Looking for Fiskars soaker hose connectors

Hi! I am sadly aware that Fiskars has stopped manufacturing their soaker hose products. My problem is that most of my gardens--vegetable and flower--have been hooked up to 1/2" (actually .582 but sold as 1/2") Fiskars soaker hoses. The female connectors only seem to last about a year. I hate to replace the entire system just because a female connector breaks, but that is looking like an inevitability. The one place online that sells something they say works as a replacement is charging 24.00 shipping! If you happen to have any lying around that you don't want PLEASE contact me so we can work something out.

I haven't used the Fiskars stuff before. Are there any special parts inside the connector or is it just a compression to threaded connection? I use something very similar in my garden to connect threaded soaker hoses to 1/2 inch poly pipe. Maybe you can find a substitute in the drip irrigation section of your hardware store. The Lowes here sells them for a couple dollars.

They look something like this:

Thanks for the suggestion. There are no special parts--the problem is the measurements! Fiskars measure .582, while pretty much everything I can find available now is .602, which means it will slide right off the hose. Believe me, I've tried everything that seemed remotely likely as a replacement! Do you think no one has these, or should I try posting on a different forum/thread? I really appreciate your taking the time to suggest a solution.

Not sure if this is what you need...but saw this on Ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/Quick-Connect-Fe-Brass-Garden-Hose-Soaker-New_W0QQitemZ260142718277QQihZ016QQcategoryZ20541QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQ_trksidZp1638.m118.l1247QQcmdZViewItem

No, those are brass, but thanks. The fiskars ones are plastic and grab the soaker hose with basically the same technology as a fishook uses--sort of a back-hook thing on the inside. it is very simple, but it has to fit exactly, thats why the .582 and the .602 difference is really so big. I really appreciate the thought, though.

There is a type of connector I found at Lowes called Stretch and Lock http://www.hardwareandtools.com/invt/2817427?ref=gbase that can be used on a range of hose sizes. It has a barbed piece that fits inside the hose and a threaded collar on the outside. It sort of piches the hose between the two pieces. If you connect the hose to one end and remove the collar from the other end it would leave you with a male hose thread connection but I think you can get adapters to change it back to female. If nothing else works, you might try them.

I had to buy them because the house we bought has different sizes of irrigation line and I was tired of always having the wrong size connectors. I hope you can find something that works.

I haven't tried those-- It is definitely worth looking into. Lowe's is an hour drive for me--figures I was there just before reading this! I didn't see those but they have so much stuff I go cross-eyed! I will definitely give it a try. That is the best option I've got so far. I guess no one has a pail of unwanted fiskars parts sitting around that they are tired of staring at, so I'm either going to have to jerry-rig or redo the whole thing! Thanks for your help!

why can't you just cut off the ends of both hoses and add regular male and females ends and just attach them that way. The ends are really cheap and you get to save the hoses?

Because they are not regular hoses. If they were the 5/8 inch soaker hoses this would work. I have some 5/8" hose in part of my garden, and I am going to have to eventually switch over to all 5/8" hose for exactly that reason, but I have a LOT of garden that is covered by the .582 hose, and it would take hundreds of dollars (and days of work!) to just switch over, so I am trying to avoid doing it all at once. Thanks, though, you are right that I am eventually going to have to go that route.

mudpiegirl,
Mr. Soaker Hose is also .582 and uses the same fitting and connectors that was used by the Fiskars .582 soaker hose.

Here is a link where you may find what you are looking for.
http://www.mrdrip.com/moisturemaster.htm

Nana3

Thanks--that's the place that wants to charge $24.00 shipping! I had looked at getting about 20 dollars worth of product (about 10 connectors) and shipping doubled the cost. It's the only place I found on the web that carries it, alas. I am just not willing to pay that much for something going 1 state over and weighing less than 2 lbs. Thanks, though.

Sorry mudpiegirl,...is the high shipping amount due to the fact that you are in NM?
Have you tried calling them and speaking with them about the cost of shipping and asking if they would consider sending them by a cheaper shipping agent? Sometimes a place will work with you on this.

Nana3

Also $ 24 sounds a lot cheaper than what you are talking about if you have to replace the whole system :)

But since the above is what you want, let me elaborate a bit on what I said. I may not quite understand the problem here, but if I do then you are having problems connecting two hoses (or more). You are saying that just replacing the ends with regular male/female ends wouldn't work because the openings of your hoses are smaller than the 5/8" ends? Have you tried one? I have a bunch of hoses and I have noticed different size openings on all of them, even though they are all 5'8" and the ends will fit them all. They also make 1/2" ends that might work for you as well

I took a look at the Mr. Soaker Hose site. I calculated 10 female connectors at $1.99 each and then scrolled down to "Shipping Rate Preview" and clicked where it says "click here." In the new window I inserted New Mexico as the state and 87031 as the zip code for Los Lunas. Shipping via UPS Ground came to $12.25, not $23.88. The $23.88 charge is for UPS 2nd Day Air, the most expensive. Take a look here and do the calculations yourself - it should come to $12.25: http://www.mrdrip.com/eshop/20Review.asp

I also calculated shipping for 1 connector (UPS Ground $11.99) and 20 connectors (UPS Ground $12.49). Therefore, it looks like their minimum shipping charge is $11.99 and it only increases minimally as you order more connectors.

Hope this helps.

Marilyn

Wow, that's a lot of work to help a girl out. They should give you a commission. Have you ever ordered anything from the Mr. Drip site? The other problem I had when I was trying to order the first time was a certificate error that said that when I was supposedly ordering securely, it really wasn't. (and the little lock on my computer that shows secure sites was open, confirming it was not secure, so I was really not wanting to send any credit card info at that point) That may have been fixed by now. Maybe there were just web site problems and thats why the 24.00 shipping was the only one showing up. Thanks for going to all of that trouble. I will look at it again.

I can't help it - I love puzzles. LOL!

No, I've never ordered anything from them before.

It's good that you checked to make sure it was a secure site before you ordered using your credit card. Another way to check is to look at the website address. If it starts out "http:" it's not secure; if it starts out "https:" it IS secure.

I just tried to access the site again - I was curious to see if it would show the different shipping rate choices when I completed the order form. It does. It's also now properly secure.

Glad to have been of help.

Marilyn

Thank you! :) Alex

You're very welcome. :>)

In case anyone is interested, I eventually did buy some connectors from Mr. Drip. Although the shipping was not what I originally thought, it was still very expensive. At first I was going to get 4 connectors and the shipping would have been as much as the items. I ended up getting 100 ft more soaker hose so that shipping was only 1/3 of the total price--still pretty out there, given the light weight and small size of the container. I got it because after all of my searching, they were the ONLY place I could find that had the correct fittings for the old Fiskars hose. The good news was that my order arrived in less than a week, and that the connectors really are compatible.

In the future, however, it is my plan to make beds out of 5/8 inch hose, so that I can use brass "hose mender" type fittings, which last longer, and I will never have a problem being able to find! I also plan to slowly convert my old beds to this, as the fiskars hoses get clogged with silt.

Mudpiegirl: Where will you get the 5/8" hoses? Do you buy plain hose without connectors and then add the connectors yourself? Or do you buy them with connectors on, but find that the connectors wear out? I have some long stretches of garden, and am thinking about adding some soaker hoses; I might like to customize the length. But I've never tried changing the connectors on soaker hoses before. I am thinking it might be more economical to just buy bulk hose and add the connectors myself.

I have about 2000' feet of the bulk soaker hose out there and I agree with Mud Pie, the fittings are specialized for this bulk soaker hose and now you can't get the fittings. The one that is stretch and fit will work but is expensive when you are talking that much hose out there. Those fittings are also just for connecting not for attaching to a faucet. There is no way I could get all of my watering done by hand, this way the hose comes 100' at a time and has no fittings on either end and can be customized to my garden needs. It is also much less expensive than the soaker hoses with the fittings attached.

The newer hose I put out is the standard 5/8" that I can get fittings for but I agree with Mud Pie the cost of changing out all of this obsolete hose is cost prohibitive. It will have to be done 50-100' at a time. I have one fitting left and I sure am not parting with it. I did find out the other day that you can mend the smaller hose with a piece of the 1/2" poly distribution line for drip irrigation. I cut one of my lines with the shovel and that worked to put it back into service.

It's awful that the fittings are no longer being manufactured. You'd think with today's focus on water conservation that the demand for those would be increasing, not decreasing.

Only certain Wal-Marts in my area carried them to begin with. They carried them about 2 yrs so last year when I saw a box of parts I bought the whole box to have on hand. Now all I have left is the end caps, about a dozen of them but they are compatible with the newer 1/2" or 5/8" hoses.

Thanks, but I don't need the end caps. What I really need are the female connectors. I've been slowly replacing my hoses with the 5/8" hose and brass hose menders, which will eventually solve the problem. Anyway, thanks again!

Mudpiegirl -- so the regular brass hose menders will work on the 5/8" soaker hose?

Yes, they work great. I only wish I had started out that way! The brass hose menders last longer because they don't leak or break due to frost damage or pressure, and they work great with those quick attachments that are also brass. I started with that system in my vegetable beds about 6 years ago, and have had excellent results. For some reason I thought that the smaller hoses would be better for the flower beds, but now if it weren't expensive and time consuming I'd go ahead and switch out all of my beds to that system. At least now I know that once I do switch it out, I may have to replace the hoses, but the brass ends should last forever (or at least a long, long time)--another plus.

Thanks! Amazon has a 100' soaker hose for $58 or thereabout. Do you think I would do better to just buy the hose and add the fittings? Where is the best source for the hose, and the best source for the fittings? You may not know since you did this several years ago.

I recently got 100 feet of 5/8" soaker hose at Home Depot to replace some that had gotten filled with sediment. I am pretty certain that if I had paid more than 40 bucks I would have fallen over dead. Of course the product wouldn't even appear for me. Walmart often carries it too, (at least during Spring and Summer) but usually in 50 feet lengths (you can always put 2 of these together), and they are also cheap. As far as the brass hose menders, I have bought them at Walmart and Home Depot for about 2.25-2.50 each. I've seen them advertised in catalogs for more, so my guess is that if you can get them locally you will save, unless you need a lot of them and find someone offering a bulk discount. Hope this helps!

It does help, mudpiegirl -- thanks a million!

dear lord - I have not been shopping for a soaker hose in a long time, but the last time I bought one 75' was only $9.95, and brass couplings to customize it to my garden was only $4.

I shop the end of season sales and store them in my plant shed (unheated) over the winter. Home Depot, Lowes and Walmart put them on clearance usually right after the back to school sales.

I know -- the prices are insane!

I do remember thinking the last time I bought one that the price had really gone up. I think that it is capitalization on demand--making bucks off of people trying to do the right thing and save water! Not that I am cynical about capitalism. That would be undemocratic. I'd just like a little support for all of us poor slobs making no more money and trying to make a better world! Ok, I'll go recycle my soapbox now! :)

I'm hunting again for soaker hoses -- I'd like to get the 5/8" ones. If anyone has a good source, please let me know. I need at least 250'.

If you are considering long stretches of soaker hose you might want to look at drip tape instead. I noticed that the ends of my soaker hoses closest to the water source emit a lot more water than the far end. And I was only using about 75 feet. Drip tape distributes the water much more evenly and it's available in huge lengths for agricultural use.

Yes, I'm about to work out a www.dripworks.com. Between the uneven disbursal you mention, Katlian, and the fact that soaker hoses are a source of lead, I decided to go with a drip system. In a call yesterday, they told me their tape isn't terrifically long lasting, so I am going to use their approx. 5/8 tubing instead. It has the same connector issue that started this thread, though, I think; I believe they said they were .600 OD (outer diameter), but don't hold me to it.

I use this place for sprayers and fittings . nice selection and great prices i think.
Ordered from them a few times.


http://dripirrigation.com/index.php

Thanks! For the moment, I'm sold on www.dripworks.com because of their great feedback on DG and because of how helpful they've been to me on the phone, but I'll check out www.dripirrigation.com too.