Garden Hose Woes

[N80]

I posted a thread a while back about good garden hoses. After going through several other "good" garden hoses, one of which I immediately threw in the trash, I finally buckled down and bought a contractor grade hose from Continental Tire. I'll be ordering another one as well as it is a very good hose.

But even with a high quality hose, twisting and some kinking are still an issue. It occurred to me that the primary cause of this is that the hose cannot swivel at the spigot end or the nozzle, so it twists and kinks. The female end of most hoses (that attaches to the spigot) can swivel, but in every hose I've owned when that end is screwed tight on the spigot it no longer swivels.

So, I'm on a mission to find a male-female swivel for the spigot end of the hose and a female-male swivel end for the nozzle end. So far, no luck. I found one source for a swivel. It is brass and appears super high quality but it is female-female and costs $36 each! Anyone know of anything like what I am looking for? Oh, one important criteria is that it does not leak!

 

[GaryM]

I've found that using a hose reel prevents the kinking issue. Kinking seem to occur most if I pull the hose from a horizontal coil because each coil is one turn of the hose. So if you have 10 coils and pull the hose out, you've got 10 twists going on.

With a reel I seem to have few kinking issues.

 

[Botaskinner]

I appreciate your frustration.

A few years back Tractor Supply was selling some no-kink hoses with beefy machined fittings and a spring at the end where you connected to the hose bib..

...and they were utter garbage. The fittings literally snapped off the hoses, they kinked anyway.

I've never tried them, but wouldn't a quick-release adapter give you some swivel action?

 

[N80]

With a reel I seem to have few kinking issues.

Good to know. And I think the hose reels have a built in swivel. Will definitely look into a good reel.

 

[N80]

I've never tried them, but wouldn't a quick-release adapter give you some swivel action?

I think so. And looking around for fittings it looks like they should swivel. Reviews reveal that there is lot of junk out there in these as well. However, several makers appear to make good Q-D adapters that do not leak. They are pricey at $25 but probably worth it. The better ones seem to be made for pressure washers.

 

[Bird]

I have one 75' and two 50' Gilmour Flexogen garden hoses, 8 ply, lifetime guarantee, and have each of them on its own Suncast Hosemobile reel from Home Depot. They all stay out in the weather year round. So far the hoses are only 4 years old and on 6 year old reels that used to have other, short lived, hoses. Of course, I also have a half dozen short hoses, or pieces of hoses. And I use quick couplers on everything. It's kind of a nuisance at times, changing washers in the quick couplers, but swivel is no problem.

 

[GLyford]

no-kink hoses with beefy machined fittings and a spring at the end

I tried using the short hoses with the spring and a fitting at each end to keep one of our hoses from kinking where we would pull it sideways right after the faucet. While the spring would keep it from kinking, I found if you left tension on it, it would also push against the fittings at either end of that short hose until one of them let go in some fashion.

I replaced that with an angle fitting instead so the hose was in a straight line, no kink, no spring, no leak. But I think the dog bit the hose a week later...

 

[milligjg]

Anybody tried one of those "pocket" hoses "as seen on TV"? Great concept but I think they may be garbage:confused3:

 

[bcp]

Anybody tried one of those "pocket" hoses "as seen on TV"? Great concept but I think they may be garbage:confused3:

Nothing in my pocket needs watering.



Bruce

 

[bcp]

Quick connects swivel, and I use them, but they don't prevent any kinks. My kinks mostly happen when hand watering and I make a loop, then pull.

I've had several "non-kink" hoses and they kink no less than other hoses. But they all had about an 1/8 inch bead inside that let a trickle of water through even when kinked. I don't want a trickle. And the bead makes it much harder to repair the hose. All my long hoses turn into many short hoses eventually.

I now look inside and won't buy any with the interior bead.

Bruce