The kink about Garden Hoses

Being a greenhouse grower I obviously spend a fair amount of time watering, depending on the season, my typical morning might consist of 3+ hours of watering. If the weather is hot with the sun blazing and the greenhouse temperatures climbing above 130 degrees, my watering job might start all over again and going right back to the beginning. In all those hours I've formed a pretty strong opinion on the hoses that I feel work the best and I'd like to share that with you to hopefully save some money and despair on what works and what clearly does not.

If you walk the isles of any hardware store you will certainly come across an array of garden hoses, each promising to be the best and almost always declaring to be some sort of "kink free."

I'm sure there has been millions spent by consumers trying to avoid the watering hose kink scenario, but I'm here to tell you that the only thing that never kinks is a solid pipe, so don't waste your money on a gimmick that will not work. Besides that I've found that every kink free hose is either so stiff and unmanageable or when it does finally bend the kink becomes permanent and now partially closes off your water supply.

The solution is not to have a kink free hose, but rather a hose that can easily be un-kinked with the twist of the wrist. I've found that I love a good rubber hose, my favorite brand being Dramm. Between 4 different greenhouses I have literally hundreds of feet of rubber hose.

I love the Dramm brand hoses because they are a heavy duty rubber hose that if it does kink or bend on you, the solution is to just pull or twist it out of the kink and the rubber goes right back to shape and you're back in business. I also like that they use a heavy duty connector that can withstand being drug across the pavement several times a day and also will not buckle under the weight of a car running it over.

     Just avoid these!

And if you see some infomercial touting the best never-tangle hose in the world like the above picture, just turn the channel. Believe me, save yourself the grief and stick to the good old rubber garden hose.

I hope I can convince you that it really is worth it to spend the extra money for a good quality rubber hose. I typically spend about $1 per foot on the hoses that I buy, in other words a 50 foot hose should be around $50. I did notice there are several available on Amazon in an array of colors (I use yellow for high visibility to keep customers aware of the hose) and of course Prime members will get free shipping.

Dramm hose available here: https://amzn.to/3InOdrM