPE, which is why it's at the bottom of the hierarchy of controls. However, following the Swiss cheese model and using multiple layers of protection is always a safe bet. I would still wear a face shield, though. Nothing is failproof, and you have to account for human error by someone using it wrong.
Mike (above) and I made millions of hydraulic couplings for many years together. And I can tell you the hydraulic pressure going through our couplings was several hundreds if not thousands of pounds of psi more than this! Even those if used long enough and being the best engineered couplings and hose in the world, "Just ask any present or former Parker Hosers", will fail at some point. Mike will tell you we use to pressure test hose assemblies, couplings crimped on hose. We would cycle them for thousands of cycles (pressure up, pressure down and over and over days and months around the clock). Sometimes a hose assembly would fail after only a very few cycles, the next might run six months of constant cycles up to 20,000 psi hold for 30 seconds, and down and right back up again)! This is only a partial Engineering Control. Since not 100% (and then some) PPE still required!