One of the more glamorous tasks of farming is hose repair. A downward gusher at a break can cause the most amazing sink hole. An upward geyser is playtime for birds, a startling ankle chiller, or a cold slap in the face.
Yes, I am a fan of the soaker hose. It’s what I have, buying the first few miles of hose at a yard sale a very long time ago, I notice I can only make so many changes at one time and switching from soaker to drip just keeps moving down the list, while adding more garden beds moves up the list. Hmmm, more garden, more need for water, more soaker hose and so the water flows.
I have become pretty good at hose repair and it seems to be one of the few things around the farm that is organized and I know where to find the hose repair tool box almost all the time.
I offer you a tour of my tool box:
- A box of washers- sometimes it is all that is needed. If you have ever screwed on your nozzle, turned on the hose and it splashes down you arm, soaking your garden gloves and now your hands are all wet, sloppy and cold, sometimes the nozzle just needs a washer. Oh, if life could be so simple.
- Vise Grips- for breaking up two sections of hose that have been connected for 10 years.
- When there is a crack in the line, electrical tape really does not work that well for that long and for it to work at all, you have to let the hose dry and who has time to watch a hose dry? So you need some sort of cutters to cut out the bad section. Bad hose! I found a pair of old wire snippers that do the job nicely.
- Hose repair tube thingies for reconnecting the hose after you have cut off the cracked part of hose. These come in plastic or brass or you can fashion one out of any kind of tubing you might have. You can see some copper tubing in my box that a friend cut into 2 – 3 inch lengths.
- The magical hose clamps. I LOVE these things! They come in all sizes, so be sure to get ones that fit your hose and whatever you do , do NOT unscrew the band all the way! If you do, well, good luck getting it back together. “They” say it just screws back together, but it’s not in my patience quota. It’s important to put hose clamps on BEFORE you put the connector thingie in the two hose parts. The connector thingie should fit tight and when it does, HAH ! if you have to undo the hoses because you forgot to put the clamps on first.
A simple guide to repairing your leaky hoses:
- Cut out the cracked portion of hose.
- Put a loosened clamp on each piece of hose being put back together.
- Insert repair tube
- Slide clamps near the edge of the cut hose piece.
- Tighten clamps with screw driver
- Turn it on, pour a glass of iced tea and be pleased with yourself!
Would this make an exciting video? Stay tuned!
May all your garden chores bring you some joy and lots of satisfaction!
Leave a Reply