#193 Rain Barrel Soaker Hose Kit

This is a pretty slick kit. We have drip irrigation in our garden and recently added two rain barrels to our system. One rain barrel is for a little 8x5 garden area. I bought this kit out of sheer laziness. I know a thang or two about irrigation systems because of my line of work. That's why I wanted to be as lazy as possible when installing the system for the rain barrels. You just hook it up and go. Super easy. It comes with everything you need to get started and cover a small garden area. You want to raise your rain barrel up- they say it's not necessary but you'll get better flow if you do. I use this to water up a slight incline. The extra elevation helps the water pressure reach up to the climbing hydrangeas perfectly. I haven't had any problems with the hose clogging with mulch or soil- it's a soaker hose, the water just soaks right through the soil and the mulch. But we have sandy soil and use natural small cut, not rubber, mulch and stones. (lines sit nicely under stones)Cons: I personally would recommend buying additional washers if you don't already have them. You will need them, you should use more than the one that is included. They should include more than one as well. You will also need more steaks- Unless you're doing a simple square or line, you do not get enough. I score them at HD for $.40 each or you can buy the metal landscape steaks which work just as well.I really dig this kit. It waters nicely, it's inexpensive, easy to set up and add on to. The quality is good, it waters our plants nicely and of course is a great way to help prevent storm water runoff by reusing rainwater. Can't beat that!

I set this up with a rain barrel elevated not quite 2' off the ground. Set it up as instructed, worked great the first two times I used it (a week or so apart). Then the initial adapter joint started leaking badly, which seemed to be the reason for water not being delivered well along the length of the hose. Replaced the T with a different joint, which did not leak but still wasn't delivering water. It now doesn't 'seep' anything more than microscopic beads on the surface. Since I had it in the package for three years before I finally managed to get a suitable barrel set up for it, I'm stuck with it, otherwise I would have returned it. Have tried poking holes in the hose but the stickpin holes I tried first largely "self-heal". Expensive kit to fail after such short usage.

Personally I think this is a great item. I think you need to understand what to expect from items like this. If you're going to go green, natural, organic, etc. you are not going to get the same results as from other commercial products. So for this item, if you're using a rain barrel system and are going to hook up a hose to it, you can't expect it to be as amazing as a pressurized irrigation system. What I have learned over the past season of using this is to elevate the rain barrels for better pressure and to "clean" the hose from debris every so often (I hook up the hose and use a slight amount of pressure just to keep the holes clean about 1-2 times per week). Is it extra work? Yes. Is it less work than using a watering can daily? Yes. I wanted to reduce the amount of work/time I was putting into my garden with the watering cans, not necessarily eliminate it. So for me, mission accomplished. I'm very happy.

I'd be raising this directly with the manufacturer, but between their brochure, their box and their website I can't find any way to contact them.I installed the system on Saturday, using their closed-loop configuration, with the barrel a couple of feet above flower bed height.Unlike the video posted on their website, my new hose doesn't "sweat bullets" and start dripping; it oozes droplets; just enough to keep itself damp. Unlike the chart on their site, it doesn't drain a rain barrel in an hour and a half; in the last day the barrel level has dropped by just an inch or two (a couple of gallons?).So far, the product is merely moistening the mulch; there's no way it's watering the flower bed. Unless I find a way to contact the makers, or they contact me, I'll be returning the product.

I ordered this bc my existing soaker hose wasn't working very well from the rain barrel. But unfortunately, this product was even worse than the cheap soaker I already had. So I'll have to do some more investigating to get my garden to self water.

Purchased this in order to set up a gravity fed garden irrigation system from a rain barrel. First time I tested the hose it worked fine with a reasonable drip rate. I left it unused for a couple weeks during which there was a lot of rain and it was not needed. My second time using it, two weeks later, it no longer dripped at any appreciable rate. I had to use positive pressure from a partially open garden hose to get water to go through. My original water source was from a garden hose, my reservoir is clean, and I used the filters included in the kit, so there should be no issue with clogging but there clearly was. This system simply does not function well using a gravity feed and is a waste of money.

Starter kit is just a teaser. Enough fittings to complete a system gets expensive. Amazon doesn't sell all of the accessories listed in the instructions ,so you have to search elsewhere to complete your system. Also, the roll of soaker hose provided with my kit did not work properly (needs high pressure to soak through) so I had to replace with new hose that I bought to complete my system. Over all a good product, but fittings are too expensive.

This is the best! I have tried other hoses on my rain barrel but this hose works like magic. Our rain barrel sits on two cinder blocks placed lengthwise with a board on top of the blocks to even out the weight. That makes the rain barrel sit about 6" off the ground. I just turn the release knob and the water is out the hose and watering my garden within seconds. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. Be bought the extra elbows so that we had more flexibility with the configuration and even with several turns the watering is consistent.