Captain YARRR

Hey all,

I e-mailed Hardin Marine and haven't heard back in over a week, so I wanted to see what you thought about this.

First thing, I am a bit annoyed that I thought I was buying Latham Marine drive showers but should have read more closely...I bought Latham Marine STYLE drive showers. I thought Hardin was reselling the product. I guess that's on me, but I doubt I'm the only one to think this.

Second and the main issue: I bought these drive showers and installed them the night before Texas Outlaw Challenge. Ran the weekend and pulled it out that Sunday. The NPT fittings were completely rusted over. One of my friends bought the same showers, same issue at Outlaw.

Is this expected and I'm unreasonable? Or should a drive shower that plugs in to steering that doesn't rust in a weekend be expected not to rust over?

1 MAIDEN AMERICA

I heard something about the way stainless works. True or false, dunno, but here it is. I heard that stainless creates an ozone over the surface that stops oxidation. If the ozone gets disrupted it'll rust. If it rusts just clean it and it'll stay clean until the ozone falls apart again. Chemicals/contaminates will break the ozone down, so, say it had tape sticky glue on it, maybe that broke it down. Get it all cleaned up and see how long it lasts, it could have had some residue of something on it.

vintage chromoly

iTrader: (3)

I always thought that the iron was drawn out of the alloy in stainless.

Bama

I bought the same drive shower hoses from Hardin and sent them back because they were not Latham hoses and ordered directly from Latham Marine. I never installed them because I didn't like the way they were attached to the cavitation plate.

Stainless steel is just steel with more chromium and nickel than regular steel. Galvanized steel is coated in zinc, which a sacrificial layer for ozone exposure.

There are many different grades of stainless steel, 304 and 316 being some with higher chromium and nickel content. Many lesser grades of stainless steel will rust because they do not have as much chromium or nickel in the steel.

Looks like you got the stainless fittings from china.

Black Baja

iTrader: (2)

Correct.

Captain YARRR

With the way they rusted and nothing else did, is it possible that's not a stainless fitting at all?

Mseuro

Just received mine and will be installing in a couple of weeks. I will let you know the outcome once I use them.

SB

iTrader: (1)

Bullchit !

Padraig

You need to come out of your shell and say what you think.

Captain YARRR

I love how responsive their customer service is until there's a problem.