silicon hose or polished stainless steel

[S16]

Cheers for the replies. Sorry I did mean polished alloy not stainless steel. I guess I'm still none the wiser. I thought silicon would handle the heat better than polished alloy because silicon can handle temperatures well over 100 degrees and I thought metal would heat up being next to the engine. However a colleague at work agreed with the first reply. He is a painter and I'm a joiner. He says when you try to strip paint from metal with a blow lamp, it will take the top layers off easy enough but when you get to the base layer it becomes difficult because the metal deflects the heat from the blow lamp. I'm confused.

P.s we also have a silicon oven mitt at home so I know what you're saying