How do you shorten an oxygen tube?

My wife is on oxygen full time. I have a 25' oxygen tubing with a connector on each end. One end goes on the oxygen machine, the other connects to a connector on the nasal cannula. I want to shorten the 25' to 15'.

The connectors are molded sort-of-soft plastic and it looks like the end of the tubing was just pushed into the connector. Does not appear as if they are chemically "welded". To remove one of the connectors, I'm thinking of taking a hair dryer and heating the connector and the tubing within it. That should make them pliable enough so I can pull them apart. Then I'd cut the tubing to the 15' length. Finally, heat just the connector and push it onto the end of the tubing.

Has anyone here tried this -- or anything else -- to shorten a home oxygen tube?

Why shorten the tube? It would restrict her movement.
Proper oxygen tubing is designed to resist crimping when stepped on.
What seems like excess length will give your wife more mobility.

I would suggest either looping part of it and putting a twist-tie on it or ask the supplier for a shorter hose.


Den

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Like Den says don't cut, loop, a 1 ft circle or larger, taped lightly or use velcro, so as not to bind the O2 line.

Don't mess with the hoses, even the approved adaptors can cause leaks one restrictons, the hoses are quite good. Jim

chunkyfrog wrote:Why shorten the tube? It would restrict her movement.

maybe he wants to keep her on a short leash.

I second the "coil it up" suggestion, it's not hurting anything to have an extra 10 feet of tubing coiled up on the concentrator.

Oxygen tubing is cheap you could have 6' 10' 15' 25' and 50', with spares of your favorite size.
Your O2 supplier will usually provide the size you want at no charge to you.

wardmiller wrote:My wife is on oxygen full time. I have a 25' oxygen tubing with a connector on each end. One end goes on the oxygen machine, the other connects to a connector on the nasal cannula. I want to shorten the 25' to 15'.

The connectors are molded sort-of-soft plastic and it looks like the end of the tubing was just pushed into the connector. Does not appear as if they are chemically "welded". To remove one of the connectors, I'm thinking of taking a hair dryer and heating the connector and the tubing within it. That should make them pliable enough so I can pull them apart. Then I'd cut the tubing to the 15' length. Finally, heat just the connector and push it onto the end of the tubing.

Has anyone here tried this -- or anything else -- to shorten a home oxygen tube?

I usually use boiling water when I am working with vinyl tubing but a hair dryer would probably work too. I guess I am a bit more fearless than most when it comes to tinkering with stuff!

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments. In the interest of brevity, originally I omitted some background information I thought not germane. So you'll see why I zeroed in on my approach, here is more data.

1. My wife had a stroke 14 years ago. In addition to losing her ability to speak, read, or write, the part of the brain involved with reasoning and decision making was also destroyed. Therefore, having an excess of tubing on the floor is a tripping risk she does not realize or avoid. Also, she frequently gets herself wrapped up in the tubing.

2. The experts disagree as to the loss of efficiency versus length of this small diameter tubing, so I am interested in making it as short as possible while also meeting her needs for mobility and safety. That is why I did not just coil up the excess, as some of you suggested.

3. We have a Home Oxygen Concentrator (the large box) in the bedroom where she spends most of her time, and a battery operated portable concentrator -- with a 4-hr battery -- that mostly stays in the kitchen. But the portable is also used when she moves around the house or goes out for a doctor's appointment. So I have three different length tubings to use with these differing requirements. It is one of these I want to lengthen.

4. I've been dealing with three oxygen equipment supplier DMEs. Their personnel are just as surly, ignorant of their supplies and inventories, and unknowing of the capabilities of their equipment as much, or more, as any CPAP DME any of you have encountered. So they have not been much help.

I just learned a drug store about 20 miles away may stock various lengths of the tubing, so I plan to give them a call today.

Because they are so difficult to clean, we only use a nasal cannula about a week before we discard it (on advice from her doctor). I'll use one of them to see if my heat approach will solve my original question.