Why Buy a New Hose When You Can Mend the Old One?
Written: May 30 '08 (Updated May 30 '08)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Keep using a hose even after it's developed a hole or two (or three)
Cons: sometimes hard to get the old hose onto the mender
The Bottom Line: It's silly and wasteful to toss a hose because it has one lousy hole - get more life out of your garden hoses with Gilmour Hose Menders.
|
|
|
| scmrak's Full Review: Hose Mender |
A decent garden hose will cost you several tens of dollars, depending on length (and level of "decency"). It's a crying shame - not to mention wasteful and thus an affront to my Scots soul - to throw away that garden hose after one season just because "someone" forgot to drain it and it froze and burst; or it got nicked by the lawnmower or pinched by the garage door. If you can find the hole (which is usually pretty easy once you've turned the water on), it's a simple task of a few minute's duration to cut away the damaged hose section and splice the ends together with a Gilmour Hose Mender. All it takes is a good sharp knife, a screwdriver, and some elbow grease.
There are several styles of hose menders; some of the more expensive ones have brass fittings and/or stainless steel hose clamps. Gilmour's model is just a double-ended nylon tube with a captive green polymer clamp on either side of a disk. Thread the two halves of the hose onto the barbed tube (the barbs help prevent the hose from sliding off), tighten down the plastic clamps with a screwdriver, and your hose is as good as new. Sure, it's a wee bit shorter and sure, it has an extra lump somewhere in the middle, but you've kept a perfectly good gardening tool out of the landfill (and saved yourself enough money to buy a case of good beer).
One size fits hoses of diameters 5/8 to 3/4 inch - the tube has stepped diameters to fit the two different sizes. Another size fits those smaller 3/8 to 1/2 inch hoses, so make certain you buy the right size. Be careful to get a clean, straight cut on both ends of the hose before assembling. If you have trouble getting the hose to slip onto the little tube, a drop of liquid soap makes a good lubricant. Screw the clamps down good and tight: their inner surfaces are molded so that they force the hose into a groove for a better seal.
I've used lots of these over the years; enough so that I've had more that one hose that has been patched two or three times. I've had patches that outlasted the hoses, and never leaked (and if you're really cheap, like me, you can take old menders off and re-use 'em). Not a bad deal for way less than buying a new hose!
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.