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Helpful Hints for Water Tool Care

Helpful Hints for Water Tool Care

By Dramm
Photographs courtesy of Dramm

Here are some ideas to increase the life of your watering tools and ensure that watering your garden is effective and enjoyable.

GardenSMART Article Image

GardenSMART Article Image

Hoses: Hoses can be a ‘drag’ to move around, but the way you drag your hose will give you problems down the road. Always grip the hose to pull when uncoiling or moving hoses (top photo). Never pull the hose by the Rain Wand or nozzle (bottom photo). You will either damage the coupling on the hose, the coupling on the nozzle or wand, or dislodge the coupling from the hose.

Before watering, uncoil the hose to its full length and twist the hose to remove any kinks. Then start watering and work your way back to the spigot. When re-coiling your hose, start rewinding or re-coiling at the spigot end.

GardenSMART Article Image

GardenSMART Article Image

Hose End: When attaching a hose end sprinkler, nozzle, wand, or hose-end sprayer you should examine the hose end. Look for dirt, bark or leaves which can contaminate your hose coupling and cause clogs in hose-end attachments (top photo).

Examine your coupling (bottom photo). Dropping the hose will cause the coupling to be distorted, which then causes a leak. Examine the female end of the coupling to ensure a washer is in place. Without a washer you will always have a leak.

GardenSMART Article Image

GardenSMART Article Image

When using an aluminum Rain Wand™ and a Water Breaker® nozzle, either hang the unit up, allowing the water to drain into the hose, or remove the unit from the hose and drain the wand. When the wand is laid level on the ground, water remains in the tube. This water and any salt in the tube, from fertilizer, will cause a battery effect between the aluminum and the brass coupling. A battery effect produces a slight acid, which destroys the aluminum.

GardenSMART Article Image

GardenSMART Article Image

Watering Cans: It’s a vital tool for the garden and great for watering containers or adding fertilizer to your water and plants. Helpful hint: on 2-liter and 5-liter watering cans, have the rose of the watering can pointing skyward (top photo). When watering, the water will first arch upward, creating a gentle rain-like shower for your plants. When you’ve completed your watering, turn the watering can upside down (bottom photo). It will prevent leaves and debris from falling into the can, causing blockages in the rose of the can.

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Quick Disconnect: Lawn sprinklers and hose-end accessories can be difficult to attach to a hose due to the weight of the sprinkler and the angle of the hose. Sometimes it's a pain! Quick Disconnects eliminate the hassle of threaded connections between the hose and accessories. Quickly go from sprinkler to hand-held spray gun to Rain Wand with Quick Disconnects. After the gardening season is over, lubricate the quick disconnect collar for easier removal.

GardenSMART Article Image

GardenSMART Article Image

Oscillating Sprinkler: Hard water deposits, calcium, and lime can build up over time and clog the brass spray nozzle on the Oscillating Sprinkler arm. Dramm’s Oscillating Sprinkler has a clean-out pin at the end of the spray tube (top photo) to clean out the brass spray jets (bottom photo).

For more extensive cleaning, remove the spray arm and soak it in a calcium and lime remover solution to dissolve the calcium and lime. Allow the spray arm to soak, use an old toothbrush to remove hard water deposits, rinse the spray arm with water, and attach the spray arm back in the sprinkler base. For a step-by-step guide on cleaning Dramm's Oscillating Sprinkler, visit The Dramm Corporation - Retail YouTube channel.

For more information on Dramm products, go to rainwand.com.


All articles are copyrighted and remain the property of the author.

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