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Called a soaker hose or leaky hose, this porous rubberized hose allows a slow and steady soaking at low pressure that's great for landscape beds, vegetable beds, trees and shrubs. Several can be joined to make one long soaker and they can also be buried under mulches. ANDREW MESSINGER
Plastic hose repair kits (like the two at top right) are inexpensive but easily damaged. The same kits in metal (like the two at bottom right) cost more, but will last for years. The top left coupling is a metal compression type that's better than plastic but not as good as the clamp types on the right. The bottom left kit is a coupler to join two pieces of hose into one long piece. ANDREW MESSINGER
After reading last week’s column I hope I’ve convinced at least a few readers that a hose is not a hose is not a hose.There are a number of considerations in buying (and repairing) a hose and in the long run, price should be considered only after quality and warranty since a good hose will last many years ... and good hoses are generally not cheap. Hoses are generally constructed of either rubber, vinyl or a combination of both and one, Water Right, is a very interesting brand made of polyurethane. You can check them out at www.waterrightinc.com—they have several products, are a small family company, and have a wonderful website.
Rubber hose usually has double spiral reinforcement with nylon or polyester tire cord. Other additives give good resistance to weather, cracking and ozone deterioration. The better quality rubber hoses can withstand nozzle shut-offs without bursting and can safely handle hot water, some up to 200 degrees F.
Promotional (also known as cheap) hoses usually have less reinforcement material and thinner walls.
Rubber hose is premium priced, but offers very long life and hot water use. The heavy weight of this type of hose, though, can make it difficult to pull on long runs, and some extra bracing may be needed when the rubber hose is hung on a wall for storage. Quality vinyl/rubber hose is reinforced with knit or spiral knit construction and there are two basic kinds manufactured. One uses a foamed cover for easier handling and more kink resistance, but it’s less durable and dirt resistant. The other has a natural non-foamed cover, which offers fair flexibility but usually is not as flexible as the foamed cover type. The advantage is that it is more durable and abrasion- and dirt-resistant. One hose company has a patented process that makes hose with a non-foamed cover over foamed layers, thus taking advantage of both construction types.
Vinyl hose is often called reinforced vinyl when constructed with tire cord, and there is non-reinforced vinyl hose sold as well. Non-reinforced is adequate for “open service” only. Because of its low burst pressure, nozzles, pulsating sprinklers or any accessories with integral shut-off valves (such as water timers) are not recommended for use with non-reinforced vinyl ... but you’ll never see that mentioned in the newspaper ad or on the round piece of cardboard that is twist-tied to the hose coil on display.
Vinyl hose reinforcement can be a simple knit, spiral or double reinforced spiral knit. Some hoses have clear or opaque covers; foamed or non-foamed layers and three to six layers. As the most popular construction, reinforced vinyl hose ranges from promotional (generally the worst possible) to premium quality levels. One type of premium hose is sold by the trade name Flexogen. This hose combines the best features of foamed and non-foamed layers with two layers of tire cord reinforcement. Totaling six plies, this patented hose is flexible, lightweight and kink-resistant and may be one of the highest quality hoses available. It’s also guaranteed for life (the life of the hose ... but who determines that a hose is clinically dead?) and if the hose ever fails all you have to do is cut off each end, send it to the manufacturer, and they’ll replace it ... for real.
Now, there is some small print on some hose packaging, and I wasn’t aware of it until I saw a newscast, “Dangerous Lead Levels Found in Some Garden Hoses.” There is also an issue with phthalates and BPA that you should be aware of. You can read about all these issues at http://goo.gl/9vT04k.
This all said and done, can you imagine trying to explain to an alien why we buy and use hoses that leak? A comparatively new type of hose that is made from reprocessed rubber, known as a soaking hose or leaky hose, has become very popular and has replaced the oozing old-fashioned canvas or perforated plastic hose that was used for gentle, slow soaking in the garden. Water is fed in to the soaker hose under low pressure and weeps out through thousands of tiny holes at a very slow rate.
Water weeping hoses save significant amounts of water and are considered conservation products similar to drip irrigation. Used to water shrubs, trees, long beds or slopes, these hoses can be run on top of the ground, under mulch, or buried and will last for several years ... unlike canvas.
However, they are not clog-proof, and sooner or later your hose will burst, bend or otherwise break, or a coupling will get crushed, If it isn’t one of the fully guaranteed ones, you’ll have to either trash it or fix it. If the hose needs repairing toward the middle or if you have two damaged hoses that you’d like to combine into one, you may want to consider a hose mender. This little device consists of a barbed or ribbed insert and a sleeve that fits over it. The two hose ends are drawn over the insert and the sleeve is screwed over it as a clamp. In just a minute or two the waterproof repair is completed.
On the other hand, if the hose ends are damaged, you can cut the broken piece off and replace it with a new male or female coupling, but be sure that the size of the replacement coupling is compatible with the repair part. In the plastic replacement parts there may be only two sizes ... one works on both 5/8- and 3/4-inch ID hoses, while the other works on 7/16-, 1/2- and 9/16-inch hoses.
Again, don’t be tempted to buy off-brand repair kits or parts. One year we purchased a large number of “no name” male and female coupling parts out of a big bin at Home Depot. The prices were substantially lower than the popular name brand couplings, but the resulting “fixes” were short-lived and disappointing.
I think the best repair kits that are available now are from Gilmour. They give you the option of plastic or metal kits, and while the metal kits are twice as expensive, they will undoubtedly last much, much longer.
Finally, there are quick coupling sets and connectors that let you attach hoses to the bib at the house and to the hose and sprinkler, etc., without having to screw them together. These connectors come in both metal and plastic versions and in theory they can be a great help, but only in theory. I prefer the metal types because they last considerably longer than the plastic, which seems to get either crushed or cracked, but the real problem is that in order for these couplers to work, one end has to be tapered to accept the connecting end, and it’s the taper that’s the problem.
If you are using a hose to transport water, the last thing you want to do is restrict that water flow and because of the need for one end to insert into the other ... the result is a built-in water restrictor. When using a 5/8-inch hose and one of these couplings to attach another 5/8-inch hose, you actually end up with the water-carrying capacity of a much smaller-diameter hose.
Lots of gardening left this year and much to water before you sleep, so buy quality hoses and repair parts and ... Keep growing.
Note: Always coil hoses under pressure, then once coiled release the pressure. It’s easier to coil a hose under pressure, but a pressurized hose left in the sun could be more prone to burst. Also replace the female end washer at the beginning of every season. The best washers are the old-fashioned rubber ones, and a properly fitted washer gives a tight fit and reduces water losses from bad connections.
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