Updated
No more tangles with this clever hose!
There’s a hose lying in the middle of the lawn. Nobody can be bothered to roll it up, despite you perhaps having a reel to wind it onto. So either you trip over it or it's in the way when it comes time to cut the grass. Sound familiar? It’s not even easy to use the hose to water the garden, because long hoses are often both heavy and unwieldy. But now there’s a product that will solve all of these problems at once!
In a sunny, warm summer, your garden needs a lot of water to stay green. Obviously, rain is one way of keeping the soil nice and damp. But sometimes natural precipitation just isn’t enough. And if you’re also growing things to eat, you often need to make sure they're watered often just to get any kind of harvest (but make sure you keep abreast of your local authority regulations if groundwater levels are low).
So a good hosepipe can be really important part of your arsenal of garden accessories. For a few years now, there has been a new type of hose – a flexible, expandable hose. Several different manufacturers have produced their own version of this smart hose that can grow or shrink in length.
How the flexible hosepipe works
The expandable hosepipe consists of an inner and outer hose. The inner hose is made of material that stretches when the hose is filled with water. The outer layer is manufactured from tougher, folded material and is intended to protect the more fragile inner hose.
When it’s not being used, the smart hosepipe is only one third of its full length. So in other words a 7.5 m long hose is only 2.5 m long when it’s not in use. This makes the hose much easier to store. A hose reel may even be completely unnecessary, as you may be able to simply store the hose in a bucket or box. The material the hose is made from also weighs a lot less, which means the hose is much lighter to manoeuvre than a traditional hosepipe made from rubber.
Same pressure as in a normal hosepipe
Some things seem a bit too good to be true. But the flexible hose has the same pressure as a normal one. When you switch the water on it takes few seconds for the host to expand to its full length, but after that you can water the flowers or wash your patio furniture with exactly the right pressure. When you turn the water off again, the hose gradually shrinks back to its original size.
Just like a traditional hosepipe, flexible hoses come with a universal tap connection. Many models also have plenty of other accessories that are included can be bought separately.
Choosing the right length for your flexible hosepipe
Flexible hoses are available in all sizes – the important thing is to choose the right length for your garden. Make sure the hose you buy is long enough to get to even the furthest corner of the garden if there’s something there that you’re going to want to water. Remember that the length of the hose stated by the manufacturer is how long it is when it’s fully expanded. The size of the hose when you come to store it is only a third of the full length!
