Replacing your garden hose every year can be very costly and following these simple tips will end up saving you a lot of money. When you’re done using your garden hose be sure to drain it of access water. This simply tip will add years to the life of your garden hose.
One of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to extend the life of your garden hose is to use a simple hanger. They cost several dollars, or you can simply build a garden hose hanger yourself using some old materials lying around. You can even get creative and paint your garden hose hanger and use it as a lamp or table as well.
The first thing you should do is cut the water flow off in the faucet and then continue to spray out the water. If you leave water inside the hose it can damage it and cause the interior of the hose to deteriorate.
There are several easy ways to prevent replacing your garden hose, including fixing small holes and leaks using garden hose fittings and using a garden hose rack or holder to hang your hose when it’s not in use. Keeping your garden hose properly coiled and out of direct sunlight will extend the life by several years.
Prevent Garden Hose Damage – Uncoiling and Coiling
The first thing you should always look for when uncoiling your garden hose is kinking. You may have to spend some time getting out all the kinks. If you are having problems with accessing kinking, you can easily learn how to fix garden hose kinks by following several simple steps. If your hose is kinking too often then it might be time to replace it with a new one.
There are several hoses that will not kink and the metal garden hoses are especially good at not kinking. Kinking often times lead to the material flexing too much which will cause it to tear or split open and you will end up with a hole in your garden hose.
Before you uncoil your hose it’s important to connect the end to your faucet. This way you are able to pull on it using the faucet as an anchor and you will know how far you can go. Simply place your coiled hose near your faucet, connect the end and turn on the water. As it fills with water while it’s coiled you can easily remove any kinks or tangling that might occur.
If you are using an expandable hose then you might be surprised when you fill it up with water it will expand to 3x it’s normal length. This gives you a good amount of time to remove kinks and tangles easily while it’s expanding.
Repair Garden Hose Leaks
No matter how much time you spend caring for your garden hose and how careful you may be, there still will be times when you get leaks. This doesn’t mean that you need to replace your hose and in fact it can be very easy to repair.
If it’s a small pinhole leak then you can simply use a rubber patch with some good super glue to hold it down. You can use a simply rubber tube patch kit if you are using a rubber garden hose. If you’re using en expandable hose then you need top place the tube patch on the internal portion of the tubing and seal up the exterior polyester.
The first thing you should do when you spot a small hole is to turn off the water right away. Use fine grit sandpaper to sand down the area with the hole in it and then you can apply the tube patch kit glue. When the glue is finished drying you will be able to put the small piece of rubber on it and it should stick for good.
Be sure to leave the garden hose to try for several house after applying your glue and patch. You can also use a hose connector to seal it on there for good.
Store your Garden Hose Indoors
Frozen Garden Hose
One of the worst things you can do is leave your garden hose out in freezing cold weather. This might be the quickest way to damage your garden hose. Another cool option is to use a garden hose storage basket which is designed to store garden hoses.
in cold weather the rubber will contract and when then weather gets hot it will contract. The ideal place to store your hose is in a garage or basement where it won’t be affected by the elements. Placing your hose in a small bin or putting a cover over it will also help out a lot.
Conclusion
While most of this is all common sense I wanted to give you some useful tips on extending the life of your garden hose. It’s no fun having a garden hose that you love only to have to go out and buy a new one. If you take the simple precautions listed above you will end up saving yourself a lot of money and time. Many people however fail to follow these steps and end up having to replace their garden hoses.
