Any recommendations for a good heated hose?
When I was at the Equine Affaire I bought a flat hose that expands when filled with water. When the water is turned off the hose flattens again, draining out all the water so it doesn’t freeze. It weighs nothing. I’ve already tried it and it doesn’t freeze!!! I love it! So I’m going to sell my heavy, heated hose that takes way too much muscle to drag around the barn!!! I don’t have a name for the hose I bought but they did sell something similar at Wal Mart last summer. I think I bought my heated hose from Horse.com and had no complaints about the way it worked–just that it was too heavy.
Pocket Hose is what imaginique is speaking of.
[QUOTE=imaginique;7275264]
When I was at the Equine Affaire I bought a flat hose that expands when filled with water. When the water is turned off the hose flattens again, draining out all the water so it doesn’t freeze. It weighs nothing. I’ve already tried it and it doesn’t freeze!!! I love it! So I’m going to sell my heavy, heated hose that takes way too much muscle to drag around the barn!!! I don’t have a name for the hose I bought but they did sell something similar at Wal Mart last summer. I think I bought my heated hose from Horse.com and had no complaints about the way it worked–just that it was too heavy.[/QUOTE]
I saw that at a trade show, it looks AWESOME.
The pocket hose can leach chemicals into the water and has a fine print warning to not drink out of the hose. I don’t think I would use it for animals either.
Also, it doesn’t help when the hose is long and the weather is cold - even that will freeze before you can use it and drain it.
(Staying tuned in for a heated recommendation)
[QUOTE=stargzng386;7275598]
The pocket hose can leach chemicals into the water and has a fine print warning to not drink out of the hose. I don’t think I would use it for animals either.[/QUOTE]
Well crap! That defeats my purpose in buying it. I guess I’ll go back to hauling buckets.
[QUOTE=jcraig10;7275403]
Pocket Hose is what imaginique is speaking of.[/QUOTE]
I don’t know if the pocket hose is what imaginique is speaking of. They have hoses that self empty thus they don’t freeze that are NOT the pocket hose and are drinking water quality.
See here:
http://www.clearflowhose.com/products/3season/
I have not used this hose personally but I plan on getting one when I close on my house.
Didn’t we go through a whole discussion last year about this. It seems they were ordered and never came.
http://www.clearflowhose.com/products/3season/
I’m not sure it had the same name though. But I do remember Roger’s photo.
I have two 100’/1" dia rubber (not that stupid plastic that only bends when it’s 85 degrees) hoses.
I un-hook them every night and blow them out - yes literally blow them out and leave them lay. At 66, I now have to lean against the barn to complete the process but it’s the easiest way I know to drain a hose healthy enough to do barn work.
I retired to Middle TN so 13 degree nights, like last night, are few and far between. My method works nicely down here but I could see the hose easily freezing to my lips if I lived in Minnesota:no:
[QUOTE=imaginique;7275264]
When I was at the Equine Affaire I bought a flat hose that expands when filled with water. When the water is turned off the hose flattens again, draining out all the water so it doesn’t freeze. It weighs nothing. I’ve already tried it and it doesn’t freeze!!! I love it! So I’m going to sell my heavy, heated hose that takes way too much muscle to drag around the barn!!! I don’t have a name for the hose I bought but they did sell something similar at Wal Mart last summer. I think I bought my heated hose from Horse.com and had no complaints about the way it worked–just that it was too heavy.[/QUOTE]
I think you will find that even though those collapsing hoses “squeeze” out the vast majority of the water the walls of the hose will still be wet enough to freeze together. At least the one I tried and left out by accident over night in our area did. But they do thaw out a lot quicker.
But considering they are very light it is a lot less of a hassle to carry them to a heated space until needed again.
I have seen “heated” hoses advertised but have never used them. Don’t know anybody that has either. They just seem too “problematic” to me.
For the barn we just use a 100’ well made metal hose wheel cart and roll it into our heated tack room. But even the “good” ones start to leek at the interface after a season or two.
For the most part I only use real rubber hoses made by Goodyear. The ends have well made brass fittings, withstand the test of time, can be stepped on many times by shod horses, stay flexible in subfreezing conditions and don’t crack or burst when frozen. But they are heavy. And I suppose because of this they are cheaper at HD then crappy plastic horses and are often found on sale.
It all comes down to where you live and average winter temps. Around here we can go weeks with temps in the teens and 20s. We’ve already had a week of early winter weather.
[QUOTE=stargzng386;7275598]
The pocket hose can leach chemicals into the water and has a fine print warning to not drink out of the hose. I don’t think I would use it for animals either.[/QUOTE]
This would be of little concern to me. I think you will find just about all “garden” hoses are not rated to be used for “potable” water. This is just a warning to cover their butts just in case the one in a million comes down with some sort of sickness and tries to blame and sue for damages. It is expensive for a company to go through all of the testing to meet Fed regs. Any chemical leaching would be minuscule. IMO far less then what is being leached into ones food when heated up in a microwave oven. IMO the average horse has a better chance of hitting the lottery then getting sick from using one of these hoses.
As always to each their own.
Last year I purchased an X-Hose which is one of the expanding hoses. This is their website: https://www.xhose.com/pro/
Let me tell you… I will NEVER go back to using a normal hose in the winter. It completely drains and deflates… and then I keep it in a wooden insulated type box. No freezing or kinking issues.
It did only last a season before getting a small hole in it. I ordered the X-hose PRO which arrived today after being on backorder for a few weeks. Just in time for the nasty weather… can’t wait to hook it up and put the rubber hoses away for the winter.
I’m sure a lot of us will await Updates. The initial offering of the hose got pretty badly panned by users on the COTH.
[QUOTE=gumtree;7278928]
This would be of little concern to me. I think you will find just about all “garden” hoses are not rated to be used for “potable” water. This is just a warning to cover their butts just in case the one in a million comes down with some sort of sickness and tries to blame and sue for damages. It is expensive for a company to go through all of the testing to meet Fed regs. Any chemical leaching would be minuscule. IMO far less then what is being leached into ones food when heated up in a microwave oven. IMO the average horse has a better chance of hitting the lottery then getting sick from using one of these hoses.
As always to each their own.[/QUOTE]
Ok, that makes sense and makes me feel better. After thinking about it, I’m sure the regular garden hoses I’ve used would probably leach chemicals too. And with the heated hose, it seems the heat would cause more chemical leaching. I drank out of hoses for years before it came out that it was unhealthy because of the lead content and I don’t seem to have suffered any consequences (that I know of).
After a week of temps not much above 20 degrees been using a pocket hose to keep every thing with water. 4 of them will reach 200 feet and fit back in a 5 gallon bucket for the next use. Really like this hose vs hauling many buckets of water.
ML
