However, that’s not all you are going to need (as well as a supply of water that is). Of great importance to your actual use of your hose pipe are a number of small items known collectively as Garden Hose Fittings.
The term “fittings” is very basic to many forms of engineering practices and it covers items that allow pieces of pipe or tubing to be joined together. Fittings also cover items like valves and other components to be fitted into a line of pipe; fittings also allow pipe to be connected to the supply of liquid or gas that will then flow through the piping for whatever desired purpose.
Garden hose is a hollow rubber (or plastic polymer) tube through which water can flow from a fixed point of supply to a variable exit point where there are plants or a lawn to be watered. Plus, of course some object or other (such as an automobile) that you wish to wash. In this respect, your hose pipe is nothing more than a flexible piece of pipe or tubing and it will require Garden Hose Fittings for the same sort of duties as the fittings found in your indoor plumbing.
I’ve Got My Hose Pipe – What Garden Hose Fittings Will I Need?
It is almost certain that anyone planning to use a hosepipe out of doors will have had water pipes laid to tap into the house supply and lead to an outdoor faucet – probably one for the backyard and another out front (maybe even more). The hose pipe has to be fitted to those faucets. It is just about possible to force the end of a faucet up the opening of a hose and then place a worm-drive hose clamp around it to hold the hose tightly on the faucet. This is possible but not all that practical – most people who have tried it find that water pressure will usually defeat the clamp (often with spectacular results and no water at the business end of your hose).
So, the first things to arrange (after purchasing your hose pipe) are the Garden Hose Fittings that combine to securely connect your hose to the water supply without a drop of leakage. Then, you can start to collect the more specialized pieces of Garden Hose Fittings. Fittings that will enable you to join one length of hose to another or attach your hose to a special nozzle, etc., etc.; in fact, all the multiple uses that you will put your garden hose to.
