Wall mounted garden hose

[ThursdayTomorrow]

Every year I hate my hose. I get it out of the garage in spring. It’s big and heavy. It’s hard to unwind. It kinks. It just doesn’t quite reach my pots. It’s so heavy and a faff to try and wind back in that I never bother and have it permanently lying around, unwound, in the passageway and end of the garden. It gets in the way and looks rubbish but there seems no point in going to all the effort if winding it in, only to have to pull it all out and repeat the next day.
I got my wretched hose out yesterday as I put a whole load of new plants in my pots. and planted out some seedlings into my borders. It duly rained last night but hey-ho that’s another story. It just made me realise how much I hate my hose.
I have just been reading my Gardeners World mag and seen an advert for a wall mounted hose that retracts. It looks super duper but super expensive. I can afford it but it’s a significant cost and I can’t afford to throw the money away if it’s going to break in 3 years (that’s when the warranty ends).
Does anyone have a wall mounted hose of any brand?
Which brand is best?
Do they work or do they still get tangled?
Does the retracting mechanism break after a few years?
Would you say you are pleased with your purchase and would recommend me buying one?

The brand advertised was Gardena but I am not beholden to that brand - any recommendations for other brands would be appreciated.

Watering cans are great but too heavy as I have a bad back. Plus it takes forever. I use the water retaining granules and choose plants suitable for pots that are drought resistant but the reality is I still need to water and I don’t want to give up my pots as they bring me such joy.

Thanks gardeners of MN.

We have one either side of the house (huge garden, but can connect both together to reach the bottom beds). Ours is on a normal hose and I assume you're on about the flexi style hoses?

Ours wasn't expensive though and we used to be like you, dragging it out, unwinding etc. I actually love our mounted ones. It's literally like a Henry hoover to reel it back in. Makes life so much easier!

Forgot to say, we have a flexi one in the allotment and I hate it. We've gone through so many heads as it springs leaks alot.

We’ve got a hozelock one, it wasn’t cheap, 2 years old and fine. It’s transformed watering. And frees up so much time for more interesting things, like drinking gin on the bench. Highly recommend.

Our hose is wall mounted. OH put a splitter tap on so we can have two hoses, one on the front garden (it's as big as the back garden), and one in the back. Our garden is large, so the wall mounted hose is easy to roll up, otherwise it would be a nightmare. One of the hoses is the concertina kind, which makes life even easier. I wouldn't be able to lift the hose otherwise.
Also, if you can afford it, get a brass gun, we have gone through so many plastic ones.

https://www.hozelock.com/product/auto-reel-with-40m-hose/

this is ours.

and agree flexi hoses don’t last…

I’ve had the same wall mounted Hozelock auto reel for ten years. Like this one: https://www.screwfix.com/p/hozelock-auto-reel-10-5mm-x-30m/54338

It has survived five years when we had tenants in the house, then being dismantled and reinstalled after renovations.

The hose is beginning to be a bit stiff and kinks a bit, but still perfectly serviceable and I’m not planning on changing it until it gets much worse. The auto reel still works fine.

I also have one of these for the front garden https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B085LWPSPP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It’s doing a good job so far, is very light and easy to wrap around the tap using the support provided. But I don’t know how durable it will be as only installed it last year. I’d say it’s very good for small spaces.

My automatic hozelock 40m (?) wall mounted one has lasted about twenty years. It's the original green casing and green with the yellow stripe hose one. Every winter I unclip it from the wall mount and store it in the shed. I think it cost £50 on sale originally. No kinking and as I am very careful to rinse out the hose as it winds back in, the mechanism has never jammed. I also have another wall mounted hozelock for the back garden, but it's a mechanical winding one with a handle. Wish I had not been such a cheapskate!

I prefer the lightweight hose with a fibre covering plus a Hozelock trolly. It's about 75% lighter in weight than the thick plastic ones. No kinks and much easier to manipulate than plastic.

I'm a bit precious about it as it wasn't cheap - I store it in the garage from around October til when this chuffin rain stops about June.

I have a dual hose attachment on our our external tap, with about 2 metres of cut down hose for filling watering cans on one plus the hose on the other. Plus 3 waterbutts near the green house.

If the hose is open both ends, it's easier to wind up as the water empties. or perhaps you can leave a hose running up the side of the garden during the summer.

If you're able to leave the hose in place, you might want to consider using 19mm hose as the flow rate is much higher than a 13mm hose, (YMMV but usually over 50%, which when watering the garden is a significant time saver)

I find Gardena connectors to be much better than hoze-lock.

I have killed countless spray guns, until I bought a professional a GEKA professional one, which has lasted years and really nice to use.

https://www.amazon.nl/-/en/GEKA-7890KY-Professional-Cleaning-Blue/dp/B079K4QLF4

Also worth considering an irrigation system, with a (smart) timer it makes life so much easier.

Had one of these and only gave it away the other day.👍
Gave perfect service and like the PP, would put it away in the winter but leave it out in the summer (it would make occasional appearances during the winter for car washing etc).

Just replaced it with a Gardena 50m one, not wall mounted but on a wheeled trolly.
Flick out stand for stability and roller to ensure it winds on evenly.
Bought from Costco, think it was £100 which undercut everyone else.

We've got one of the old green Hozelock ones with a winding handle (which is a bit heavy and awkward) but it has been outdoors for at least ten years and no issues at all, we just take the gun off and store that indoors in winter. It has been an excellent buy.

Thanks everyone! I’m going to bite the bullet and get one. No more tripping over an unwound hose.

I've done some research on this and Gardenia come up as the best brand - I didn't want a wall-mounted hose (we couldn't hide it anywhere). We ended up going for a sprinkler system controlled via an app on our phones.

@yeoldbamboo , sorry if this is a silly question, but I’ve been thinking about irrigation systems and I keep wondering, what do you do when you need to feed the garden? Surely you still need a hose for that? I don’t tend to water my garden very often (especially this spring 🙃) but I feed my borders weekly with a hose feeder and either fertiliser of liquid seaweed.

Also, when there is a hosepipe ban, does this also apply to irrigation systems?

thank you 🌴

You can get automatic ones?? 😯

I thought you still had to wind them up but the base would stay put (instead of bumbling away) as it was screwed to the wall. I now know what I want for a housewarming present!

Same here! I had no idea you could get automatic ones. Hmmm. I can’t really justify upgrading though.

The smart irrigation system just connects to a standard tap (connects to WiFi - so you might need an extender if your tap is a good distance from your house) - it would work with a water butt too - as long as it has a standard tap fitting - I think using a water butt is legal to use during a hope pipe ban? We can adjust the frequency remotely - it won’t water if it’s raining. It wasn’t very expensive about £40 on Amazon - you can spend a lot more but that suited us. Dh find it very funny to switch it on remotely when I’m in the garden 🤨

@Koulibiak im not sure about feeding - there must be a liquid feed dispenser to use with a hose - seems a simple thing to design - in that case you’d just fit it to the system it uses all the standard fittings