Our very small front garden was created by dumping about18 inches of soil
over the paving stones. (it was all too solid and cemented in to dig up).
Consequently we have to water very frequently.

We have decide to buy a hose reel. The other day we saw some in B&Q.
The store make was £20 and the hozelock one was £25. We already have a
Gardena one in the back garden, but as its freestanding, it keeps tipping
over when you pull with any viguour, which is annoying.

What one would people here recommend to buy, the b&q, the hozelock or
perhaps some other make? Thanks for any advice.

"johngood_____" wrote in message
...
Our very small front garden was created by dumping about18 inches of soil
over the paving stones. (it was all too solid and cemented in to dig up).
Consequently we have to water very frequently.

We have decide to buy a hose reel. The other day we saw some in B&Q. The
store make was £20 and the hozelock one was £25. We already have a
Gardena one in the back garden, but as its freestanding, it keeps tipping
over when you pull with any viguour, which is annoying.

What one would people here recommend to buy, the b&q, the hozelock or
perhaps some other make? Thanks for any advice.


We have a Hozelock reel but it is fixed to the wall. The drawback is that to
reach the bottom of the garden or the front garden, the hose really has to
be pulled off by hand and snaked out and pulled from there. (It is not a
straight line from the Reel to the extremities of either front or back.
Plants and fixtures are in the way)

No real great problem

Mike



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We to have a Hozelock reel fixed to the wall, wouldn't go to any other system for a hosepipe. But I'm seriously considering, as our back garden is all gravel with hanging baskets and containers, adding an automatic watering system this year (I have breathing problems and run out of breath doing the watering)

In article , johngood_____
wrote:

Our very small front garden was created by dumping about18 inches of soil
over the paving stones. (it was all too solid and cemented in to dig up).
Consequently we have to water very frequently.

We have decide to buy a hose reel. The other day we saw some in B&Q.
The store make was £20 and the hozelock one was £25. We already have a
Gardena one in the back garden, but as its freestanding, it keeps tipping
over when you pull with any viguour, which is annoying.

What one would people here recommend to buy, the b&q, the hozelock or
perhaps some other make? Thanks for any advice.

I would recommend Hozelock any day - they have the biggest range of
reels/carts and more bang for the buck, which is why they dominate the
market ... plus I like to buy British where possible and afaict all the
superstore own label products are shipped in from the Far East so
support and spares can be sketchy at best.

But if you use a hose frequently in a small garden, you should look at
a wall-mounted reel like the Hozelock Auto Reel or Mini Auto Reel both
of which will rewind the hose automatically for you and will save you
so much grief that the extra few quid you pay will seem like the best
investment you ever made. I also have two freestanding reels which
don't fall over when you pull the hose out - a Fast Cart and a Compact
Cart - but these are bigger than you probably need.

If your garden is small and thirsty, have you considered a
semi-permanent automatic irrigation system? You could save much time
and energy by laying out a drip irrigation system with a tap timer to
turn the water on and off automatically. You might also look at
Hozelock's clever AquaPod system which enables a dripper system to be
set up, moved around and extended in just a couple of minutes.

Or, if you just want to make your existing reel more stable, look for a
hose guide which you can feed the hose through to keep it
smooth-running when going around corners. You can get the wall-mounted
type or one with a ground spike and they will help to relieve the
direct strain on the reel.

Stan The Man wrote:


If your garden is small and thirsty, have you considered a
semi-permanent automatic irrigation system? You could save much time
and energy by laying out a drip irrigation system with a tap timer to
turn the water on and off automatically. You might also look at
Hozelock's clever AquaPod system which enables a dripper system to be
set up, moved around and extended in just a couple of minutes.


I don't know about the OP's water company, but I had to have a water meter
installed when I started to use a timer irrigation system. Still, you'd be
surprised how little an amount of water is used with such a system if set up
correctly.


--
Jeff
(cut "thetape" to reply)

In message , johngood_____
writes
Our very small front garden was created by dumping about18 inches of soil
over the paving stones. (it was all too solid and cemented in to dig up).
Consequently we have to water very frequently.

We have decide to buy a hose reel. The other day we saw some in B&Q.
The store make was £20 and the hozelock one was £25. We already have a
Gardena one in the back garden, but as its freestanding, it keeps tipping
over when you pull with any viguour, which is annoying.

What one would people here recommend to buy, the b&q, the hozelock or
perhaps some other make? Thanks for any advice.


I had this problem with our 40m trolley mounted extension hose but
solved it by winding the hose so that it comes off the bottom of the
drum rather than the top. Cannot remember which make it is - either
Hozelock or Gardena.
--
Robert

In reply to johngood_____ ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

Our very small front garden was created by dumping about18 inches of
soil over the paving stones. (it was all too solid and cemented in to
dig up). Consequently we have to water very frequently.

We have decide to buy a hose reel. The other day we saw some in B&Q.
The store make was £20 and the hozelock one was £25. We already
have a Gardena one in the back garden, but as its freestanding, it
keeps tipping over when you pull with any viguour, which is annoying.

What one would people here recommend to buy, the b&q, the hozelock or
perhaps some other make? Thanks for any advice.

I have a Hozelock one, screwed to a wall but DON'T use the girly screws they
give you with it! Obey the instructions when winding it up, you would thing
you turn it the *other* way to wind it in, but for some reason it's made
sort of left-handed (anyone who has one will know what I mean).

I bet the Hozelock is made in the far east, everything is, but it hasn't
broken yet, and it gets used a lot, although hardly ever for watering the
garden.

And get a watering system, the bits are so cheap now if you find somewhere
that has overstocks, so don't buy the "starter kit" unless you have to.
There are Hozelock, Gardena plus several other (one of them is French) makes
available. I picked up loads of packets of stuff for about 80p to 90p a
packet, including cutoffs, T's, drippers (both fixed and adjustable),
converters from large to small hose ... the bit that I can't get cheap is
the 10mm hosepipe though.

I have set up a massive system, about four times what they say the thing
will deal with. I have been through two of the automatic timer valves
though, both Hozelock, absolute junk. I dismantled one and it's cheap,
Chinese, badly designed and badly put together. The latest one I bought is
the B&Q own-make digital one which several people recommend me to.
Waterproof. Seems quite a useful feature for something which spends its life
connected to a tap, IMHO. Worked all this year, although it didn't have much
work to do!