Spray head and dual garden hose fittings?

[spamlet]

Have had a fairly neat two way brass adaptor on our outdoor tap for a few years. Surprised to find that there was enough water behind one of the ball valves to break the brass spigot off with one of the hoses during the big freeze.

I notice Screwfix has a similar model but with plastic isolator levers:

there are several comments on other sites about the all brass items being prone to break, I guess we were just lucky up till now, and this Screwfix one might be an improvement... No I don't trust the Hozelock version...

...while checking the hoses out, I also found that quite an expensive plastic Hozelock 'multispray' 'pistol end', had also split down the middle during the winter!

All the Hozelock stuff seems grossly overpriced: and apparently feebly fragile too!

Anybody know of a reliable - maintainable - preferably metal, multispray 'pistol end', that can be obtained for less than an arm and a leg?

Cheers,

S

[Clanger]

Surprisingly, ASDA. They have an own label one for less than £2 with eight different sprays which seems to work quite well.

Regards,

C

[newshound]

Can't answer your question, but also had the plastic antisyphon valves built into a brass tap fail in the big freeze. Pain in the neck too, as it was the last unfrozen water source for a livery yard with 40 horses. Had to drill it out.

[Kevin Poole]

But were you then asked; "Can you mend this, please?", as I was.

Duct tape was, as ever, suggested, but I declined the suggestion.

Self-amalgamating tape? Drill the end of the crack, open it out with the mock-Dremel, and Isopon it? Weld it with the Weller gun? Any better ideas? At this rate it will be cheaper to buy Tesco's finest bottled water to sprinkle on the garden.

Visit Mr Hozelock and stick it where the sun don't shine? (then turn the water on)?

[The Wanderer]

Err, it pays to remove fittings as much as possible from outside taps during the winter.

[spamlet]

Ar but the thing that broke on the outside tap was, basically just another outside tap, made from the same materials, so wasn't expected to behave any different. Only in reading comments on the internet sales pages of similar items, did I discover that quite a few people had had these break even without frost. Presumably because the internal threaded part of the spigot where it sits against the ball valve made the metal rather too thin. Still think it looked nice though, compared with the chunky, gaudy, and presumably even more fragile, Hozelock version.

The spray head I would normally have removed - as they tend to get nicked round here: same reason I leave the hose connected as I've had to put out a couple of fires with it too and it just about can damp down the hedge opposite until the firemen arrive - but in this case I had been using it to spray hot water (from shower head) onto an iced up frozen roof, cos at the time I thought the frozen moss must be preventing thaw water from running down the outside of the tiles, and so ending up on the living room ceiling instead (Turned out someone had put the felt on with an inward facing loop at the bottom in the end grrrr.). Just forgot to hide it away again afterwards. Anyhow, at the time I thought Hozelock=pricey=stronger than the crap I've been used to!

And actually, round here, it pays to buy things *no-one else* likes... Though even then, they are likely to smash or set fire to them just for fun.

S

[spamlet]

Not this time Kevin, but with cheaper items, I have had a sound-looking 'wand' with a metal tube that rapidly turned into a couple of feet of sprinkler, no matter how much duct tape was added; I have found the rotating heads of others to be operated by plain iron screws, balls, and springs - or simply to be not dismountable at all when time came for washers/seals/o-rings to need replacing etc. If the Hozelock does come apart (which I am not really expecting), and the handle is just plastic with a hole down the middle, then an internal sleeve could probably be organised, but at the pressures involved I doubt if I'd ever get any threaded or odd shaped parts not to leak. They aren't stupid these designers... (Bit like the guys that change the end plugs on link lights, that are otherwise identical, a couple of times a year, just to make sure you can't actually link them when any fail. Oh, and their mates over in the rack shelving dept who change the spacing and shape of the spur attachments every time you want to add a shelf...)

Good to read the uk-diy spirit is alive and kicking though!

S

[Rick Hughes]

> As there are several comments on other sites about the all brass items

I bought a cast alloy 'end' that has a rotating spray connector. It came with 2 brass quickfit fittings. .... all fixed to one card.

They were on offer in B&Q