All my life I have struggled with garden hoses and long electric power cords. No matter what I do, I cannot get them to coil neatly after I have used them. They invariable turn into pretzels and then get tangled.
Is there an easy way to solve this problem?
If one end of the hose is attached to the faucet, and you wind it up from the free end, you're guaranteed to produce kinks. Wind it from the attached end instead, or disconnect it so that both ends are free to twist.
Same principle applies to extension cords.
I addition to what Doug wrote, you may want to try a better quality of hose. The better ones don't kink as easy. But if you don't follow Doug's advice they will kink.
But, that is the problem. Both ends will *not be free to twist* if you have a 75' hose or 100' cord.
Walter
Walter wrote: All my life I have struggled with garden hoses and long electric power cords. No matter what I do, I cannot get them to coil neatly after I have used them. They invariable turn into pretzels and then get tangled.
Is there an easy way to solve this problem?
There's always a hose reel for the garden hose, other than that, buy good quality hoses. The electrical cord issue can be dealt with by not coiling them, but rather "crocheting" them from the middle. Stretch out the cord it's full length. Lay the male and female ends together, and starting with the middle, tie a loose overhand knot. Then reach through the resulting circle and grab the two lines of cord and pull them through the circle about a foot. Now reach through the loop you've just made, grab the two lines, and pull them through about a foot. Et cetera, 'til you're all knitted up. One of the probs with this method is beginning the unwinding process. You've got to pull the right loop over the bitter ends to get the lines to deploy, but when you figger it out, no more kinks. Tom
I have a 75' hose on a reel. NO twisting when I wind it back in.
There are different ways to handle this. First, the way you coil the hose makes all the difference in the world.
Wire rope is tough stuff to work with, as anyone who has worked with it knows. Yet, I could take 100 feet of it, and coil it on the ground so there would not be a spiral in it. A spiral is when you pull it out of the coil, and it makes curleycues or kinks. Then, you have to pull on the ends to get all the twists out. You have to fold it one coil over, one coil under, but you get what appears to be a spiral coil. Thing is, it is not a spiral. One loop goes over, one loop goes behind. If you know what a clove hitch is, you are making consecutive clove hitches.
Imagine this:
If you take off wire rope off the side of the reel, like line comes off an open faced reel, you have a spiral. If you take it straight off, like you pull thread off a spool, it comes off unspiraled.
Such spiraling causes a lot of kinking and tangling. Knowing how to coil it eliminates that spiraling.
Figure eighting it also keeps it from spiraling, as it keeps the spiral out of the hose. But spiraling is usually only used when it lays on the ground. We used to use it for 300 and 600' diving hoses so there wouldn't be a spiral.
I don't know if there is a site that will show you how to coil to eliminate spiraling, but you might want to google on wire rope coiling or wire rope storage. Google clove hitch, and you will see what I mean. Imagine consecutive clove hitches, and you have an unspiraled coil.
Storage of long cords is best done by doubling the cord, then starting at the middle, do a series of slip knots. When you need to use it, just pull on the correct end, and it all comes untied one slipknot at a time. They also make reels and things that you can buy at Homer's, but any dweeb can learn to slipknot it, and save $20.
The quality of hose makes a difference, as well as the diameter of the electrical cord. If you have 200' of 220 wire, you will want to coil it using the over/under method, or you will definitely end up with 200' of curleycued pigtail wire. Bigger diameter quality hoses also need to be coiled correctly, or they just won't coil. And kinking them makes them useless.
I could show you in a second, but writing a description is difficult. Hang up a hose on your hose hanger in large loops. Alternate the way you put them on there, the first just put on there, the second, you run the hose behind the loop instead of in front of it.
Hell, maybe I could take two pictures and show what I mean.
Steve
To prevent an electrical cord from kinking and knotting up wind it in large loops that take 5 or 6 feet of cord. Winding them around your arm (upper arm and thumb method) will always kink an electrical cord.
Use the same method for a hose, but make sure that the end has nothing on it. I agree with the recommendations re good quality hoses. I've always used quality rubber hose. Be careful not to kink it while working with it.
Peter H
One additional idea. You can try coiling it in a figure 8 It does not always work, but it should work for some situations.
A water hose is a bit easier to manage if you have a on/off valve on the hose end and coil it when under water pressure...... a wall hook/ hose holder helps as well to loop over.
A electric cord is doable if you always start with a kink free cord....tie off one end (or better yet send a friend on a long walk).....either way stretch the cord out (under tension you can feel the wannabe kinks) and twist until gone......then and forever more take the female end in you hand, as you wrap the cord on your arm with the male end loose, pull the cord with slight pressure through your thumb and index finger so any and all kinks work themselves out each and every time.......properly done when using the cord.... plug the male end in the wall and the female end will uncoil from the center as little or as much as needed.
With hoses or cords more than 50 ft it is always more problematic.....if additional length is needed use multiple 50ft lengths....unjoined when winding up.....Rod
I agree. I have a 100' hose that used to be just about impossible to use. I bought a fairly cheap reel and now have no problems at all winding or unwinding with no kinks or tangles at all.
nothing on
Second that! I bout a top quality hose and due to carelessness managed to put 2 kinks into while I was unpacking it. Quality hoses that get a kink, will always have that kink and it is amazingly easy to kink one.
Harry K
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