Garden Hose

[Boots]

I am looking for suggestions on a garden hose that will not kink every time you look at it. And also not one that is too heavy to pull around as my wife and I are 70. Thanks

[Bert]

Rubber hoses are the only ones that won't kink easily, but they are also the heaviest type.

Bert

[Warren]

If you're looking for a 5/8", or 3/4", or even 1/2" hose of any length, the design features that help prevent kinking will be the same things that add weight to the hose.

If you're looking for something light, and up to about 50', you may want to consider a coiled hose. They're very light because they're usually only 1/4" or

3/8", and they resist kinking because you (theoretically) never pull them straight. Just make sure you store them by allowing them to spring back. If you coil them on top of themselves, the coils will get tangled, and that may be more frustration than a kinked regular hose.

This, of course, won't work well if you're talking about great lengths, nor would it work well if you're keeping the hose in place for some time like with a lawn sprinkler. They're a tripping hazard for people crossing their path, so they should only be used actively with someone there.

If you need a longer hose, how you store it may be the key to avoiding kinks. An automatic hose reel, for example, would be better than just coiling the hose in a pile.

[Ron]

How about the coiled type,looks like a slinky. we have one off the patio and it works ok.

[Hal]

I'm a young 69, but my wife found a Melnor hose reel that is light and has a flat hose that is pretty light and is 70' extended. The reel case and handle are in the middle of the hose when it is extended. It is light the water flow is slower and it leaks at the hose end fittings, but it is easier to handle.

My kinking problem comes from turning the same direction many times going through the various flower beds watering. I simply have to twist the hose to get it straight again. I use a 3/4" hose that is heavier with a stripe down the hose that helps me keep it fairly straight. I prefer the larger hose because of the greater water volume and have a hose reel attached to the house near the outside hose bib. That is on the short end of the house where a straight pull of the hose isn't possible, so I have hose guides. One guide directly in front of the reel that allows me to pull the hose in a direction adjacent to the reel and others to make turns as needed. The hose guides makes dragging hose a lot easier. I must admit I don't keep mine perfectly straight either and do have an occasional kink.

Regards,

Hal

[Richard Cline]

I have a 3/4" rubber hose that I have been using for 22 years (I got is used). It still is in good shape. The hose doesn't kink. It is a little heavy but I do not find that objectionable. I am 70 years old.

Dick

[paghat]

Those life-time garden hoses are getting harder & harder to find because not standard stock anywhere but Sears. The majority of hose manufacturers make either cheap vinyl hoses or "premium" vinyl hoses with radial reinforcement; neither type of hose is worth diddly-squat. Hoses labeled "heavy duty" aren't. An alleged high-end hose in a manufacturer's line has metal ends rather than breakable hard-plastic & otherwise it can turn out to be the same cheap vinyl hose. Teknor sells a composite hose that is so stiff as to be almost useless in the garden. They advertise it as the state of the art for non-kink hoses, but they guarantee it only ten years

-- ten painful years of trying to get it to bend around corners.

The real deal is made of a high-grade rubber rather. In just about any department store big or small you can usually find short pieces of it sold as "hot water" hoses or the like, but practical lengths for the garden are missing. Sears Craftsman makes an all-rubber hose which is the only one widely available (Craftman also makes vinyl hoses so the brand doesn't guarantee the best). It's been years since I've seen an all-rubber hose offered elsewhere but Sears, some companies just stopped making them. Yet they will put packaging on the hoses with phrase like "all rubber vinyl hose" to fool folks -- sounds like "all-natural artificial flavors."

Some gardening articles recommend checking the DPI on the hose to assess its worth, but the vast majority of hoses don't state anywhere on the hose or the packaging what the DPI might be, & if you ask the average customer service guy or gal for the DPI info on the hoses they sell, they'll think you're talking in Hungarian or Chinese.

Most people are looking for the short-term bargain, so most stores won't waste shelf space with the best products, which would have to be priced higher than all the surrounding products so would be slow to sell. Stores don't want to stock the high-end item for the one customer in a thousand; they want to sell lots of product fast, & that means focus on cropola. My search for a quality sprayer turned into a Knight's Quest. I finally got one from Italy -- quality metal cannister sprayers are no longer manufactured anywhere in the United States, & none even have metal connecting parts, not even the Craftsman which is the least awful but not nearly good enough. If I had my grampa's sprayer I bet that'd still be working fine.

-paghat the ratgirl

[Travis]

What is DPI?

[paghat]

Should be PSI, pounds per square inch capacity. DPI applies to Photoshop which I was using all morning. A hose that has a high PSI number will likely never burst under water pressure. Cheap hoses at 100 or 150 PSI could easily burst if the fawcett was turned on all the way. So manufactuers like to leave that information off the packaging making it impossible to judge the strength, though we can assume if they won't reveal it it's insufficient.

-paggers

[bamboo]

Put a pressure reducer on the line, inexpensive ones for RV water systems and for Drip irrigation will drop the pressure and make them hoses last a long time. They are available from the red army at sprawl mart You want a real rubber hose, the rest are just annoying. Expect to pay

60$ or more.

[Warren]

Holy cow! If you've got that kind of pressure, then somebody left off a pressure regulator on your line. Typical residential water pressure is only about 60 psi. Higher pressures are either reduced before the meter, or a special commercial meter would need to be installed.

[paghat]

Residential water is frequently 100 psi, but a hose that claims it will not rupture until it reaches 150 to 200 psi will probably burst its second year at a much, much lower psi because weakend by normal usage, UV exposure, heat, & cold. It might spring a leak even if it's hardly ever used. Worse, drip irrigation hoses from places like Lowes & Home Depot will burst at 30 or 40 psi & some of them could only be safely used at 10 or 20 psi which is pretty hard to sustain without a pressure regulator, & even a hilltop house with the world's worst water pressure will eventually bust those hoses, a real nuisance if someone has gone to the wasted bother to bury a couple hundred feet of the stuff & it keeps rupturing even at low psi, even with a pressure regulator.

Just about everyone who has bought such things at Home Depot or Lowes knows what it's like to bust a hose even on its first day of use with pressure from an average outdoor spigot of 50 to 100 psi. When you want a hose to last for life the psi rupture rating will be in the hundreds & it can even be hooked up to a pressure pump for washing the house or sidewalk

-- with normal use it'll still be intact thirty or fifty years later, but no vinyl hose ever will last that long.

The real stinky thing is a bad hose can be rated 150 psi which will mean its rupture point not its safety point, & it is really only useable at half that psi or less. The Craftsman all-rubber hose is rated 165 psi, but that is for actual continuous use; it has a separate rupture rating which is 500 psi. That's what's needed when we're talking "the last hose you will ever have to buy." Nothing less will last.

-paghat the ratgirl

[Travis]

I C. When we had the house replumbed (is that a word) a couple of years ago the plumbers put in a pressure regulator according to code. I think it is set for 60 psi so we would never have more in the house.

[dr-solo]

what I have been doing is laying hose permanently to far areas and then putting Y splitters at various places and attach short lengths of hose for watering. I even buried short runs of hose under grass. the rest I toss some mulch over the hoses to cover them up. black hose doesnt show up like green. Ingrid

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[Boots]

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[escape]

Sam's Club sells a rubber hose with a lifetime warranty for twenty dollars. I own two of them, they are 75 feet long. This is a heavy hose, but it does not kink easily and I've had it for about 8 years now in the hot, Texas sun. It has not been bothered a bit. However, I did staple the receipt to the cardboard and I keep it stored with my other lifetime warranty things.

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