Comparing compression fitting BARBS...

[D749]

LEFT: old BP CP fitting
MIDDLE: new BP CP fitting
RIGHT: Koolance QDC (focus on the bard and not the rest of the fitting)

All fittings 1/2 ID, 3/4 OP fittings. Notice how the new BP CP fitting has the shortest bard.

Using the new BP CP fitting (middle) I've noticed that tubing (1/2 ID, 3/4 OD) doesn't like to stay in place on the bard as I get ready to tighten down the ring over the bard. I constantly have to fight to keep the tubing in place. However, this is not the case with either the old BP CP fitting (left) or the Koolance QDC fitting (right). It seems the longer bard make a big difference.

Has anyone else noticed this? Why would BP switch to the little stub if it's not as good?

[Church]

My guess: less material = cheaper to make. But if it will not result in cheaper actual end prices to customers ..

[Zeus]

I don't think that's the case here. I suppose these are machined from a solid chunk of metal so milling away more material doesn't reduce cost price. I think it's just a revision to make the fitting look less bulky. I liked the old BP fittings but they're overpriced. Imitations (Phobya?) are available for half the money and work as touble free.

[eth0s]

I have both the new and old BP compression fittings you show in your pic. I assumed the new version was created for less restriction. If you could take another pic comparing your compression fittings to a BP barb fitting, you will see what I mean. If you compare them, you can see that the new BP compression fitting has about the same amount (or a bit less) of tubular surface area as a barb fitting, and should therefore perform as well if not better than the barb fitting. However, the problem is of course, the difficulty in mounting the hose to the newer shorter barb, which you mentioned. The old (longer) compression fittings were better for keeping the tube in place. Even easier to use, however are barbs. In fact, I have switched completely away from compression fittings to using only barb fitting with hose clamps. I think the performance is better (although I have no hard data to impress you with), but more important to me is the fact that barbs are much lighter in terms of weight, which is better for the video card waterblock, and the motherboard blocks, and the RAM block. IMO, the less weight you load onto parts that can bend the better. I'm pretty sure my old 8800GTX video card died because it became too bent and too deformed by my old Danger Den water block, which weighed about 2 pounds (and didn't cool all that well either). So now I look for the lightest stuff possible, which is barbs. Anyway, I guess I'm saying you're right about new vs. old BP compressions, and that you should try barbs instead.