Any Tips on Buying & Fitting a Garden Hose?

dogstarheaven

I'll be using the kitchen mixer tap for my watering needs and am not sure how to go about buying a hose and a tap adaptor/connector. The mixer has a small round opening and the garden's about 10m long. I have seen Hozelock and a cheap brand of hose and attachments (from Wilko's), but am unsure about the effectiveness of the latter as I am on a budget. Many moons ago, I have used one before but remembering the connector always leaking as I don't think the connector was secure enough altho' the metal 'fastener' thing was always wound up as tight as it could get. How do I go about ensuring how to get it not to leak ie., what brand or type of connector...

I was at my friend's house the other day and her's was very long and it kinked an awful lot. i'm not sure whether it was a Hozelock as it had similar colours (yellow hose and green 'rack' thingy). I've just looked on an online american video about choosing a hose and it recommended getting a rubber one at the largest thickness so as to prevent kinks and the water flow is better...

When I was in Wilko's yesterday, I was completely clueless as to what I was buying. Seeing all these attachments/connectors for different sized taps. I didn't want to buy the wrong thing. I could always go to B&Q et al, if Wilko's isn't really the best bet for these sorts of things, but seeing it's more practical for me to get to (and possibly cheaper), I thought they might have something decent...

P.S I shall be watering daily as I've got a garden worth of pots and beds to water so I would need the connector to come off and on each day. This is what I'm most worried about as I would want something that is really effective. Do you think Hozelock or some other leading brand the best to go with rather than a cheaper brand like Wilko's? I'd rather pay more if it does the job properly....
Thanks

Lotus-eater

Hozelock is not a bad hose make, I've got one and it's way better than the cheaper ones.
I think Wilkinsons is about the cheapest place to buy them from as well.

casper_g

The bit I'd be concerned about would be using the kitchen tap. They're all slightly different designs so it's difficult to make a connector to fit reliably and you may find water sprays all over the kitchen.... Check how much it would cost to get a proper threaded outside tap fitted, as it might be less than you think if you're lucky!

[Deleted User]

or a water butt fitted to a downspout

dogstarheaven

i do have a waterbutt but the valve isn't working again or that the guttering's blocked again. so you can imagine my frustrations over the past 2wks or so where the garden's been really dry. the last few days, i've had to water daily and ferrying 6 cans of water to and fro the kitchen (and spilling it about on the floor!) is not a barrel of laughs for me...

i do have an outdoor tap that is yet to be fitted, but i'm afraid this might cost a lot as it'll have to be an plumber type person to install it. i don't really have £50 or whatever it'll cost to pay for such a job...i know this would be the best option really as it'll be so much easier to connect a hose rather than using the kitchen tap...

SallyForth_2

Frankly, it's a trial and error thing. I have these and after endless spraying up the walls in the kitchen using them, I gave up and resorted to using the tap in the downstairs loo instead which is not a mixer tap. The hoselock one still sprayed more often than not though. Recently I aquired a Gardena one (Orange and Grey) and that works much better - provided you get it lined up precisely on the tap - something I never managed to do with the hoselock. I suppose I should try it on the Kitchen Mixer.

SallyForth_2

I also have a water butt, but I haven't as yet found a valve thingy for the tap which I can attact a hosepipe to. Does anyone have any suggestions?

katholicos

I use hozelock. I have a hose on a reel that has a winder arm. The other week i purchased a tap adapter as i now have a mixer tap with a square opening and none of the other attachments would work with it. The hose is quite thick and the only reason it has kinks in it is because years ago i did not care for it properly. I think hoselock is quite a good, dependable and affordable make of garden hose and usually Argos and Diy stores have reasonable offers on them.

dogstarheaven

SallyForth wrote: »

I also have a water butt, but I haven't as yet found a valve thingy for the tap which I can attact a hosepipe to. Does anyone have any suggestions?

the waterbutt i got was from wilko's, a 100ltr one and i bought a separate valve connector things to go with it for a fiver from there also and my partner had installed that to the downpipe to it. unfortunately, he isn't in the country for another couple of months so i'm left making all these decisions on my own (woe me!). hence, my coming on here to ask 'the experts'!:D

i was thinking about using my groundfloor bathroom to bring the hose into the window and that has individual taps that i can use. will this be better than using my kitchen's mixer tap then? is the gardena brand much better than hozelock? or are the about the same with similar designed fittings?

i've decided against buying the whole package deal with the reel rack thingy because altho' it's handy to store away but it'll cost a lot more. tho' at some point would hozelock or other brands sell these separately? as one day, i know i'll have to purchase one when i want to put it away for the winter...

SallyForth_2

dogstarheaven wrote: »

the waterbutt i got was from wilko's, a 100ltr one and i bought a separate valve connector things to go with it for a fiver and my partner had installed that to the downpipe to it. unfortunately, he isn't in the country for another couple of months so i'm left making all these decisions on my own (woe me!). hence, my coming on here to ask 'the experts'!:D

i was thinking about using my groundfloor bathroom to bring the hose into the window and that has individual taps that i can use. will this be better than using my kitchen's mixer tap then? is the gardena brand much better than hozelock? or are the about the same with similar designed fittings?

That's what I did, and for me the gardena attachment does work better, however, I can't guaruntee that this will be the same for you. Thankfully, you would only need to buy the bit for the tap as all the other hosepipe componants appear to be universal.

I can't place my waterbutt near a downpipe from the guttering, as on my house these have been placed on the corners where the side passage access from the front to the back of the house is, rather than the other corners where it would possible. Its a hosepipe attachment for the Waterbutt tap, I am looking for. All the regular ones are too big for a waterbutt.

moomin5

We got the hozelock mixer tap adapter for our kitchen tap and it works fine. Wilkos also do a similar connector for a few quid but we were unsure about its quality and then they didn't have it in stock when we visited. There was one, i think for mixer taps that you could adust to fit a narrow round tap that we tried in B&Q but they didn't have anything for square ones, something like that would probably adjust to fit the water butt tap, perhaps measure it before heading to the shops to check.

We made a mistake with the hose and as we had a low budget went for the cheap wilko set without a reel and its terrible for kinking and stopping the water flow and i've given up with the spray gun as the hose get loose in the conector after a while and i end up soaked I'm also realising why a reel is a good idea for keeping it tidy and reducing the kinks, oh well thankfully we do have a decent 2nd hose on a reel and the new one was just to extend it.