Hose rant

[Rhodie Ranch]

I too hate hoses. They are either stiff as a piece of plywood and knock pots over and break branches or they are as limp as a jellyfish, and you can't get them to do anything. I put up pieces of rebar type metal, and one of my old dogs promptly impaled herself on one. $250 vet bill.

My lone bunny died last summer from our 100 degree heat, even tho I kept rotating liter bottles of frozen water in there, and his hutch was under an oak tree. No more bunnies for us here.

 

[RidgebackRanch]

Hello all. I am a sales rep for several companies in the lawn and garden industry and one of those companies makes hoses. Truth be told the kink free hose is a marketing myth. The best thing you can do when you buy a new hose is to roll it out so it is straight and flat and let it sit in the sun for several hours. It works better if you can fill it with water and let it warm up in the sun.

What this does is remove the "memory" of the coil in the hose when it was made and packaged for retail sale. If you have done this properly it will be very easy to coil it up when you are finished using it. Also keep in mind with the rising cost of materials and manufacturing, quality will suffer somewhat to keep the retail price competative. It is sad but it is true. :/

 

[hoodat]

Quality of everything seems to be falling off. Garden tools used to last a lifetime. Nowadays you're lucky if they get through the season.

 

[nachoqtpie]

Quality of everything seems to be falling off. Garden tools used to last a lifetime. Nowadays you're lucky if they get through the season.

Aint that the truth!!! I bought a hoe last year to do some digging in the front flower bed. I watered it down, and went to town just a hoe'n away. It BROKE! Unfortunately, it was past the time to take it back to Lowes for a refund or replacement. *sigh*

 

[seedcorn]

Hello all. I am a sales rep for several companies in the lawn and garden industry and one of those companies makes hoses. Truth be told the kink free hose is a marketing myth. The best thing you can do when you buy a new hose is to roll it out so it is straight and flat and let it sit in the sun for several hours. It works better if you can fill it with water and let it warm up in the sun.

What this does is remove the "memory" of the coil in the hose when it was made and packaged for retail sale. If you have done this properly it will be very easy to coil it up when you are finished using it. Also keep in mind with the rising cost of materials and manufacturing, quality will suffer somewhat to keep the retail price competative. It is sad but it is true. :/

Thank you for this info. I've found that if I buy a better quality, reinforced hose, I have much less problems.

This goes for all tools. Buy American, buy the best quality you can afford, not think you can afford but can scrape the $$ together to buy. Local hardware convinced me of that by showing me the differences between American quality and slave labor crap.

 

[Collector]

We give our rabbits and chickens 2 litre bottles during heat waves. it seems to help alot. good luck keeping them cool hoodat!

 

[thistlebloom]

Hey Ridgeback, thanks for the great tip. I generally do lay my hoses out when new, but filling them with water is even better>