Garden Hose Connectors

Garden Hose Connectors are quite simply used to connect garden hoses to each other as well to other objects like faucets and sprinklers. Okay, some of you will ask the obvious question:

"Since garden hoses have threaded ends designed to screw to each other as well as accessories, why would I possibly need a garden hose connector?"

Good question, and I'll boil it down to three primary reasons and we'll look at some example of connectors you may find useful and that are popular.

The first reason is that garden hoses take a while to screw on and off, and can be a hassle especially if you are often connecting or disconnecting them. Enter the quick connect fittings.

Quick connect fittings are very popular for obvious reasons to anyone that has had to screw on and off lots of hoses, water wands, nozzles and more knows. Not all of them are compatible with each other so just keep that in mind. It's best to stick to one or a few types at most. The Gardena Garden Hose Quick Connector Starter Set is very popular and it contains pieces to connect your hose to the faucet and accessories. As it's a starter set, you may eventually buy additional pieces, and they are economically priced. It works with 5/8 inch and 1/2 inch hoses, spray nozzles, sprinklers and Gardena hose end accessories.

Another reason is so that you can use branching connectors to allow you to branch a single hose into two. These are commonly called Y-valve connectors, and many have individual shutoff valves and adjustable flow control per hose. The cheap plastic ones seem to break pretty easily and I've had little success with them, but fortunately brass or zinc ones are not very expensive. The Gilmour 915 Y Connector is rugged unit with dual shut-off valves, adjustable flow, and is constructed of heavy duty zinc with a chrome finish.

The third big reasons to use garden hose connectors is when you want to connect two garden hoses that different sized ends or have the same ends, for example both female or both male. This happens more frequently then some of you might guess. Sometimes these are called garden hose adaptors.

There is a wide array you might need, and I never have what I need at the time and usually pop into the local hardware store, but you can also peruse a large selection at Amazon.

So there you have it, the 3 reasons why you might need garden hose connectors even though the ends are designed to connect!