Carol: I did the same conversion several years ago. Plan on buying several male connects as you'll find more items you want to use - nozzle, wand, lawn sprinkler, etc. A second hose has also been fitted with connectors so I can extend my range during periods of dryness. We have a sprinkler system, but certain areas don't get their full share because the gardener (me!) planted material that tends to block some of the spray.

I've looked at my connectors and the only brand name I can see is Gardena, but that's on just one connector. I'm fairly certainly I have several brands since one is orange (Gardena) and others are solid black and solid green. They're all plastic. I've had to replace one (didn't survive when the car ran over it!). - June

June, thank you so much! You gave me lots of good ideas. And I'm glad to hear that the plastic ones are working ok for you. If they last for 4-5 years and then I have to replace, I will be good with that. The solid brass are very expensive (and then there are some that look like solid brass - but aren't!). And I don't like any heavy, clunk-on-your-foot-type thing, either. To this day, my favorite go-to hand-trowels and spray nozzles are the plastic ones I posted in this thread. I even buy them ahead. You can drop them anywhere in the yard or driveway with a nice, easy landing. (Maybe I should ask why I'm dropping things? LOL)

Thanks!

Carol

I found the Gardena website and their hose fittings product page. Thanks for providing the brand name.

EDIT: This is the link to their international site, which is why you see all the metric:

Gardena - Hose Fittings

This is the link to their U.S. site (also has metric - oh, well):

Gardena - Hose Connectors

Carol

June, where did you go to get those things?! I did a search on my zip code and I kept zooming out, and zooming out, and zooming out. Here are the nearest locations. :)

Whenever I shop for anything, unless I know exactly where it is in the local store, I go first to Amazon. They have a lot of Gardena stuff right now. Walmart is trying to break into the shipping business. Their minimum purchase for free shipping is currently often less than Amazon .

Walmart bought an online shopping/shipping company several months ago, so they are defs getting into shipping. I like their option to ship to the local Walmart store. Living in the country that is usually faster than shipping 60 miles away from the nearest store. I can pick it up on the weekend when I go to town.

But back on the hose stuff, I'm sure you'll get plenty of tips about quick connect, but here's what I do. I hate dripping hose fittings. I only buy hoses with a solid brass fitting, not stamped brass or the stamped brass look. Brass has a nasty feature that it will erode away when pressurized water leaks through. Once it leaks, you can't stop that leak by tightening the fitting. So what I do is at the first sign of leakage I replace the brass fitting with a plastic one. The plastic lasts a good long time unless you drive over it with the car. I also put a plastic on/off valve at the end of every hose. The last thing I do is install a #15 O-ring inside all my sprinklers and hand held hose devices. The O-ring replaces the flat washer that comes with the sprinklers. Once I do that I have a leak free system with easy to find parts.

Carol: It's likely I bought my connectors at Home Depot and/or Lowe's but this was several years ago; they may have changed brands by now. I happened to check Ace Hardware and found those pictured in the link below. They look like the black ones I have.- June

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1272849&KPID=960143&cid=CAPLA:G:Shopping_-Catch_All-_DT&pla=pla_960143&k_clickid=5b959634-3bcb-4033-b2c6-d6928d373d07

Thanks to all for the help and links above. I ended up buiying two sets, as I needed a set for both the front and back yard hoses. I couldn't decide so I purchased one plastic set and one solid brass set.

I got the plastic set at Walmart - $3.49 and the solid brass set at Ace Hardware - $7.49.

I bought quick-connects only for the loose end of the garden hose: a 5/8" female for the loose hose end and a male accessory attachment for the spray nozzle. As June suggested, I plant to get more male accessory connects as I need them but I thought I would start with these sets and see how I like them.

So far, I do love being able to pop on/off attachments without having to
screw them on tightly while being careful not to destroy the hose.

Dchall, I have #15 o-rings on my shopping list.

Thanks again for the help,

Carol

Can anyone tell me if the #15 O-ring means 15 millimeters inside or outside? I'l looking at some on Amazon that are 13 inside and 15 outside and others that are 15 inside and 18 outside.

Also, why are these superior to normal washers?