Proper Storage for Your Garden Hose

Garden hoses may be the most overlooked and undervalued of all gardening tools. A good garden hose is as important as a hoe, rake or spade, but many gardeners ignore and mistreat their garden hoses. Those gardeners pay the price in the form of tangled and cracked hoses, leaking garden hoses and unwieldy hoses that lie in wait to trip the unwary.

Properly selected and maintained, garden hoses can last for many years. A garden hose that is the right length to reach your garden and the right capacity to deliver the proper amount of water will serve you well. One that you have to stretch and bend around corners will show the wear and need replacing far sooner than it should. A properly coiled garden hose on a garden hose reel won’t get kinked, run over by your lawn mower or crack from being left out to bake in the sun. These tips can help you select the best garden hose for your needs and care for it properly.

Invest in a Quality Hose

Spend the extra few dollars to get a good quality hose. Cheap promotional hoses are made of inferior materials that will crack, kink and separate from the fittings under pressure. Even good care and maintenance isn’t enough to preserve a poor quality hose for more than one or two seasons. You’ll have to replace that $10 hose three or four times before your $20 hose even starts to look worn.

In addition, better quality garden hoses are easier to coil, don’t kink as readily and deliver water better than a cheap plastic hose. This is one place where you really do get what you pay for.

Store Your Hose When It’s Not In Use

A garden hose reel is the easiest mechanism for storing your hose when you’re not using it. You can choose from wall mounted hose reels or free-standing hose reels that store hoses of all sizes from ½ inch garden hoses to 1 inch water hoses. Make sure the garden hose reel you choose is large enough to hold the size hose you are using.

Drain the Hose After Using It

When you finish using the hose, drain it of standing water before putting it away. This is especially important before putting your hose away for the winter. Freezing and thawing of water in the hose can weaken the fabric of the hose or crack it. If you need a garden hose for chores outdoors during the winter months, choose a heated garden hose to prevent freezing and preserve your hose.

Store the Hose Out of the Sun

The hot sun can bake your garden hose and lead to cracks and leaks in the fabric. Mount your garden hose reel in a shady spot to keep it cool.

Caring for your garden hose properly will extend its life and make your life much easier. Take the time to put your hose away properly every time you use it and it will serve you for years.

Things to Consider When Buying a Garden Hose

A garden hose is the one gardening item that nearly all homeowners purchase at one point or another. Even those who don’t garden often find that they need a garden hose to wash a car, fill a pool, hose down the driveway or let the kids cool off in the summer.

Often, homeowners or apartment dwellers “inherit” a garden hose that was left behind by a former tenant and only consider replacing it when it springs an annoying leak or causes another problem. At that point, they generally head for the nearest home and garden store and poke around, looking for the cheapest hose that’s long enough to reach where they need it to go.

More often than not, they’ll end up back in the same aisle in a few months when the el cheapo garden hose that was such a great bargain busts a seam or comes loose from its fittings. It’s a shame, really, because the price difference between a good quality hose and a cheap, guaranteed-give-you-problems garden hose is not all that great. Even the most expensive residential garden hose won’t set you back much more than $40. If you’re in the market for a new garden hose, here are a few things to consider when making your choice.

Price

As noted, there’s not a lot of difference in price between cheap garden hoses and higher quality garden hoses, but the difference can make an enormous difference in quality. A 50-foot ½ inch garden hose can cost anywhere from $10 to $40. The more expensive garden hose may come with a warranty for anywhere from five years to a lifetime, so that $40 garden hose may be the last one you’ll ever have to buy.

Length

It might be tempting to buy the longest garden hose you can find. After all, that means you can reach anywhere in the yard, right? The problem is that the longer the garden hose is the lower the water flow rate drops – and it can drop dramatically. The best garden hose is one that is almost exactly the right length to reach where you need to reach.

What if you might need a longer hose for another use? It’s almost always better to buy two shorter hoses and couple them together than to buy one long hose. Shorter garden hoses give you greater flexibility and are easier to coil and drain, both of which can increase their life expectancy.

Capacity

The smaller the diameter of the garden hose you choose, the less water it will deliver in the same time period – and the difference can be significant. A ¾ inch garden hose, for example, delivers 3.5 gallons of water in 10 seconds while a ½” garden hose delivers only 1.3 gallons in the same time frame. A 1 inch water hose delivers nearly 5 times as much water as a ½ inch garden hose.

So what’s the best garden hose to buy for general use?  Unless you need a specialty water hose, like a drinking safe garden hose or a heated garden hose, choose a 5/8 inch hose in a 50 foot length, which is the most popular choice for watering lawns and gardens and delivers water at enough pressure to hose the suds off your car.