Dometic Marines Shields Marine Fuel Hose Excels in Permeation Test
Press release
Dometic Marines Shields Marine Fuel Hose Excels in Permeation Test
Litchfield, IL - January 19, 2021. To protect the environment, Dometic Marine ensures its products are with high quality and meet required government regulations. Results of a new laboratory test demonstrate that Shields Fuel Feed Hose exceeds the US Environmental Protection Agency standards.
Dometic Marine recently put its Shields 337 Series hose through independent testing at Intermodal Materiel and Nautical Nuclear Analysis, (IMANNA Laboratory, Inc.) in Rockledge, Florida. The test results show that the products exceed the requirements set by the US government.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established new laws regarding how much fuel can permeate through a fuel feed line. Fuel odors or vapors permeating into the atmosphere are harmful to the environment — this is the reason why vapor recovery lines are commonplace on many fuel pumps around the country.
“As a manufacturer of products that help boaters enjoy the Great Outdoors, it’s important for us to make our products as environmentally safe as possible,” said Dometic Marine President Eric Fetchko. “Like our customers, we enjoy spending time in the outdoors, and this makes protecting the environment a priority for us,” added Fetchko.
When boat builders, engine manufacturers and other marine industry customers choose to use Shields Series 337 Series Outboard Fuel Feed Hose, they can be confident that the product has been rigorously tested and proven to provide superior durability and performance at a great price
They can also trust that Shields 337 Series Hose has been laboratory tested to minimize fuel permeation and protect the environment. Dometic Marine takes protecting the outdoor and marine environment seriously and routinely tests its products to this extent.
The specific EPA regulation set for outboard fuel feed lines is a maximum of 15g/m2/day or below, and is an amount recognized by the organization to be tolerable and safe to install on today’s vessels. Shields Series 337 hose tested at far below this threshold, exhibiting a permeation level of just 2.39g/m2/day.
The testing procedure itself is quite involved and technical. Six hose/primer bulb assemblies were attached to a leak-proof reservoir containing more than 300ml of ASTM reference fuel CE-10. Following a 30-day “pre-soak” period in an ambient temperature environment of 110o F (+/- 9o F), the assembled systems were placed in an ambient environment held at 73o F (+/- 4o F) for a period of 24 hours. Each of the assembled systems was weighed to the nearest 0.01 gram every 24 hours for the next 15 consecutive days, including weekends. Each test assembly was carefully weighed, and the weight, date, time, temperature, relative humidity and barometric pressure were recorded.
By measuring and averaging the miniscule amount of weight loss over the 15 days of testing, the laboratory was able to calculate and document the impressively low permeation rate for the Shields 337 hose.
Dometic Marine is constantly looking for ways to make the products it provides to the boating industry better, safer and friendlier to the environment we all cherish. This is yet another example of this commitment in action.
Press contact
- Minako Nakatsuma Olofzon
- pr@dometic.com
About Dometic
Dometic is a global market leader in the mobile living industry. Millions of people around the world use Dometic products in outdoor, residential, and professional applications. Our motivation is to create smart, sustainable, and reliable products with outstanding design for an outdoor and mobile lifestyle in the areas of Food & Beverage, Climate, Power & Control, and Other Applications. Dometic employs approximately 8,000 people worldwide, had net sales of SEK 27.8 billion (USD 2.6 billion) in 2023 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.