If your garden hose starts kinking, cracking and splitting, it can leave you angry … and wet. Balky hoses can be frustrating for anyone, whether you’re an avid gardener or a homeowner trying to maintain a yard.
Start this spring by searching for a hose that’s not leak-prone or unwieldy. But before buying a hose, the Home Depot recommends considering the length, thickness and material that’s best for your climate and watering needs. Hose lengths can vary from 10 feet to more than 100 feet, according to the Atlanta-based home improvement retailer. Vinyl is the most inexpensive option, but hoses also come in more durable rubber versions, as well as a combination of vinyl and rubber.
Even professional nurseries fight with hoses, said Kacey Cloues, store manager of Garden*Hood, an independent retail garden center in Atlanta’s Grant Park neighborhood. The Garden*Hood staff is split on hoses, Cloues said.
About half prefer narrower, rubber hoses that can be lighter to carry around a garden or yard. Options include the Slim & Light Polyurethane Garden Hose by Water Right ($39.95-$99.95; waterrightinc.com and stores such as Williams-Sonoma), a flexible hose designed to prevent kinking, cracking or leaky connections. The eggplant and olive versions of the hose, which weighs 3 pounds for every 50 feet, are the most popular colors, said Jeff Thomas, president of Water Right, a family-owned company based in McMinnville, Ore.
Others typically choose a thicker hose (look for diameters from a half-inch to three-quarters of an inch) made of heavy-duty rubber. Even though it can be harder to move around, a rubber hose can better handle the rigors of use, especially if it’s often dragged along rough surfaces, such as the legs of a deck, Cloues said.
Cheap vinyl hoses — for less than $20 — often break and don’t last in cold weather, said Robbie Cotney with Intown Ace Hardware in Virginia-Highland.
“Most people’s complaint about hoses is kinking or flat-out splitting wide open. The splitting wide open is what you get with the less expensive hoses,” he said.
Hoses made of heavily reinforced vinyl or rubber are better equipped to handle a freeze, Cotney adds. For example, the Ace Flexogen Garden Hose ($23-$50, acehardware.com), ranges from 25 to 100 feet and is created to resist kinks and bursting.
A hose needs to be treated right to make it last. People typically experience a new hose kinking into a tight roll when they try to uncoil it. Cloues suggests these steps:
1. Hook the hose to a faucet or spigot (leave the water off) as you uncoil it.
2. Instead of pulling the hose to uncoil it, twist it and flip it. Cloues describes the action as similar to holding one end of a jump rope, with someone else on the other end.
3. Twist the hose and straighten it at the same time, to remove the curve.
4. Let the hose sit in the sun (she suggests six hours) to soften the rubber when first uncoiling it. That will help loosen the coil, although you don’t want to constantly leave it out in the sun, which could cause breakage.
To prevent cracking, you will want to coil the hose. Use the same twisting motion, going with the natural curve instead of fighting it and making it kink, Cloues said.
“People get frustrated because the hose won’t coil up right. They end up forcing it,” she said.
Remember to drain a hose, especially before freezing temperatures, to prevent the hose from expanding and breaking. If you have a nozzle attached, keep it in the open position to drain the water.
“If water is trapped in there and freezes overnight, it will bust,” Cloues said.
