Home & Garden Q&A: How to find a garden hose that will last

It's that time of year when we are looking to expand our indoor living space outwards

Consider a connector to ensure you can easily reach every bit of your garden without rudely yanking the hose, and always use it with a trigger head to save water where possible. 

From €15 to over €200, garden hoses are made in a variety of materials, nylon (common in extending hoses), polyurethane, PVC and polyethylene, and rubbers of various kinds. 

At 5m-15m, the durability of the house relies on its flexibility and the strength of the walls — in short their thickness. 

Thicker walls mean a heavier hose. Rubber and metal-reinforced nylon hoses with multiple layers are less likely to kink or crack, but thinner, plastic hoses are considerably lighter if you don’t have a lot of physical strength dragging them about and winding them in. 

Consider a connector to ensure you can easily reach every bit of your garden without rudely yanking the hose, and always use it with a trigger head to save water where possible. 

A narrower diameter will increase the pressure in the hose but can impact the flow rate if you are regularly filling buckets. 

Pre-assembled reels with a full hose kit offer great value for money for a hose cart-mounted or ready to hang on the wall. 

Don’t buy a longer hose than you need — this simply reduces your water pressure. 

Pick up all those needed extras like one-way, two-way or threaded connectors for connecting multiple pipes or attaching your hosepipe to the tap.

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