Garden Hose

I have a good quality (10 year guarantee) wilko hose (obv no longer available)

When I wanted a longer 3/4" hose, I bought this, resists kinking, lives outdoors in a field and holding up well so far.

So why not buy the same again?

Looks almost identical to the one sitting in my back garden, that I bought 25 years ago. Apart from it was green rather than grey.

The spring connectors only last a few years.

Expensive but I have Hozelok Ultramax hose. Anti kink (really is) and

Nothing about it being kinkproof, but then even those said to kinkproof fail over time.

That silver Hoselock hose with the yellow stripe is rubbish. I know, I have that one and it’s too thin-walled to avoid kinking at the slightest provocation. The Hoselock fittings don’t grip it well due to its thinness and it’s prone to splitting if you actually try plugging the hose end into the receiver on the hose reel.

Generally I’m happy enough with Hoselock fittings but that hose is particularly poor.

Tim

Claber fittings seem much more 'positive locking' and don't dribble like Hozelock fittings.

I thought that the SS-based garden hoses might be a solution to the kinking plastic hoses, but they don't seem very durable and leak a bit too readily according to some reviews. Also, the internal diameter is only 3/8", so the flow rate would be considerably less than that obtainable with a normal garden hose:

Possibly very similar to flexi hoses for plumbing. The inner tube may not have a thick wall. Plumbing flexi hoses tend to only be flexed when installed but they can have a short life if physically twisted/kinked when fitting. I would expect a long hose of this type to be twisted when in use.

I have a couple of hoses and one kinks as soon as you look at it. It's made of very soft material and, without water, is easily flattened between thumb and finger. The other doesn't kink and is a LOT stiffer but the downside is that it tends to have memory of how it was wound in the reel. Ok on a hot summer days but a tiny bit of a PITY when trying to extend it to full length in cooler weather. There was a big difference with the ease of fitting the end attachments with the latter having to be softened in boiling water before it would fit over the attachment. There wasn't much of a price difference when purchasing these two hoses.

The other types of hose to be avoided is the expanding hose - these have a wafer thin expanding rubber(?) tube inside and will not tolerate even the slightest amount of abuse, such as dragging the hose around the corner of a building and allowing the corner of the brick to start cutting into the inner hose section. I've had one burst when using it with a spray gun - it was OK when the gun was allowing water to pass but immediately failed when the trigger on the gun was released to stop the water flow.

Possibly the end attachments are are low quality factory fitted and not replaceable because of the metal outer skin.

One year I decided to get some fairly expensive brass end fitting for my taps and hoses. They worked quite well for a while but then it became more difficult to mate with their other half. I think the problem was limescale. It sticks to the brass/metal and gums up the moving "click" parts. Rather than plastic springs the brass fittings had ball bearings with springs behind them. With a good quality plastic part the limescale doesn't stick and is cleaned off every time two parts are mated.

I have several sets from Aldi's middle aisle, and they appear to be performing better than my older plastic ones.

A supply of "O" rings is also useful.

Chris

Yes, I've got a hose like that. It does fight back a bit in cold weather, but on the other hand, I must have had it more than 20 years - it's seen two reels out in that time.

My brass ones from Aldi are very good, but so are the older plastic ones. I bought the best plastic ones tho.