Hosepipes

[MartinANick]

Here in Guernsey our harbour authority in their wisdom recently banned hosepipes from being set in our marinas - citing health & safety.
This as all of the local boaters know is completely unnecessary but has to be complied with.
So having to make other arrangements I and many of my boating friends have invested in what appeared to be the solution to the problem of
having to store bulky hosepipes on board
Enter ''The XHose'' the expandable hose.
I am now on 5th hose in 6 months all of them have burst open after only a few uses.
They are a great idea in theory but they just do not work. This has happened to many other boaters here as well

Does anyone have any similar problems with them?

 

[shetland]

Hi,

I use a genuine x-hose, and have not had any problems other than it requires high water pressure to expand.

There are lots of copies of the x-hose on Amazon , and many fail after being used a couple of times.

 

[sarabande]

Here in Guernsey our harbour authority in their wisdom recently banned hosepipes from being set in our marinas - citing health & safety.
This as all of the local boaters know is completely unnecessary but has to be complied with.

It makes a lot of sense to prevent people mistreating marina hoses by e.g. leaving the end in the harbour water or on some contaminated part of the pontoon. There's a possible danger of back flush into the mains as well, though any decent plumbing will have a NR valve. Personal hoses tend to be stored in a locker, not on the pontoon where hot sunshine can cause plasticisers to migrate into the water inside.


If you have your own hose, people tend to look after it more they do a marina hose. Potable water hose is marked as such, is usually blue, and contains less plasticisers than standard garden hose. (You can see the effect of hot sunshine, if you squirt a garden hose that has been left in the sun, into a glass jar. Lots of bubbles for the first few litres, which then disappear as the mains water flushes through.)

 

[David2452]

I noticed a similar situation on our recent (just got home) east Coast cruise and beer sampling stint, not really a problem as I have used my own lay flat hose on a reel for quite a time and even if there is a hose I connect my own anyway. The Xhose does seem to get bad reviews but that may be, as with other products, that there are poor Xhoses and good Xhoses.

 

[MartinANick]

Hi,

I use a genuine x-hose, and have not had any problems other than it requires high water pressure to expand.

There are lots of copies of the x-hose on Amazon , and many fail after being used a couple of times.

I have had 3 copies which all failed but the last two have been genuine XHoses.
Water pressure on my pontoon is high and I thought that maybe this could have been the problem. But as you say they do need
affair bit of pressure for them to work.

 

[l'escargot]

The last few people to ask to borrow my flat blue hose have had Xhoses...

 

[benjenbav]

The last few people to ask to borrow my flat blue hose have had Xhoses...

Another vote for the flat blue hose. Works a treat. Doesn't take up too much space.

 

[Piers]

Three points.

1 Beaucette Marina (NE Guernsey) has kept their hoses.
2 I'm told by the Guernsey waterboard inspector that the likelihood of bugs in boat owners' hoses is higher than pontoon hoses since they aren't used nearly so often, thereby becoming potential breeding grounds for bugs
3 Expanding hoses are possibly more likely to harbour (forgive the pun) bugs given all the folds.

 

[PCUK]

Xhoses of course cannot be used for drinking water.

 

[ricky_s]

Three points.

1 Beaucette Marina (NE Guernsey) has kept their hoses.
2 I'm told by the Guernsey waterboard inspector that the likelihood of bugs in boat owners' hoses is higher than pontoon hoses since they aren't used nearly so often, thereby becoming potential breeding grounds for bugs
3 Expanding hoses are possibly more likely to harbour (forgive the pun) bugs given all the folds.

Where we are in Gosport marina they provide hoses for some pontoons, ours is one of them but I must admit I would prefer to use my own.

A couple of weeks ago a bloke washed down his fishing table on the back of his boat with the hose switching between each hand and scooping up bits of fish guts while doing it!

 

[Piers]

A couple of weeks ago a bloke washed down his fishing table on the back of his boat with the hose switching between each hand and scooping up bits of fish guts while doing it!

Ugh!

 

[Talulah]

The problem with removing hoses is there isn't ready access to wash down the pontoon when something gets spilt or someones dog leaves a deposit.

 

[Nick_H]

I have one of the expanding hoses and I love it, best thing i've bought for the boat in ages. In the med you have to get the hose out every time you moor up because of the dirty lazy lines, and the expanding hose is so much easier than either a flat or conventional hose. I've had a couple of the flat hoses, but the cassettes always break quickly, and the hoses kink all the time. The expanding hose never kinks or tangles, and to store it you just throw it in a bucket.

I don't remember the brand of mine, but I bought it from SIBS and it's bright green in colour. In fairness i've only had it a few months, but the water pressures here can be very high and it hasn't failed so far. Even if it only lasts a year I'll keep buying them, as they are so much less hassle that the other options.