9th July 2019
Over the last four days I have lost over twelve feet of hose pipe.
It was not intended to be that careless, moreover it was the result of using a hose that we inherited when we moved into the house.
As the house only had an outside tap at the front, in order to reach the back it needed a fifty foot long to reach. This did not present too much of a problem for generally watering activities, but on Saturday we bought a water misting attachment. It was bright green and looked like a striking rattlesnake. We were seduced into buying one when we visited a hardware store that had one outside.
We rushed home to try it. I unravelled the hose and connected the green snake at one end, and to the outside tap with the other. Turning the water on I rushed round to check everything was working as it should.
The snake was hissing water mist which was perfect in the heat of the afternoon. Satisfied I had done a good job I went back to the garage to work on a project.
About half an hour later, I looked out of the door and noticed there was no mist coming from the nozzles of the snake.
Instead there was a gusher spurting from the hose five feet away. The old hose had swelled up and burst. The lawn was a quagmire, so in a panic I ran to turn off the tap. The water soaked into the holes in my shoe soles as I walked back to investigate what had happened. I saw the split in the plastic, so I cut the hose intending to refit the adapter. Of course that would be too simple, and like always the fitting was a swaged type that couldn’t be refitted. This meant another trip to Menards to buy a more suitable adapter.
Once reconnected, the snake hissed again, until the same happened. Another piece of pipe was consigned to the bin, and a new connection was made, and everything was fine again. This time I reduced the pressure in the hose, but after a while I saw another bulge in the pipe, so it was only a matter of time before I had another failure. Miraculously it lasted the rest of the evening.
Another Lifetime to go 