AWAB -Hose Clamps

I try to buy the best for the boat. I try. I research, I ask others, I read blogs and magazine articles and then I try to buy the best.

We've been on board for 5 years now and have worked our way through our hose clamp supply so when I picked up an older Practical Sailor (April 2012 Pg 32) and found a section on Hose Clamps; I figured I had hit pay dirt. Hell, even Steve D'Antonio and Nigel Calder say they're good.

Well, I beg to differ. They may in fact be good but in a limited situation. That is in the first application. And that my friend is not where I'm at. Basically, if you put them on when you put the hose on then you might be ok. I say might because i just unscrewed one and then tried to re-attach it, the nut locks up before the tail fully engages.

My beef with these clamps is two fold. First, they are next to impossible to replace a clamp in small spaces, and if you must use one hand it is IMPOSSIBLE. Second, I tried to unclamp one, bend it around a small hose (approx 1" in diameter) and then tighten it up. It never happened. First I couldn't hold the tail end into the screw to begin to tighten. When I removed the clamp and was going to just put it back into my inventory, I tried to put the tail into the screw and tighten, I could start it and then the clamp just bound out. Maybe with a large torque wrench I could have overcome this short coming but then I might just have ripped the whole thing apart.

Bottom line, if you are building or have apart an entire section of hose, the AWAB clamps just might do the trick. But if you want clamps for maintenance; do yourself a favor and forget them.


Grade B...