Tips for Selecting a Garden Hose

Finding a new garden hose is easy. You can find garden hoses at home improvement stores, hardware stores, department stores and online stores in a wide range of sizes, types and styles. Finding the right garden hose is not so easy. When choosing a garden hose you should consider how you’ll be using it, how you’ll be storing it, whether your new hose needs special capabilities and where it has to reach. Not sure which is the right garden hose for you? Consider these factors in making your choice.

How Long Is Too Long?

You know your hose can be too short, but can your garden hose be too long? Absolutely, say gardening experts. The longer your hose is, the harder your water has to work to get to the nozzle. If you’re using a long hose to reach a garden just a short distance away, the water has to travel a longer distance and needs higher water pressure if you want more than a dribble at the business end. Hoses that are too long also tend to get tangled more easily and are more prone to being damaged and causing trips and falls. Advice? Buy a hose that’s not more than 10 or so feet longer than the distance you need to carry it. Got two areas you need to reach, one further away from the faucet than the other? Split the difference, say the experts. Buy two shorter hoses so that you can use one to reach the nearer patch and hook them together to get to the further one.

Special Use Hoses

A hose is a hose, but some hoses have super powers. Think about the ways you’ll be using your garden hose to figure out which special capabilities or features make sense for you. One special type of hose that’s gaining popularity is a drinking safe garden hose. The interior of some garden hoses have an inner coating that contains lead and other chemicals. Standing water in those hoses can become contaminated. If you have kids who drink from the hose or if you water garden vegetables, you might want to err on the side of safety and opt for a drinking safe garden hose.

Storage Ease

A coil garden hose is designed to make storage easy in small places. Rather than being a long, stretched out tube, the coil garden hose coils like an inner spring, making them easier to control in tight spaces like your patio, or even your kitchen. If you choose a standard garden hose consider purchasing a garden hose reel to store your hose safely off the ground and prevent it from kinking and tangling when it’s not in use.

Expect to spend $25 to $40 for a high-quality garden hose that will last you for years. While there are cheaper hoses available, you’ll end up replacing them multiple times and spending more in the long run than if you buy a good, high quality garden hose in the first place.

Specialty Garden Hose Products and Accessories

Make your gardening and your outdoor life easier by choosing specialty garden hose products and garden hose accessories that help protect your hose, extend its life and give you capabilities you don’t get with ordinary garden hoses. Here are just a few of the specialty garden hose items you should have in your arsenal of gardening equipment.

Garden Hose Reel

The way you store your hose when it’s not in use makes a big difference in how long it lasts and how well it performs its job. Being in contact with the ground can contribute to mold and rot that will substantially shorten the useful life of your garden hose. A hose that’s sprawled on the ground is always at risk of being run over by a lawn mower, tractor or vehicle. It’s also an accident waiting to happen when people trip and fall over it. A garden hose reel is the ideal storage container for your hose. There are many types of hose reels available, but they all provide the same basic benefits. When you roll up your garden hose and store it on a reel, you get it up off the ground, making your yard a safer place for you and your garden hose. And in most cases, when you roll the hose, you’ll be emptying any standing water that can contribute to the growth of bacteria inside the hose.

Garden Hose Fittings

The metal parts of your hose are called garden hose fittings. They include the hose connector that screws onto your faucet or to nozzles and sprinklers, and the collar that connects the connector to the hose itself. High quality garden hose fittings can increase the life and utility of your garden hose. Cheap garden hoses are often made with poor quality metal that bends and warps, making it impossible to get a good, non-leaky connection to your water faucet. You can buy garden hose fittings to repair damaged hoses or to make them more useful at many online sites that sell garden hose accessories.

Coil Garden Hose

Coil garden hoses are a specialty garden hose that are ideally suited to small spaces, such as patio gardens. Usually made of high-quality vinyl, they’re coiled in the shape of a spring, minimizing the amount of space needed for their storage. Most coil garden hose products will be ideal if you need a ½ inch garden hose that’s less than 50 feet long.

Choosing the right garden hose accessories can make it easier to care for, maintain and store your hose properly, extending its life and saving you money.