Manual Garden Irrigation Hose: Hoselock Autoreel?

[nelsonic]

Opening this issue to capture the research into garden irrigation using a hose. Most of the plants in the garden will be automatically irrigated, however there are quite a few trees that will need to be manually irrigated in the dry months.

Our idea is to have a hose that can be uncoiled when needed and automatically recoil when not finished.

https://youtu.be/qSYJgC2AaK0

Our "local" garden centre sells these for €109 (20M) and €149 (30M): http://www.leroymerlin.pt/Site/Produtos/Jardim/Rega/Rega-de-superficie/Suportes-e-enroladores-de-mangueiras/81954201.aspx

Cheapest I've found it online was: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hozelock-2590-Auto-Rewind-Retractable-Garden-30m-Hose-Reel-With-anti-kink/292829843609

Obviously, the Tesco "Outlet" on eBay does not ship to Portugal otherwise I would order it from them. We could consider using a 3rd Party shipping service to forward the parcel from Tesco to us in PT provided it did not increase the cost too much.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hozelock-2403-0000-Auto-Yellow/dp/B078ZSXBCM/

The reviews are mostly good, but there are a couple of stinkers:

One of the reviewers on Amazon claims that the newer model of this hose is worse than older version: I don't know this is just nostalgia ("everything was better before") or Hozelock cutting corners on material quality and design, but I really would like to know if the product is genuinely functional and durable before paying the money to buy it and spending the time to install it in the garden.

The older model appears to be this one: (Amazon helpfully reminds us that there's a "newer model") https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hozelock-Auto-Reel-30m-Hose/dp/B0046REBRQ

Handily the "older" version is slightly cheaper in PT €139: http://www.leroymerlin.pt/Site/Produtos/Jardim/Rega/Rega-de-superficie/Suportes-e-enroladores-de-mangueiras/15074136.aspx

How You Can Help!

You can: Help us do the research and if you have experience with this, share your feedback! It's been a long time since we bought a garden hose and have no idea if this is any good.

What we need is a good hose we can use to water the plants that won't be automatically irrigated. And having a retractible one that "tidies itself" away is a must to ensure nobody trips on the hose.

Next?

We don't need to buy the garden hose for the next few months because the rain is taking care of watering the plants. 🌧 But we should return to this issue in the spring ☀️ time and decide what to get. 📆

[nelsonic]

Spring time is upon us! 🌻☀️ I’ve been manually filling a watering can to water the garden/trees. It’s tedious and a time-suck. I want to buy an auto retracting hose and install it on the outside of the building

cheapest I’ve found for the 30m version is 128,74€ on:

https://www.planetahuerto.pt/venda-carretel-automatico-autoreel-com-30-m-de-mangueira_07665

[nelsonic]

I've just gone round the garden and measured the lengths around the house with the Laser:

The distance to get from the place where we're installing the hose to the proposed BBQ area #77 is: 1.2 + 4.9 + 17.2 + 17.1 = 40.4m (going clockwise around the building). Which means that if we want to water the grass this summer, we will either need to buy the 40m version of this hose or fill up a watering can and carry water to the end of the garden. I know which option I prefer ... 💭

https://www.planetahuerto.pt/venda-carretel-automatico-autoreel-com-40-m-de-mangueira_07666

https://www.amazon.es/Hozelock-Auto-Reel-40m-Hose/dp/B0046REBS0?th=1

Cheaper from amazon.

No cheaper on price comparison website: https://www.kuantokusta.pt/p/4450934/hozelock-carretel-automatico-autoreel-com-40-m-de-mangueira-2595r0000

Thinking I'll just order it from Amazon ES. Any objections? 🤷‍♂️

[nelsonic]

Amazon jacked up the price since yesterday when I looked at this: 🤦‍♂️

Order placed from PlanetaHuerto: https://www.planetahuerto.pt/minha-conta/encomenda/04effb7b-3a86-43e8-863e-ca9f7c441ce0

Paid €169,77 because of a discount voucher. But still feels like a lot for a hose pipe ... 🙄 Hopefully it will mean that we don't have a hose laying around though ... 🤞

[nelsonic]

Super glad we bought and installed this. It’s so much tidier than any other hose and the mechanism is reliable. Such a shame that it’s so overpriced… but I guess they have to make a profit to stay in business … 🙄