Good Ideas RBSOAKER50 50-Foot Rain Barrel Soaker Hose

Use this product for my two rain barrels connected to serve a few planters. I thought no way is a a soaker hose really built for rain barrels. But the first second I turned it on worked like a charm and I can tell this was more porous, and it was exactly what I needed. I was previously drilling larger holes in normal soaker hoses. I ran into one issue. When the soaker hose was going up in elevation, the hose is so porous that it did not allow the low pressure from the low level water barrel to go past that ledge. I think it can be easily fixed but just a thought and warning. This is an amazing product though.

Disappointed. Would not buy again. Did not come with a filter screen but not sure it would matter. My rain barrel is in the garden and I fill it with clean water from a hose so no debris gets in the barrel anyway. The soaker hose worked for about a week then water stopped seeping through the hose. A full 55 gallon rain barrel on a platform 2' about the ground should have sufficient pressure. I could tell it stopped seeping because the ground was dry and I filled the rain barrel and the level did not move. I drilled many small holes in the hose (1/16 drill bit) and that worked for another week then stopped. Used a larger drill bit next time and it worked again for a week. The hose is made of a spongy soft rubber that seems to expand and contract with the temperature. When it expands and contracts it seems to self repair the holes I drilled. Anyway, terrible product. I would like a refund.

Functions well however, will not work with a rain barrel as advertised. Connections also pull off to easily. Works well if placed on normal garden hose line and under mulch.

This hose 'bleeds' water out of the sides (whatever material it's made out of leaches water) while it's working - kind of defeats the purpose of saving water in rain barrels to waste it out the sides. You also have to be careful to lie it really flat with no kinks, but with low water pressure from the barrels it kinda trickles out slowly still - which I guess is better for the plants you're watering anyway. Basically, it works but it's a LONG process watering with it so if you're out anyway gardening & willing to move it around every few minutes you can get a good deep watering.

We have a whole house water filter that back flushes every 10 days putting over 50 gallons of water down the drain. We now have it set up to backflush into a rain barrel which feeds the water into this hose an waters part of the yard. Other soaker hoses on the market require significantly more water pressure than a rain barrel provides to work. Extremely happy with this purchase.

I used this hose with the rain barrel timer.Vegetables and herbs grow, so the hose must be working. I trimmed off the last couple feet, moved the end piece, used a 28" non-soaker patch hose, and tied into a second rain barrel soaker hose in a second raised garden bed. I've increased the watering frequency (via the timer) from 1 hour every 8 hours to 1.5 hour of watering every six hours. Lettuce seems to grow better, but my acorn squash got moldy. That's on me for not spraying the squash to prevent mold tho.Adjustable ends are good for making this hose into any length required.

The hose came with a restrictor in the connector. It was a 1/16” hole through a disk. Even with this restriction removed, the hose stopped beading up with diffused water from my very full rain barrel, after a couple of days. I flushed it with tap water to no effect. If I put 15-30 psi water pressure on it, the hose flows great, but the head pressure of a 55 gal rain barrel is inadequate to generate any flow from the hose. My suggestion is don’t waste your money.

I ordered 4 of these, one arrived with the hose connection chopped off, which was promptly replaced. I have a tote that is 4 feet off the ground, but the soaker hoses would not weep. I had to add a pump to generate household water pressure to make them work. Not worth the premium price I paid.