My vent tube was rock hard and to touch it was to break it, I tried to replace it, had no success trying to get a looped piece of hose up in there. What I did instead was to use malleable copper tubing two seperate pieces, when I got them up to the access hole I used a short piece of rubber tube to make the u. It worked out fine, no need to sucure it as it cant move once the rubber tubing is on.