"MiamiCuse" wrote in message
...
I have two of the home depot variety "kink free" garden hoses. They are
far from kink free, in fact they kink all the time when you stretch them
out. When you roll them back up you have to keep flipping the hose the
right way so it won't kink.

However, I have a very old hose probably more than 15 years I found in
this garage and it never kinks. It does not kink because it does not
flatten not even a little bit. I think it's made of rubber. Are those
better hoses than the modern day vinyl hoses?

MC

Good hoses are still available. They just cost more. Most people do not
understand the principles behind coiling. Hose is like wire rope. It will
coil, but it doesn't twist very much. Lay out a stretch of steel wire, and
you notice that if you turn one end, the other end turns the same amount.
Weaker things will spin a couple of times before the other end starts to
move. Over time, this bending develops a memory in the tube, and then it
becomes harder to straighten it out.

Figure eight'ing hose will allow storage without twisting. A coil method of
one coil one way, and the next reversed works great, but few can master it.
You can properly coil wire rope using this technique, then pull it all out
straight without a spiral in it. Same for hose.

As for using reels ............ lots of variables. Hoses go onto reels much
differently if they are pressurized than if not pressurized. Some hoses are
weak, and will flatten when rolled up on a reel, and others won't. Then
there's unreeling. Have you left it full of water, and now it has frozen?
Did you reel it up right and even? Reels work pretty good, and there's all
grades, some even with level wind mechanisms.

But knowing the principles of the whole thing help to gain predictable
results.

HTH

Steve