Having a luscious green garden is every home and estate owner’s dream. To achieve this, frequent watering is a priority. Now, we all know that garden hoses make the task easier for us. Unfortunately, they don’t last long.
Even if you buy a lightweight, flexible, safe, and quality-tested garden hose, it will still wear out after a while. A fine-quality garden hose may last between 5 and 7 years only if used with care and caution. To do so and perhaps extend its life further, you must maintain it properly.
So, read on to find a list of 7 expert tips that are sure to help you extend the life of your garden hose.
Table of Contents
How to Extend the Life of Your Garden Hose:
1. Don’t Overexpose Garden Hoses to The Sun
When watering the garden, your garden hose faces the sun for a considerable duration. However, once you’re done using it, you must store it in a cool and shaded place. It is not wise to leave a hose under the sun for a very long period since its durability reduces.
Overexposure to the sun wears out the garden hose faster and results in multiple cracks on the inner surface. Plus, the heat also tends to damage the garden’s outer surface and deepens the cracks from within.
So, by using proper storage methods, you are sure to increase its life by at least a few additional years.
2. Always Keep Your Garden Hose Coiled Up
Garden hoses might seem low-maintenance but require methodical handling and proper storage. After using a garden hose, it must be stored carefully. Thus, you must coil it up while putting it away.
Hose reels are saviors for this very purpose. However, you can even use some cheaper and easily available alternatives like buckets and solid pots. Moreover, coiling your hose in an eight-pattern (8) helps prevent damage.
Coiling garden hoses also stops the formation of kinks that further reduces cracks and holes along the surface. What’s more, it is quite easy to coil even the heaviest hoses with a bit of help.
3. Drain Garden Hoses After Use
After landscaping and gardening, you must remember to drain your garden hoses completely. When water droplets are left inside a hose, especially in the winter, it gets severely damaged. This is because the water freezes inside the hose, hardening it to a great extent.
Freezing leads to numerous kinks, cracks, and holes in the garden hose once the water starts melting. Thus, it stretches the hose and subsequently leads to leaks. So, by simply draining out the water, you can effectively protect your hose against damage.
4. Pick Up Your Hose by Hand
Bringing longevity to garden hoses is not as complex as it seems. All you need to do is add a bit of caution and care to your handling practices. You should take each time you use your hose to pick it up instead of dragging it around. Dragging the hose damages, it because it weakens the connection between the hose and the nozzle.
5. Purchase A Short Garden Hose
If you have a commercial or large residential garden, it is natural for long hoses to appeal to you. However, long hoses are way less durable than short hoses. Long hoses are heavy, hard to move around, and consume a lot of time to coil up.
Plus, long hoses tend to get tangled after every use. Once they get twisted and tangled, it is almost impossible to prevent cracks and kinks. So, it is better to buy two short and durable hoses instead of a long and heavy one.
Short hoses are easier to handle, maintain, and store. Thus, it saves you effort and extends the life of your garden hose.
6. Remove Traces of Calcium
Sometimes your garden hose may show signs of restricted water flow. This may be because of the calcium that has built up inside the hose. Calcium build-up is usually a result of the presence of hard water. To remove this build-up, slightly bend the garden hose along the complete length. Then, use some lukewarm water to clear out the deposits from both ends of the hose.
7. Don’t Settle for An Inferior Buy
We all love to save a few bucks when it comes to tools and equipment. However, it is better to buy mid-range garden hoses to ensure decent quality. This is because all your maintenance efforts will become futile if the materials aren’t up to the mark.
The best garden hose is one that offers quality before anything else. Where there is quality, there is durability.
Scroll down to the next segment to learn about the essential factors to consider before buying a garden hose.
Tips to Buy the Best Garden Hose
· Length
This is one of the golden rules of buying a garden hose. Always buy short garden hoses instead of long ones. You will find them easier to manage and maintain. Plus, they are a far more durable and smarter investment any day.
· Material
Rubber is the best material for garden hoses. Usually, people buy cheap vinyl hoses. Even though they are quite lightweight, they aren’t at all durable. However, rubber combined with vinyl makes for durable and lightweight hoses that can take up heavy-duty work with ease.
· Burst Pressure
Burst pressure determines the actual strength of a hose. We recommend a burst pressure of more than 350 psi. If you need a hose for heavy-duty industrial use, you must consider higher burst pressures to ensure longevity.
· The Kink Test
This is a simple hack to check the durability of a hose. All you need to do is gently fold the hose into a ‘U-shape’ and observe if it forms visible kinks. If it does, choose another hose which has slightly lesser kinks.
Remember, all hoses kink when used and twisted. However, your task is to choose better quality and avoid getting kinked as much as possible.
· Nozzle Quality
This tip is a simple one. Always check for the quality of the nozzle before buying a garden hose. We recommend a brass nozzle for extra durability.
Summing Up
With this guide, we’ve equipped you with all that you need to extend the life of your garden hose and buy a durable one. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and buy the best lightweight garden hose right away!
James Fields is the founder of Gardener to Farmer. His passion for gardening goes back to his childhood days when he would visit his grandfather during the holidays and help him with the plants in the backyard. This has now translated to creating a dependable resource for gardening.