We are not going to print a price list, because an honest one would have too many variables to be useful. What we can do is explain what actually drives the number, so you can tell a fair quote from a bad one.
What you are paying for
The callout. Getting a van, an engineer and a crimper to where your machine is. This is the fixed part and it does not care whether the hose is big or small.
The hose. Grade and bore. A 1/4 inch 1SN is a fraction of the cost of a 1 inch 4SH. This is why “how much for a hose” cannot be answered on the phone without knowing which hose.
The fittings. Two ends, and the price varies a lot with type. A standard BSP fitting is cheap. A large ORFS or a specialist coupling is not.
Time on site. A hose you can reach in five minutes versus one buried inside a boom are very different jobs with identical parts.
When you call. Nights, weekends and bank holidays cost more. That is reasonable. What is not reasonable is finding out afterwards.
Why quotes vary so much
Three reasons, in order of how much they matter:
Whether there is a middle layer. A nationwide breakdown service takes your call and subcontracts to a local engineer. You are paying that engineer’s rate plus the network’s margin, for the same work.
What goes into the assembly. Hose, ferrule and insert are designed as matched sets. Mixing brands is cheaper and produces an assembly with no verified rating. It usually holds. When it does not, you are paying for the job twice.
Whether anyone diagnosed anything. Replacing the hose that failed is quick. Noticing that it failed because it was rubbing on a bracket takes another few minutes and saves you the next callout.
Questions worth asking before you book
- Is the price I have been given the full price, including the callout and any out-of-hours rate?
- Do you charge if you attend and cannot complete the repair?
- Is there a warranty on the hose and the fittings, and how long?
- Are you the engineer attending, or are you booking a subcontractor?
- What grade of hose are you fitting?
Any competent firm will answer all five without hesitating.
The cost nobody quotes
Downtime. A machine standing still on a fixed programme often costs more per hour than the entire repair. That is why the arrival time matters as much as the price, and why being told honestly that someone cannot reach you until morning is more valuable than being told what you want to hear.
See emergency callout for how we handle that.