Overheard a safety guy say our coolant lines are all overdue for replacement

I was grabbing a coffee in the break room and this safety auditor from corporate was talking to the floor manager about the 20 year old flex lines on the Haas mills. Said the inner cores are degrading and one blew out at a shop in Toledo last month, sprayed coolant everywhere. Nobody got hurt but the machine was down for a week. I checked our lines and sure enough, some are cracked near the fittings. We run them till they leak normally, but this made me want to swap mine out this weekend. Anyone else proactively replace stuff like that or do you wait for the puddle?

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nathankim26d ago

That pattern shows up everywhere if you look for it. We treat maintenance like it's optional until something screams, but then act shocked when the thing that was obviously aging finally gives out. My buddy runs a restaurant and they do the same thing with their walk-in cooler compressor, everyone knows it's loud and struggling, but they wait until a busy Friday night to deal with it. Same with my own car, I'll hear a weird noise for a month and convince myself it's fine, then it costs double when I finally take it in. The Toledo story is the kicker because it didn't hurt anyone, but that's just luck, not planning. Seems like we always trade a little money and a morning of work now for a bigger headache and a longer shutdown later. Your cracked lines are the warning sign, so honestly, swapping them this weekend is the smart play.