Repair garden hose kinks?

My short garden hose has five kinks in it. Annoying. I'm too cheap to replace it - and besides, the new hose will quickly do the same thing. Buying hose splices would work but is rather expensive - though I could save them for reuse when I discard the hose. Maybe s short piece of something thick - like ~six-inch lengths of the free paint stirrers you get with paint - and duct tape then on the hose at the kink points? I suspect that wouldn't last.

Suggestions?

TIA

Reply to
KenK
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A good hose won't kink unless you abuse it. The trick is to take the widgets off the hose before coiling it. Let the opposte end twist as it's (un)coiled.

Reply to
krw

How about slitting a piece of PVC pipe to place over the kinked sections? You could fasten it with heat shrink tubing to avoid using duct tape.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

quit buying such cheap-ass garden hoses.

Reply to
notbob

Yer best bet, buy a new hose and get a good quality one, not those cheap ones that only last a year. Otherwise your idea of duct taping a stick should work till you can get a loan from your bank for a decent hose.

Reply to
mancave

Been here 30 years, never bought a hose. Two of them came with the house, then I found 3 others in the trash. None has had kinks, So far only one has even leaked (the hose itself). And I leave two of them outside in the sun much of the summer, lying on the grass or bushes. (I move it once in a while if it's on the grass.)

My latest find is one of those little tables with a hose rolled up inside. One of the two hoses in that lies flat when it shouldn't and doesn't roll up right, but I can't separate it from the table yet. When I do, I'll throw it away. But I've unrolled it and even it doesn't kink.

Reply to
micky

Are you a dumpster diver too? Someone who hates to see perfectly serviceable or repairable items thrown away? ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

I used to be, and I would be again if I saw something good. In Brooklyn, one day I found enough stranded one-conductor wire to last me about 20 years. Another day I found hammers and some other hand tools, a chalk line with dispenser, etc.

Here in Baltimore, I had an empty wrapper that had held an ice-cream bar, iirc, and I was in the parking lot of a Black and Decker repair store. I went to the dumpster to throw my wrapper away and saw lots of garden tools inside. I think I had gone there after work so it was almost 6 and they were going home in a couple minutes. Over the next few visits I got weed wackers, 2 blower/sucker/leaf choppers, 2 edgers, a belt sander iirc, a beautiful variable speed sabre saw, iirc, all of which work fine (the weed wackers might have needed new main tubes. Sometimes they break the things they throw away so dumpster divers will leave them alone, but I found replacing the tube to be fun.) I stopped doing this when I no longer found things I didn't have. They had very few actual tools like drills . I found loads of coffee makers (not even counting the ones they knocked holes in) and a couple pots, but I don't drink coffee. I gave one to a friend and the rest to Goodwill.

Sometimes I would go there with a 3-step ladder, so I could climb inside instead of struggling to reach things. You tie a weight to it with a 5 foot rope, and first throw the weight inside, then climb up the ladder and go in the dumpster. Then when you want to get out, you pulll up the ladder and set it up inside the dumpster. throw the weight out, climb out, and use the rope to retrieve the ladder. It's the closest I'll ever get to Topkapi.

I never leave the slightest mess, because that would be wrong, and I think having to clean up is one of the big reasons they don't want divers. They don't even know I've been there.

Definitely.

In my own n'hood there is an apartment building nearby with maybe 150 units. 10 years or so ago, they moved the dumpster away from the building to a place where I would see it when I came home. The first year, the day after Xmas, I found vcr's and tv's, that either worked or I could fix. But I forgot to look quite a few years, and the three years I've remembered, there has been practically nothing. Across the whole year, there is much less than there used to be. Maybe it's the recession.

I never leave the slightest mess, and when I take something I later decide I don't want, I throw it away elsewhere. I don't live there and I don't want to be seen dropping my trash there, even if it came from them in the first place.

Once I found two or three very big garbage bags of women's clothes, all just washed and clean. Nothing sexy. I gave that to Goodwill. And maybe that same day I found 25 pair of shoes that looked new or almost new, some with the original boxes. Maybe cheap shoes, not sure, but I gave them to another store that sold used stuff and raised money for a good charity, that sold all 25 pair in 2 weeks, for 3 or 4 dollars a pair.

This is the place I found the electric wheel chair. A guy I knew who had had a business selling such things said it was worth 1000 dollars in the condition I found it. 3000 new. Also one of those devices with legs under the bed, that hangs over the bed, to pulll oneself up to a sitting position when he's stuck in bed. I think I "knew" the guy who owned these things, well, just enough to wave as I drove by. In good weather he often sat outside in his chair, often with another guy in a wheelchair, and I think he died, and rather than find out where to donate the stuff, the people at the apartment building just put it next to the dumpster for their carter to throw away. So sad.

The guy I knew told me to call the Multiple Sclerosis or Muscular Dystrophy (i forget which) organization and give the stuff to them, and I did. They do long term loans to people who need the stuff. It just needed some repair where the cover had worn out and the foam rubber underneath was not complete.

I couldn't manage to push the chair home, so I rode it and it went pretty darn fast, even over a grassy not-very-flat area, and worked fine (a joystick to go and turn etc., a gauge to show how much was in the battery, and a couple indicator lights.) It had a cord to plug in and charge it, but without doing that It was still running fine 6 days later when they came to take it away.

Another place I found a floor fan, one of the all-plastic ones. The previous owner had unscreweed the bezel that held the back of the screen to the motor, so the motor and blade were dangling half in, half out of the (two halves of the) screen. But all the parts were still there., and it took 5 minutes to figure it out and put it back together. I use table fans, have no room for a floor fan, so I gave it to goodwill.

Probably a lot of things I've forgotten.

Not a dumpster, but I was once at the counter at Black and Decker when a guy came in for the drill he had left to be fixed. The clerk had it in his hand and told him the tech said it was not worth the money to fix it. He said Do you want it back or shoudl I throw it away? The guy said throw it away, and I said, if you're going to throw it away, can I have it? He gave it to me and when I got home that night, it took 15 or 20 minutes to take it apart, put a washer or two on the armature, so it woudln't wobble front to back, and it's worked fine ever since.

My habit started in NY where people put their unwanted tv, etc. on top of the garbage so people will see it and take it. They put it out days before the garbage is collected, so people will have plenty of time to get it. Once I was on my bicycle in Sheepshead Bay when I saw a 9" B&W tv on top of the garbage, and while I was trying to figure out how to attach it to my luggage rack, so it would stay on for 10 miles the woman of the house came out with rope so I could tie it on. She said she thought it only needed a tube, but it turned out to only need a glass fuse.

Reply to
micky

I'm glad to see you were thoughtful enough to give the items you found that you couldn't use to Goodwill and the wheelchair and other disabled assistance items to a group who could use it to help others. You're a good man Micky, we need more people like you. It's amazing that so much that could help those with nothing gets tossed in the trash showing that the old saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure." is true. Keep on being a good man my friend and I hope you can pass on your good nature to some youngsters before they are corrupted by prevailing attitudes. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Thanks.

Reply to
micky

I've found that this isn't really true. It's just as easy to coil them by hand if you let them (un)twist as they wish. Don't force the issue, the hose will win.

Reply to
krw

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