Gates engineers emphasize that it's not uncommon to find premature hose failures due to electrochemical damage in vehicles driven less than 25,000 miles. From the customer's perspective, the timely replacement of a coolant hose can prevent an emergency breakdown on a highway, as well as costly engine damage. Today's engines run at higher temperatures, which means if the hose fails and coolant is lost, overheating occurs almost immediately.

To address the damage caused by ECD, Gates also developed an electrochemically-resistant coolant hose using a new EPDM formulation. The new EPDM hose offers improved performance characteristics over standard rubber hose.

In fleet tests in the toughest applications, ECR hoses have gone 200,000 miles and are still going with no electrochemical damage. Standard hoses revealed damage and failures as early as 20,000 miles in the same fleet tests.
To be safe, Gates recommends changing coolant hoses if they are four years old, or older, especially the upper radiator and heater hoses.

Of importance to technicians and car owners is the superior bonding ability of the EPDM hose to metal fittings. Gates new ECR hose also inhibits water in the coolant mixture from permeating through the hose wall. Water loss can cause an imbalance of the antifreeze, which has an adverse effect on the freezing and boiling points.

Whenever replacing a hose, Gates also recommends replacing the clamps. Although today's clamps are generally made with stainless steel bands that resist corrosion and damage, they're held in place by a carbon steel screw which can fatigue and lose strength.