Tom’s Full Review – April 30, 2015

I work on a sheep farm and use water hoses every day. I went through a lot of kinked up hoses before buying a Flexzilla water hose. Now I have no kinking problems. It saves me a lot of time and frustration and I thank you very much for that.

At first I was reluctant to purchase a Flexzilla hose because it is more costly than a traditional rigid wall hose. But when I examined it closely in the store, I was amazed at the way it felt and responded to the pressure of my fingers. I have purchased numerous hoses that failed to work properly within a few weeks of being reeled and unwound on a repeated basis. Nonetheless, I thought Flexzilla might be the one hose that would end any further hose purchases. And it was.

tomchesters03Most people use hose reels, or reel boxes, to store their water hose. This is done for a number of reasons, but mainly for convenience of location, for a low volume storage space, and to keep the hose in a place with a proper temperature range. We keep our hose reel in our office away from the unheated pole barn area so that it will not be affected by the frigid Illinois winters. When water is needed for the ewes (female sheep), we unwind the hose and feed it through the rear office door and then around the fences into the barn, and bring the nozzle to our hundred gallon water tanks for filling. In our old barn, where our big ram, Lambo, and his male companions are kept, we use 5 gallon buckets that have to be filled and hauled over to them.

Rigid water hoses usually kink when they are stored tightly curled on a reel. As the reel is unwound the smaller curls tend to tightly twist or bend, i.e. “kink,” as the hose is pulled forward from the reel. When the water is turned on and water pressure forces the hose to begin to expand and fill, it is time-consuming and frustrating to backtrack along the hose length to unwind and unbend the hose at each kinked portion. Wherever a kink has occurred, the hose walls have been weakened, making a repeat kink in that area more likely. After several incidents of such repeated kinking, the kinks tend to form within the wound reel. This then leads to the problem of having to unwind the hose until the kinks are reached and undone. Charging (filling) the hose for short hose distance from the reel then becomes impossible without undoing most of the hose. So the water you needed two feet from the reel to fill a bucket now requires you to unwind a great length of hose to free the kinks in order for the hose to charge.

The wonder of Flexzilla is that it does not have rigid walls. Any kinks that might develop during the unwinding process disappear with a flip of the hose—without damage to the flexible walls. Moreover, Flexzilla hose is lightweight and easy for anyone to carry. And additionally, since Flexzilla rapidly restores itself to its normal uncharged diameter, the “drain time,” the time it takes to drain the hose after the water pressure has been turned off and the nozzle opened, is dramatically reduced. Rewinding a long length of Flexzilla onto a reel while uncharged is a rapid and easy process both because of its light weight and its natural tendency to undo any forming kinks as the hose enters the reel.

I’ve also found that I no longer need to turn the hose nozzle off when moving from one watering location to another. The Flexzilla hose can be purposely kinked at any point to stop the water flow with no fear of hose wall damage when the forced kink is released.

The plastic hose covers at the respective ends of the Flexzilla hose are firm enough to prevent end kinks, and yet pliable enough to be comfortable to hold. The hose connectors work well and the superior O-ring gaskets rather than the flat washer type of gaskets make the hose leak free.

tomchesters01And again, I thank you for that!

Tom Chesters
Gresher-Fisher Show Stock, Inc.
Hanover Park, Il

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