How far is it to what you need to water?

Do yourself a favor and by the lightweight, expandable hoses that are a snap to use. Connect as many as you need to reach the areas needing water. Just remember to empty them when finished. Leaving them full of water can cause them to explode.

Have you found a decent expandablecable hose that lasts more than a season.? even the ones that tout fancy brass fittings i ve come to think of as disposable. And you cant drag them across the ground which is,I suppose, how i tear them.

and if youve connected 2 0r 3, do they all retract normally. ? i think the retracting over rough ground would be a risk.

ive liked the ones ive owned but they have been fragile,,,, oh,- are you talking about a material other than the bright blue fabric?

I do. I have 70 metres of hose cos I need to get from the water tap to my compost heap, at opposite ends of the allotment. I used to just leave it out, once it has been unwound to its full extent (because the handle snapped off the hose carrier and it weighs an absolute ton). it is an old, heavy duty one ( which has been incredibly robust and reliable (have had it for over 25 years). I have to be a bit more furtive in my hose use (because of allotment rules)...although some rules are meant to be broken, imo, Have to wind it in and stow it in the shed instead of just tucking it alongside the main path (which runs the length of my plot).

The expandable hoses I used were all black or black striped white. They were dragged across grass and a concrete patio. I never had one break except when someone forgot to empty it when finished watering. Unfortunately, I don't remember brand names. Tried several and all worked well.

Yes, they retracted normally when interconnected.

I agree with the first post. How far is it you need to haul hose? Some folks might be 25 feet, others might be 500 feet. How many feet is your feet?

I probably only need about 100 foot; that would be the minimum. I guess I'm considering the 200 foot "just in case", but yea that probably is overkill.

I had one of those expandable hoses years ago - a few of them, actually. All junk. Maybe they're better now, IDK, but no interest in even considering that as an option.

Oh duh! I just actually re-read your post (instead of just the heading lol). You mean a caddy of some sort to actually hold your hose, correct? (I just deleted an entire post on the need for a 200 foot hose lol!)

Is this a truck/caddy that you will be moving around with you? Or a stationary one that stays by the spigot and just stores the hose when not in use? My only experience is with the stationary ones, the ones where you turn a handle and it winds up the hose for storage.

I would go with the larger truck. One of my customers had a similar situation to mine (needed lots of hose to reach her beds) and her caddy wasn't large enough for the hose. What a pain in the neck turning that thing with the heavy duty hose and then coiling up the extra hose neatly next to it (as opposed to my own yard where I could just leave the hose out lol). I would have killed for enough space for 50 more feet of hose!

It's better, IMO, to have extra space on your hose truck than to be wishing you had a larger one!

:)

Dee

Well, really ”Oh duh!” as @diggerdee zone 6 CT says! I reread @porkchop_mxk3 z5b_MI after reading Dee’s reply. Ditto everything Dee said. But, now we have info on expandable & overlong hoses if anyone’s wondering about that topic! 😆

I'm going to buy an actual hose truck on wheels. Investigating a couple recs from the board, I posted a couple months ago about it. I will go with a four wheels version.

i think i misunderstood ”retractable” and now i want to hijack the post. You meant retractable as on a cart or reel. i interpreted that as ”expandable” as in those crinkled nylon ones that spring leaks when you look at them sideways.

i could use a 200 ft hose but i could use a standpipe halfway across the garden even more. thats not going to happen.

So I need to go google now lol. I am not familiar with a moving hose "truck" on wheels- I can't envision how it moves while carrying a hose that is connected to a spigot. Interesting.... perhaps this is something I can use....

:)

Dee

I'm debating between these two:

4 Wheel Garden Hose Reel Cart – Eley Hose Reels

Buy 4 Wheel Garden Hose Reel Cart – Yard Butler

Lots of differences between the 2 but both seem good quality. I can’t find info on weight for the Eley if that is a factor to consider. The Yard Butler is 35 lbs.

I understand expandable hoses are not traditional gardening equipment and ever since they came out I thought they looked silly and could not possibly work as advertised. But someone I trust said i had to try one, so i bought one that looked decent from amazon for maybe $30 or so, 100 feet. It seems high quality with all brass fittings, seemingly strong hose material, and it came with a spray nozzle that is as good as any $10 one I’ve bought at Home Depot iver the years.

And boy, I could not have been more wrong about these things. They seriously must be the most helpful yard equipment I have purchased in my 53 years on earth. Because think about it really, why in the world are we struggling to drag 100 to 200 feet of hose around the yard that even when ”drained” is probably 80% full of water and has to weigh over 100 pounds? Don’t get me wrong, Ii did it my entre life until last year, dealing with the weight, the storage, the heavy duty cart to haul and wind/unwind the hose—really a ridiculous amount of work. Not now, the expandable is much lighter than rubber when in use and then when you’re done and drain the thing, forget about it—it squeezes out what feels like 90%+ of the water and correponding weight in the hose. Folds to nothing, weighs nothing empty, easy to store, so much cheaper than high quality rubber hose and the expensive equipment to haul and store it all.

No longer for me, I am converted to the expandable hose and never looking back. And even if I need to buy a new one every spring (which I don’t expect with this one), $30 a year is not much and probably comparable to the heavy and clunky alternative because those hoses, carts, etc. also don’t last forever.

So I’m just sayin’, I think expandable hoses made today are outstanding and they are definitely worth a shot at $30.

Ah, I see now. Well, I think I do lol. It's like a stationary reel-up hose holder, but on wheels. And I guess you unreel/reel up as you move the truck? Or do you have spigots around the yard that you wheel the hose over to and hook up?

:)

Dee

i think i had about 250 feet of hose.. before i put spigots all over the 5 acres ... find the middle of 100 feet ...and put it over the back of the riding mower seat. and drag it around.. in the evening i would move it where i wanted it the next day ...

ken

Ckerr do you mire than one screwed tigether?

what brabd did you buy? your perspective is helpful about replacing thiugh the waste bothers me. but i teally cant drag hoses snymore

I do. I will likely breakdown and get a longer hose this year. Every time I try to clean the northeast side of my house I can't rinse it off well enough with the 100 ft hose from the spigot on the southwest side of the house. sigh. Get the 200 ft

Marie, i am not at home currently. i will check and let you know.

i bought 100 feet not thinking i would love it. i did not check for connectability before I bought but I would think that is standard. To water my whole .43 acre suburban mid-Michigan lot does require 200 feet occasionally. Will update by tonight.

Also, what is going on with the autocorrect on this forum with iphone? it screws up every other word i type.

I dont know if its me auto-mistaking or the phone not auto-correcting but the the # mistakes is increasing by the day.

i bought 2 100 foot lengths last night

i got a flexibose. my bad if they are awful but i did a little resding on them

and yes they can be linked tigether.

Marie, good call, i believe FlexiHose is one of the original brands. I’m sure it will work fine and it’s good to know you can link them, I assume I can with the Amazon version I bought as well.

I hope you love the ease of the expandable hose compared to the heavy rubber hose 3/4 full of water that we’ve been lugging around our whole lives.

As far as the horrible autocorrect/auto complete malfunctioning on this forum right now, it is driving me nuts. I type as fast as I can using auto complete and correct generated by iphone. And for some reason as I type this comment this website is hijacking iphone’s functuons that work great in lieu of some garbled mess where my auto complete should be. Same with autocorrect. so i am completely ignoring all suggestions across the top b/c if you select them, it will basically destriy your message.

Sad b/c I just started posting again after 4 years but this malfunction is so annoying it’s makimg me want to quit again.

Anyway, the internet. Have a good night.

Chris

I had a 100 ft hose and hated it and was glad when the thing went all kinky and bulged out all over the place so that I could throw it out! Never would again purchase anything beyond a 50 ft.

Well, I guess I am an odd one. I think I have 100ft in the front and 150ft in the back and that allows me to reach just about all the areas of my small property that I need to. I have a 1/4acre lot. I know it's hard to believe but we've lived here for 30+ years and I've only bought the one hose. [g] It's a heavy black rubber hose and it's still doing fine. We just started having a little leaking around one end and we added strong tape around it and now it's fine. and it's black so you don't notice it either. I have one annoyance with the hose and that is the color black rubs off on pots if I allow it to snake across one. I ruined a few pots before I decided to seriously make sure that didn't happen any more and now I'm not annoyed.

I used to have a water powered self winding hose reel. It was amazing! We loved it. When it stopped working, we couldn't find a replacement. So for the past 4 years we've gone without any hose reel. So our hose is always lying on the ground near the spigot. Every year I try to do another search trying to find that hose reel or something I'd find an acceptable replacement, but....I think we are starting to get too used to having it lying around. lol

We roll it up neatly whenever we have company but otherwise, it's just a working hose that does the job. If anyone hears of a water powered self winding hose reel...please post!

Chris, I don't have a smart phone, so I am not familiar with the process you are describing. I use my Mac Laptop to post and type. I do find my own auto correct and I guess the one on this website is a little annoying at times, but not to the degree you are describing. I do use TexEdit - which is just an Apple feature that pulls up a quick blank note instead of using a heavy duty word processor. I type my post there and then copy paste it to the comment section. Sometimes I come back later and see it did replace a word or two incorrectly, but that's easy to fix and not causing me a lot of aggravation. You must be talking about something more than that. I wish I had a suggestion. It would be nice if you could enjoy posting to the forums.

Prairiemoon, no, you're not an odd one regarding the hoses, my reason for not loving the 100 ft is they were not stationary, but instead dragged all about the place, I felt like I was pulling a python by the tail lol. I had to chuckle, as I also do not have a smartphone, I guess I don't need to tell you of the eyerolls one gets with that, lol. I just hate seeing how sooo many are tied to the things and at constant on call with texts! I can hardly have an uninterrupted conversation with family and some friends because of their phones! I do though have a travel phone, an old flippie, I receive verification codes to it as well, but no texting for me! My laptop serves all purposes, though can't carry it in my pocket as a phone and be googling as I go, sometimes that would come in handy!

FrozeBudd - Yes, eye rolls, but also many efforts to persuade my husband and I both to get one. People have a difficult time believing you can live without one and prefer it. Lol My DH has a flip phone.

I don’t understand why someone prefers to text instead of hearing the person’s voice and having a direct conversation. I did end up texting. My latest laptop has the ability to text from my laptop to smart phones so I do text my kids. But I try to keep it to a minimum. And sometimes I go on a text strike, when it gets to be excessive. If they want me, they can pick up the phone. [g] And I use my laptop at home and have no need to travel anywhere with it. I’m sure many people do have a need to take it where they are going.

As for the hose. Believe me the old rubber hose, is heavy. It’s a workout just moving around the yard with it. But that’s a good thing, isn’t it? I try to walk backwards and pull it that way, it’s easier. Although Chris really made one of those funny new hoses sound like the best thing since sliced bread.

Suncast 125 ft Aquawinder

@prairiemoon2 z6b MA link above Found this at Home Depot on line…..might be out of stock but you could search on Suncast brand to maybe find it elsewhere. Interesting concept - I’d never heard of such a thing.

KW - Very nice of you to look that up for me, and yes, here that is out of stock too. I can't remember if Suncast was the brand we had, it looked different than that one, but pretty sure last time I looked it was out of stock everywhere and trying to run down the manufacturer didn't get me anywhere either. But, thanks, I'll give it another try. You never know.

Yes it was as simple as pie to use and I happened to find them on sale for $20. each in the Fall, probably 15 years ago now, and even then that was a great price so I picked up two. It worked so great and was such a good idea, I have no idea why it is not only still available but selling like hot cakes.

Prairie, yes lately when I type these comments on my iPhone (I'm on a laptop now, works fine), the auto complete that shows at the top when you are texting--which I rely on heavily--is a garbled, confusing mess. So if like me you are in the habit of clicking the autocomplete word that is the one you want, when you do it here on an iphone it completely destroys what you are typing. You can see evidence of this in recent posts everywhere littered with silly typos that we know these long-time users are not making without help from H's shoddy software.

Anyway, this is a dream on a laptop now.

Chris

Chris, I accepted long ago that Houzz is just Houzz. I miss the original GW. I seem to have adapted to the way they do things here though. At least for the moment. [g]

i wonder how much it would cost to drag in a a few spigots around the your acres.. like i did ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZSn9JKnzPk

you would have to invest in a compressor to blow it out in winter.. unless you already have one...

this would be different than a frost free system you might have had for the horse barn ...

i dont know how you might connect off that...

ken