I’ve taken a chance here. While walking the isle at Costco, I spotted a pallet of boxes of garden hoses—RAPIDFLO 100 ft length, 5/8 inch diameter, lightweight, tough, kink-resistant. You see, LaVille has been wrestling with a rubber hose that has become stiffer with age. (What’s new?) She has had to drag it through the main iris garden and then wind it back up on the hose reel when done. So I uncoiled the old, stiff hose off the reel. Actually it now remains permanently coiled along the side yard. I then attached this new hose to the spool and turned on the pressure. I could see that LaVille at the far side of the yard was now watering with less than expected flow. Not only did the 100 foot length impede the flow, but the 5/8 inch hose itself was perhaps still somewhat flattened. Maybe continued use will expand it—probably not. Perhaps the company should change it’s name to SLOFLO. But LaVille says that the gentle spray was actually desirable. Anyway, when LaVille was finished watering, I had her close the spray wand valve to keep the hose turgid, and wound the hose up on the reel. You don’t want a flattened hose on the reel. That would really limit flow. The winding task was truly easy to do because the hose is really lightweight.
So, do I recommend this hose? The jury is still out at our house. I would say that if you are tired woman handling (Is that sexist?) an old, heavy hose around, this may be the hose for you. You can easily coil the hose in a large pot if you don’t have a reel. I am going to assume that this hose design is less likely to leak as the expandable hoses tend to do. Keep in mind that this is 100 feet of hose. It seemed a little long for my yard that is only 80 feet wide. As of 3/20/21, this hose if available at Costco for $39.99. If you miss it there, Amazon has it for $55 (Yikes!).
Happly hosing,
Stan, The Tool Man
RapidFlo Hose