Once in a while, I get on a job site where I need a garden hose, to rinse dust out of a HVAC unit. Ideally, a flat hose to take up less space. Ace Hardware had a crank reel and 50 foot hose for about $35. I was a bit out of my mind, I could have gotten a Walmart hose for under ten bucks. I did buy the hose. It does store compactly. The hose sat in my van about two years before its first use. See? I was out of my mind. However, it worked well (aside from kinking shut and had to go smooth out the hose before I got much water flow).
If you get the stretchy expanding hose, please be sure to get a pressure regulator from the RV section at Walmart (or other store). The expanding hoses tend to rupture.
I find the expanding hose useful in the late summer when I have a fungus problem in the yard (to spray fungicide), and need a lightweight hose (the best hose I have is a rubber one from Sears, but its very heavy).
As to a pressure regulator, I use one I got with a drip-watering kit (tiny sprinklers, and low flow rate).
Thanks for the field report. I bought one expanding hose. Same thing, ruptured after a couple uses. I've not tried one on a regulated low pressure line. Might do better than full flow. Thank you.
I have one that someone gave me. It's the first one that was advertised on TV. I think it's called the Pocket Hose.
I wont use it for farm use. Having large animals stepping on them, mud, manure, and that sort of thing requires a heavy duty rubber hose.
I have not yet used it for general yard work, but I did try it and I thought it was handy, and it did expand like it said. It was easy to drain the water afterwards. But thats about all I can tell you. I dont know how well it holds up. I have a well, so my water pressure is not nearly as high as in the cities. I hope it lasts awhile.
My house has a pressure regulator, installed when the house was built, but am I to understand that there are additional ones that, what, screw on to the garden faucet? Are they expensive?
If he'd said shrink I would have known what he is talking about.
That one is coiled all the time. It doesn't coil more, it just pulls back.
Yeah that's a shrinker. If he'd said that, I'd have told him that in a previous thread someone said they started to leak moderately soon. I have non-shrinking hoses that are in good condition after 20 years. Even leaving them in the sun for weeks at a time (moving them every few days to they don't leave a line in the grass). So someone might think that a hose that doesn't leak for 2 or 3 years (if that's what the prior person said about it) is enough. But I view hoses as a long-term expense, with a life of at least 15 years, not as a disposeable commodity.
(I got two or three hoses included with the house when I bought it 33 years ago, and I've found 2 or 3 in the trash since then. The ones in the trash, along the curb with the trash, were perfectly good. One of the total of 4 to 6 hoses sprang several leaks after many years, and one had the outer covering split in several places but I don't think that caused leaks. It's hard to remember. I roll the wheel around about 50 times just before every winter until water stops coming out, and I have two hoses installed all year, plus another one or two in the basement for when one of these fail. )
Still, a shinking hose miight be worthwhile if one uses the hose often, once or twice a day, every 2 or 3 days, and has gotten tired of rolling up a regular hose. Just don't complain that your standard of living is not increasing.
Municipal water sources target < 80 psi for delivery.
Unfortunately, most munis forget that, over time (appliances tend to be rated for 80 psi). E.g., our water supply is above 110psi so we have a PRV on the domestic water (as well as the irrigation water).
[And an expansion tank colocated with the water heater -- something that seems to be missing in many homes!]
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.