Well, it would be #12,826–or higher–if I simply wrote down a daily log of tightwaddery @twc central. . .
Anywho, since I’ve not gotten around to adding a hose bib for the back yard, yet (yeh, the place has been w/o one for 40 years, since it was built, 22+ of them under our stewardship, so it’s not a big rush item), and one of our two hoses (needs at least 2-50′ hoses to be useful for back yard) bit the dust toward the end of last summer, I decided to keep an eye out for another one.
Found one. It’s one of those expanding/collapsing hoses. 50′. Just a couple of bucks. Seriously. Even at a “fell off the back of a truck” store, that’s unbelievable.
Believe it. But there was a reason: the rubberized fabric hose sheath had a 1” seam split. Oh Noes! Not.
1. Sew up the split.
2. Coat the repaired split with silicone gasket compound.
3. Wrap that with self-sealing silicone tape.
4. Cover the self-sealing silicone tape with pieces of the “dead” hose’
5. Rewrap with more self-sealing silicone tape.
Tried it out. Looks good.
Even if it only lasts one season, a 50′ hose for under $5 isn’t that bad, but I fully expect it to last longer than that. In fact, I do not expect the repair job to fail at all during the hose’s usable service life.
Oh, the tip? I should think it was obvious: don’t pass up a bargain just because it has one flaw, as long as that flaw is repairable. . . inexpensively (read “inexpensively” as “dirt cheap” *heh*)