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.

Garden Hose Tips and Tricks

Does your garden hose tangle when it should lie flat? Do you have trouble reaching your entire garden? Are you tired of having to buy a new garden hose every year? These garden hose tips and tricks can make your gardening and outdoor cleaning chores so much easier!

Use a Garden Hose Reel

Storing your garden hose properly makes a difference in so many ways. A garden hose reel will keep your hose off the ground – and out of harm’s way – and prevent rot and fungus that can shorten its life. In addition, rolling up your garden hose on a reel will empty all the water, which reduces the likelihood of bacteria growing in standing water inside that dark, cozy, warm environment.

Maximize Hose Output

The diameter of the garden hose you choose affects how much water is delivered at the business end of the hose. The most common garden hose sizes are the ½ inch garden hose, 5/8 inch garden hose and ¾ inch garden hose, as well as 1 inch water hose. Unless you’re filling a swimming pool – or watering troughs – regularly, a 1 inch water hose may be overkill, but a ¾ inch garden hose is ideal for most household tasks, from watering your garden to washing down your siding.

Use More Than One Garden Hose

Need to reach more than one place on your property? The longer your garden hose is, the less water pressure you’ll get from it. If you need 50 feet of garden hose to reach the flower beds by the driveway but only 25 feet to get to your vegetable garden on the other side of the house, why not invest in a multi-connection manifold for your outdoor spigot and keep two garden hoses connected – a 50 foot one to go in one direction and a 25 foot one to reach the veggies. As an added bonus, you can water both gardens at the same time.

Get the Right Garden Hose Fittings

The garden hose fitting attaches the garden hose to your faucet. You can make your watering chores easier by making sure that the connector is made of good quality brass that won’t warp or get bent out of shape if you step on it. You can also buy various attachments for your faucet that will make your hose easier to connect, or provide a swivel function that prevents wear on your garden hose.

Most importantly of all, always buy the best quality garden hose you can afford. Paying a little more for your hose in the first place can save you a lot of money over the long run.

How to Love Your Garden Hose

Most gardeners have a decidedly rocky relationship with one of the most important partners in their gardening efforts – their garden hose Anyone who keeps a healthy garden has nearly daily use for a garden hose watering plants and keeping the lawn looking fresh and green. For many of them, using their hose means wrestling with an intractable and unwieldy garden hose that insists on fighting them every step of the way. It kinks and twists, constricts their water, splits at inconvenient places and drips or leaks at the tap. You can avoid all of these problems and start to love your garden hose if you follow these tips to buy the right hose for your needs and care for it properly.

Pick the Right Hose for Your Needs

Do you really need a 50-foot one inch water hose for your garden? For most casual gardeners – people who have a small vegetable or herb garden in their backyard – a 25-foot ½ inch garden hose or ¾ inch garden hose are more than sufficient for their needs. If 25 feet isn’t long enough to reach most of your garden, consider a 50-foot garden hose but keep in mind that the longer your hose is, the more difficult it will be to handle. If you only need the additional length occasionally, consider buying two 25-foot garden hoses and coupling them when you need to get water beyond its reach.

Specialty Garden Hose Types

If you have a special watering need, chances are there’s a specialty garden hose to meet that need. Among the most popular specialty hoses is the drinking safe garden hose Most common hoses are lined with a plastic that may leach lead and other toxic substances into water that stands in it for any length of time. Drinking safe garden hoses are made of a non-toxic material. If your children – or you – drink from the garden hose on hot days, or if you use the garden hose to fill drinking containers, you’ll want to use a drinking safe garden hose that is safe to drink from.

A coil garden hose is designed for use in small and confined spaces like your patio. When you’re not using a coil hose, it curls into a tight spiral like a spring, making it much easier – and more attractive – to store and use.

Store Your Garden Hose Properly

A garden hose reel is one of the best ways to store your garden hose It keeps the hose off the ground where it can rot or be damaged by lawn mowers and garden tools. Rolling your hose up on a reel also drains the water from it, which helps lengthen its useful life by preventing bacteria and mold growth inside the hose.

If you’re in a rocky relationship with the wrong garden hose it’s time to go shopping and find a hose that will make your life easier.

Is One of These the Garden Hose You Need?

A garden hose is not just a garden hose anymore. Today, you can walk down the aisle in a home improvement or gardening store and find a coil garden hose, irrigation garden hoses, flat garden hoses, water safe garden hose, ½ inch garden hose, ¾ inch garden hose, 1 inch water hose, heated garden hose – and those are just a few of the selections. If you’re in the market for a new garden hose, one of these specialty garden hose options may be just right for you.

Coil Garden Hose

They’re cute, they’re compact and they come in pretty colors unlike typical garden hose colors of grayish green and green. The coil garden hose is popping up on morning talk shows, television ads and in product placements on television shows lately, raising its visibility and making a lot of gardeners think, “Hmm…” Is a coil garden hose right for your needs?

If your gardening space is small and you don’t need a hose that reaches for a full 50 feet, this could be the best garden hose for you. Coil hoses are especially at home on patios and even in your kitchen for watering your plants.

Drinking Safe Garden Hose

Do your kids like to snatch a drink from the garden hose on a hot day? Do you use it to fill your toddler’s wading pool? Then you should know that the typical cheap garden hose has an interior lining that contains lead. On a hot day, the standing water in your garden hose can end up with enough lead to make it dangerous. And while there’s no evidence that plants are affected by the lead in water they’re showered with, they can take up lead from the soil, which soaks up all that water from your garden hose. If you’re using your hose to water vegetables or edible plants, you may want to consider a drinking safe garden hose, which is certified lead-free.

Heated Garden Hose

Not all garden hoses come in when the weather turns cold. If you keep using your hose even after the first frost, a heated garden hose could be a worthwhile investment. Heated garden hoses have an electrical heater at the nozzle and connection ends. The heat prevents the water from freezing inside the garden hose and damaging it. A heated garden hose also cuts down on the time and hassle needed to deal with daily chores that require the use of a hose – you don’t have to wait for the ice to thaw and allow water to get through.

Choosing the best garden hose for your needs will ensure that you get the most use and convenience from your hose. Take the time to consider your needs and choose a hose that meets them instead of choosing the cheapest garden hose on the shelf.

Repair Your Old Garden Hose

A good garden hose is a vital gardening tool. If you buy wisely, the garden hose you purchase can last for years. Occasionally, though, even the best hoses spring a leak, get punctured or need repairs of some sort. If you started with a good quality garden hose, you can easily repair it for less than what you’d spend on a cheap-o plastic hose at the local home emporium. Here’s how to deal with the most common garden hose repairs if you’d rather save your hose than replace it.

Small Leaks

Even the best garden hose can spring a leak, especially if you forget to roll it up on a garden hose reel and it gets run over by a sharp object. If your hose has a small puncture or crack, mend it with hose repair tape or electrical tape. For best results, clean and dry the hose before applying the tape and let it sit overnight before using it.

Leak at the Spigot

The most common reason your garden hose leaks at the faucet is an old or deteriorated washer. Remove the old washer from inside the garden hose fitting, purchase a replacement and pop in the new one. That should take care of the leak for a couple more good years.

Large Leaks

Did you run over the garden hose with the lawn mower or gash it with your weed whacker? You’d hate to throw out 49 feet of perfectly good garden hose when the damage to it only affects 6 or 8 inches. Luckily, you don’t have to. It’s easiest to use a garden hose repair kit – a coupler that holds two cut ends of a hose together. Using a straight, sharp knife, cut out the damaged section. Trim the two ends as square as possible. Take the damaged section with you to a gardening supply center or home improvement store to make sure you get the right size and type of mender. In addition to size – a ½ inch mender kit for a ½ inch garden hose, etc. – you should  also be sure you get the right mending kit for the kind of material your hose is made from: vinyl, rubber, reinforced vinyl, etc. Loosen the screws on both sides of the replacement coupler. Carefully insert the ends of the hose into either end of the coupler until they meet. Tighten the screws until you can’t pull the hose out of the coupler. Attach the hose to the spigot and test the connection.

Replace the Fitting

If you’ve managed to crush or damage the male or female coupling that attaches the hose to the spigot or a nozzle, you can replace it with the proper garden hose fittings. Measure the hose diameter to get the right size fitting. Cut away the old coupling with a sharp knife or blade, squaring off the end as cleanly as possible. Insert the cut end into the new coupling and tighten the screws evenly until you can’t pull the hose out.

Like anything else of high quality, a well-made garden hose will last you for years and is always worth repairing. If your hose is past repair, take the time and effort to replace it with a high-quality garden hose that will last for years to come.

The Perfect Garden Hose – Love at First Sight?

Finding the perfect garden hose is seldom as simple as walking into a hardware store and grabbing the first hose you spot on the shelf. Many people don’t put much thought into buying a garden hose at all, which costs them in the long run. They may end up with a garden hose that kinks and twists and makes watering the garden far more difficult than it needs to be. They may end up with a hose that splits or breaks, or a cheap garden hose that breaks off from the garden hose fittings. That cheap garden hose they thought was such a bargain can end up costing them a lot more than they planned.

Even a cheap garden hose will cost you $12 to $15. A high-quality garden hose will cost you anywhere from $20 to $50, depending on the size and type of hose you choose. The cheap hose may get you through one summer season – if you’re lucky. A good ½ inch garden hose or ¾ inch garden hose, on the other hand, can easily last you five to ten years. Do the math and it’s easy to see why it makes more sense to buy a high-quality garden hose instead of dishing out $15 every summer for a hose that won’t last.

Beyond quality, though, there are a number of things to consider when you’re picking up a new hose for your garden. Here are the most important considerations to help you choose the perfect garden hose, even if it’s not one you fall in love with at first sight.

Use

How are you planning to use your garden hose? If you’re like most people, you want a basic hose that you can use to water the garden one day and wash your car the next. A standard water hose will suit your needs just fine. Will you leave it outside or store it inside? If you need a hose throughout the year in an area that dips into the freezing temperatures, you’ll want to buy a heated garden hose to make your life easier and prolong its life. If your hose won’t go much further than your patio, your best option may be a coil garden hose, which takes up little space and looks good on your patio. Finally, consider a drinking safe garden hose, especially if you’ll be using it around small children or plan to water vegetables with it. These hoses are made of materials that won’t leach into the water, making them safer and healthier to use.

Reach

Consider how far you want to be able to reach with your garden hose and choose a length that will just get there. The further the water has to travel through the hose, the lower your water pressure will be when it gets there. If you do most of your gardening within 25 feet of the water faucet but occasionally want to drag it out to the driveway, you’re better off getting two 25-foot hoses and coupling them when you need more reach.

Choosing the right garden hose for your needs can save you money and make your life easier. Before you head out to the hardware store, figure out how you’ll use the hose and how far you want it to reach and you’ll find your choice is much easier to make.

Is It Time to Replace Your Garden Hose?

April showers bring May flowers, but your garden hose can certainly make a difference. As the year rolls into gardening season throughout the country, it’s time to inspect your garden hose and decide whether it’s up to all the jobs you’ll use it for this spring and summer.

What to Look for When Inspecting Your Garden Hose

If you stored your garden hose properly for the winter – unless, of course, you had a heated garden hose that stayed out for the season – chances are that it’s in good shape for the year. A high quality garden hose will last for up to ten years if you take good care of it. A cheap garden hose, on the other hand, may not even get you through a full season.

Inspect the hose around the garden hose fittings for any fraying or wear. The hose is most likely to fray and wear around the connectors. If there’s even a little wear, your hose could sprout leaks at the spigot, which will waste water and make it harder to do the tasks you need to do.

Uncoil the hose and check its flexibility. A quality garden hose should uncoil smoothly and lay straight when you stretch it out. A cheaper vinyl garden hose without nylon braiding for reinforcement will very likely have settled into the coils and may not want to unroll. It may even have developed kinks that won’t release at all.

Check the length of the hose for cracks, splits or hard spots. Squeeze it gently along its entire length and be conscious of any areas where it feels different. Those areas may have hardened and become prone to cracking or splitting when you run water through it.

If everything seems fine, hook up your garden hose to the faucet and turn on the water to do a final test. If all of the tests go well, congratulations!

If, on the other hand, your garden hose fails any of these tests, it’s probably time to do some repair work on it or replace it with a new one.

Replace or Repair Your Garden Hose?

If the only place you find wear on your garden hose is close to the fittings, the repair job is a fairly easy one. You can purchase brass garden hose fittings from a supplier of garden hoses and gardening supplies. Cut the old garden hose fittings off with a sharp knife, making sure to remove the worn part of the vinyl. Follow the package directions to replace it with the new fitting.

If the damage to your hose is more extensive, you should replace the entire thing. Invest in a high quality garden hose so you won’t have to replace it again in a year or two. You’ll find many different types and sizes of garden hoses available, including ½ inch garden hose and 5/8 inch garden hose, the most popular sizes for general home use. Choose the right garden hose for your needs – and don’t forget a good garden hose reel to keep it safe and prevent damage to it when you’re doing yard work.