Summer Review: How to Take Care of your Garden Hose

We’re well into gardening season throughout most of the United States. How is your garden hose holding up? If you’ve been following the best practices for taking care of your hose, chances are it’s in pretty good shape. If you end up replacing your gardening hose more often than every five years or so, you’re spending too much money. These tips can help you take care of your garden hose to prolong its life and save yourself some money.
Buy a High Quality Hose from the Start
A better quality garden hose will stand up to the rigors of daily use far better than a cheap, thin hose. Expect to pay $30 to $50 for a good hose for your gardening and outdoor work. In addition to lasing longer, it will perform better than a cheaper hose. Choose one with solid brass fitting that won’t crush out of shape if you step on it or a car runs over it.
Choose the Right Size Garden Hose
The best size hose for most gardening needs is either a 1/2 inch garden hose or a 3/4 inch garden hose, both of which will deliver water at good pressure and flow without overpowering your plants with high pressure. As far as length goes, choose a garden hose that’s long enough to reach where you need to go but not so long that you end up with lots of extra length that can fold, kink and trip you up.
Drain Your Hose Every Time You Use It
Excess water inside the garden hose contributes to decay, corrosion and bacterial growth. One of the easiest ways to drain the hose is to coil it over your shoulder and let water drain as you roll it.
Get It Out of the Sun
Obviously, you’ll be using your garden hose in the sun, but don’t leave it sitting out in the sun when it’s not in use. UV rays weaken the material and make your hose more prone to damage. After use, get your hose out of the sun and store it in a shady, cool area if possible.
Coil Your Hose After Each Use
The easiest way to store your hose out of the sun is to roll it up on a garden hose reel after each use. Garden hose reels offer other benefits as well: they’ll keep your hose off the ground where it can be damaged (or trip you up) and look a lot neater. You can even choose garden hose reels on wheels that you can easily move to wherever you need.

How to Diagnose and Fix Common Garden Hose Problems

How is a garden hose like a chair? They’re both simple, everyday items that we use every day – and that we simply expect to work. When they don’t work right – when your chair wobbles or your garden hose leaks at the faucet – most people simply resign themselves to living with it. When they fail more dramatically – such as when your chair collapses when you sit or your garden hose bursts in the middle of use – few people attempt a repair. Instead, they throw out the offending item and replace it with a new one. We don’t know a lot about chairs, but we do have some suggestions for dealing with common water hose problems.
My Hose Leaks At The Faucet Connection.
Check the connector on the hose first. Many cheaper garden hoses use plastic or soft metal garden hose fittings that can warp out of shape or strip when they’re tightened down. Plastic garden hose fittings are also prone to cracking – sometimes even invisibly. The best prevention for this is to make sure you buy a high-quality hose with solid brass fittings. If the fitting is warped or cracked or the threads are stripped, you can either replace the hose with a new one, or replace the fitting. Many places that sell garden hoses also sell garden hose fittings and repair kits. The repair is a fairly simple one. You just cut off the old fitting, making sure you have a clean edge, and follow the instructions to attach a new one.
If the garden hose fitting looks fine, the problem may be a worn washer. You can find replacement washers for garden hoses at your local hardware store or many websites.
My Garden Hose Has a Split in the Body
The simplest way to repair a split, hole or cut in your garden hose is to remove the damaged section. You’ll need an inexpensive hose connector and a sharp razor knife. Just cut out the damaged section, making the cuts as clean as possible. Slide both ends of the garden hose into the connector and tighten the screws.
My Garden Hose Kinks in All the Wrong Places
Of course, there’s never a right place for your hose to kink. The problem with most hoses is that a kink or bend often becomes a permanent crease, which means that the hose is likely to kink in the same spot again and again.  You can strengthen it by applying a “splint” made from a short length of hose. Slice the splint lengthwise on one side. Soften it in hot water until you can open it up. Wrap it around the section of hose that kinks. When it cools it will harden again, and reinforce your garden hose at the weak spot to prevent it from bending.

Take a Break with Some Garden Hose Fun

A good garden hose is a serious gardening tool, but once in a while, it’s nice to take a break and have some fun. Enjoy this collection of garden hose humor and fun things to do with your garden hose.

What Kind of Socks Does a Gardener Wear?

Garden hose, of course! If he’s feeling really fancy, he might opt for a coil garden hose in a bright color. For every day wear, he’s got a choice of 1/2 inch garden hose, 3/4 inch garden hose or even 1 inch water hose.

You might be a gardener if you can amuse yourself for more than an hour with a garden hose. In fact, we’d posit that you can’t possibly be a gardener if you can’t think of at least a dozen ways to amuse yourself with a garden hose. Here’s a list of fun things to do with your garden hose, either instead of or while watering your garden.

Investing in a new garden hose for your actual gardening tasks? Don’t throw your old hose out. Cap the end and poke a dozen or so holes in it with a nail. Lay out a curving trail on the lawn and turn on the water. Let the kids go nuts in the spray from your makeshift sprinkler. For even more fun, encourage them to play patch-the-hose with duct tape while the water is spraying, or stomp-the-spray.

Liven up your next pool party with a game of water limbo. Use a high quality garden hose fitted with a variable trigger spray and keep the stream in a tight, focused spray. It’s a great way to encourage people to get wet and have fun.

Got two garden hoses and a Y-attachment? Connect them both to the spigot, break out a couple of beach balls and mark out a finish line at the other end of the line. The object is to propel the beach ball from the start line to the finish line using nothing but the stream of water from a garden hose. You can add multiple variations to the rules. If you’ve only got one garden hose, use a timer to see who can keep the beach ball up in the air the longest, using just the spray from the garden hose.

If you’re going to be using that old garden hose to amuse the kids, you’ll need to replace it with a new hose. Check out the newest styles of garden hoses available, including polyurethane garden hoses, heated garden hose and the coil garden hose that’s ideal for small spaces.

Getting Your Garden Hose Under Control

Now that we’re a couple of months into summer, there’s a good chance that you’re getting a bit fed up with your garden hose If you’re like a lot of folks, you’ve probably spent almost as much time untangling the blessed thing as you have using it for its intended purpose, whether that’s transporting water to your thirsty plants, giving the kids a good soak-down on a hot afternoon or washing the car to keep it looking spiffy-clean. In the worst case scenario, you may be in the market to replace your garden hose after running over it with the lawn mower or because it’s sprung more leaks than your kitchen colander. If you’re as tired of wrestling with your garden hose as we are, here are a few tips to help you get it under control and keep it that way.

Wind It Up
Garden hose reels are a gardener’s best friend. A good quality garden hose reel gives you a place to store your hose when it’s not in use – which actually does a lot more than just keep your garden hose from tripping you when you’re on your way to the car. When you keep your hose on a hose reel, you minimize its contact with the ground, which reduces the chance that it will rot. You keep bugs out of it, and, bonus – you automatically drain the hose so that standing water isn’t soaking up all the nasty chemicals the inside of your hose may be treated with.  (Of course, if you choose a drinking safe garden hose to begin with, you don’t have to worry about lead and other nasty stuff in your vegetable patch.)

Prevent Kinking
Kinks are hazardous to your hose’s health, and not just because they drive you crazy enough to stomp the silly thing into the ground. Inexpensive garden hoses are the most prone to the problem, but even higher quality hoses can end up with their kinks set into them as if you’d pressed them in with a hot iron. There are a few ways to prevent kinking. The first is to choose a portable garden hose reel that you can wheel around with you. The less length you’re dragging around with you, the less likely it is to get doubled on itself and get kinked up.

Your other option is to choose a garden hose that is less prone to kinking in the first place. A good coil garden hose, for example, is specifically designed not to kink up on you, so you can expect it to last longer.

If you’re tired of a garden hose that kinks up and fights with you whenever you turn on the water, check out the selection of garden hose reels you can buy online and get your hose under control once and for all.

Things to Look for in a New Garden Hose

When it’s time to replace your garden hose, it’s tempting to just pop into the nearest big box home improvement store and buy the cheapest hose on the shelf. If you do that, prepare yourself to make that trip an annual pilgrimage. A cheap garden hose may not even last out the entire season. If you wnt to get the most out of your money – and the best for your garden and outdoor chores – take the time to find the best kind of garden hose for your needs. Here are a few of the important things you should consider when buying a new garden or water hose.

Environmental Conditions
Will your new hose be baking in the sun for hours and hours? Keep in mind that heat and ultraviolet rays contribute to the decay of most materials. Look for a polyurethane garden hose or a drinking safe garden hose that is guaranteed not to leach chemicals and heavy metals – used to treat many garden hoses – into the water you use to water your vegetables and fill your swimming pools.

Likewise, if you’ll be expecting your garden hose to deal with temperatures that routinely fall below freezing, choose a heated garden hose. They come in all sizes from a 1/2 inch garden hose to 1 inch water hose, and lengths from 25 to 100 feet,  so that you can get exactly the size heated garden hose you need to water your animals, hose down vehicles and outbuildings and handle all the other outdoor winter tasks for which you require a hose.

Garden Hose Size
Pick the right size for your garden hose, both width-wise and diameter. Keep in mind that every foot your water has to travel from the faucet to the nozzle decreases the water pressure you’ll get at the business end of the hose, so it makes sense to buy a garden hose that is just as long as you need and no longer. In fact, many experts recommend that if you occasionally need to reach a further distance – say that once a season patio pressure washing – it’s better to buy two shorter hoses and attach the second one when you need more length. It will save you maneuvering an oversize garden hose most of the time to have that convenience once during the summer.

In most cases, a 1/2 inch garden hose to 3/4 inch garden hose will be the right diameter. Keep in mind that a 3/4 inch garden hose delivers twice as much water in the same time as a 1/2 inch water hose, and pick the one that works best for your needs.

Pick the right garden hose this year and you won’t have to buy another one next year.

Stop Fighting Your Garden Hose

Every morning, it begins – the epic battle of the garden hose. I want to pull it in one direction. It wants to go in the other. I want to reach the front flower bed. It wants to curl around the legs of the patio furniture. It insists on leaking at the faucet and spraying at the garden hose fittings at the nozzle, dribbling water down my arm and along the side of my shirt. And just when I think I’ve finally shown that 3/4 inch garden hose who the boss is, the water stops dead in its tracks, held back behind the kinky bend that the hose has somehow managed to develop. On the other side of the garden.

If the battle of the garden hose sounds familiar to you, it may just be time to replace your unruly garden hose with one that will be docile and helpful. While there’s no personality test to weed out homicidal garden hoses – you know they exist! They’re the ones that wrap around your ankle when you’re just trying to give your tomato plants a nice long drink of water.  There are some tips that will help you find the right hose for watering your garden, washing your car, watering your animals and filling your swimming pools.

Always Buy Quality

Remember how your mother always said if you buy a classic, good quality blouse, you’ll wear it for years? That’s true of garden hoses, too. If you invest in a high quality garden hose made of superior materials, you won’t have to replace it for years. Considering the amount of use you’ll get out of it, that’s a considerably amount of service. Prices for quality hoses vary depending on the length and diameter, but you can figure on paying at least $40 for a typical 50-foot 1/2 inch garden hose that will last you for up to 10 years.

Pick the Right Size

Longer is not always better, and sometimes fatter gets the job done more efficiently. If water pressure is a concern in your area, consider getting a hose with higher diameter – a 3/4 inch garden hose delivers twice as much water In the same amount of time as a 1/2 inch garden hose. Always choose a garden hose that’s long enough to reach where you want to go – but not a whole lot longer. The longer your hose is, the more likely it will be to catch on furniture and house corners, not to mention, wrap around your ankles and drag over your lawn, kinking and twisting as it goes.

The right garden hose can make your life a lot easier around the outside of your home. Stop battling with your hose and start enjoying your gardening time so much more.

Tips to Extend the Life of Your Garden Hose

Dealing with a leaky or damaged garden hose is annoying and can be expensive. If you’ve invested in a drinking safe garden hose or a heated garden hose, you want to make sure that you get your money’s worth. While it’s not difficult to repair a garden hose that’s sprung a leak, it can cost you a pretty penny to buy garden hose fittings and clamps to put it back together again. It’s so much easier to avoid the problems in the first place – and it isn’t that difficult at all. These tips can help you extend the life of your garden hose through season after season of use.

Start with a Quality Garden Hose

There are hundreds of cheap hoses on the market. Just walk down the aisles of your local big box store or hardware store and you’ll see garden hoses in all lengths and diameters in a range of prices starting at less than $10 for a 1/2 inch garden hose with cheap  garden hose fittings to more than $80 for a good quality 1 inch water hose with multiple layers of reinforcement to make the hose more flexible and tougher. Which one is the right one for you? That’s something you’ll have to decide, but in general, you’ll want a lightweight garden hose with heavy-duty brass garden hose fittings. The higher quality you can afford, the longer your garden hose is likely to last under normal conditions.

Turn Off the Water

Don’t just turn off the hose valve and leave the water running at the faucet for long lengths of time. Constant water pressure inside the hose will weaken it over time.

Coil Your Hose When You’re Done with It

It’s tempting to just leave your hose where you last used it, especially if you use it in the same place day after day. There are a couple of problems with that. First, you’re letting water just sit inside the hose where it can breed bacteria and weaken the inner walls. Second, you’re offering a delightful, shady, moist, cool shelter for garden insects that you’d rather not have nesting in your garden hose. Third, and worst of all, it leaves your garden hose laying on the ground where it can be walked on, driven over and, horror of horrors, become just one more casualty of the lawn mower. If you invest in a good quality garden hose reel, coiling your hose is a simple matter of turning a crank. As it coils, the hose will automatically empty itself, so that you’re not letting water sit in it for days.

The better you treat your garden hose, the longer it will last. Considering how expensive a good-quality hose can be, it just makes sense to take some precautionary care to keep it in good repair.