Hoses, Sprinklers and Outdoor Taps
Our strong sun, wind and dry summers are hard on hoses and sprinklers, and our winters are hard on outdoor taps. This page covers choosing a hose that lasts, getting water where you want it on a windy day, measuring how much you actually put down, and the fall job that saves you from a burst pipe in spring.
On this page
Choosing a hose
A hose in Lethbridge bakes on hot concrete in July, gets dragged across gravel, and is often still lying in the yard at the first hard frost. Its material decides how well it copes.
| Type | Sun and heat | Cold | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rubber | Best. Handles strong sun and hot pavement for many seasons without cracking. | Stays the most flexible in cool weather. | Heaviest and priciest, but often the longest-lasting. |
| Hybrid (rubber and plastic blends) | Good. Better sun resistance than plain vinyl. | Fairly flexible on cool mornings. | Lighter than rubber; a sensible middle ground. |
| Vinyl (PVC) | Poor to fair. Sunlight breaks it down; it gets sticky in the heat and brittle with age. | Stiff and kink-prone when cold; can crack if moved while frozen. | Light and cheap. Fine for light use if you store it out of the sun. |
| Expandable (stretchy inner tube in a fabric sleeve) | Fair. The fabric sleeve fades and wears in strong sun. | Must be drained and brought in; ice inside damages the inner tube. | Light and compact for small yards, but usually shorter-lived. Don’t leave it pressurized in hot sun. |
What it means for you: if your hose stays out on a south- or west-facing driveway, rubber or a good hybrid will outlast several vinyl hoses. Whatever you buy, getting it out of the sun when it’s not in use adds years to its life.
Hot water in the hose. A dark hose left in the sun can hold water hot enough to scald a child’s skin or cook a tender seedling. Run it until the water comes out cool before watering plants or filling a wading pool.
Diameter, length and pressure
The inside diameter and the length both affect how much water reaches the far end.
- Diameter. Garden hoses are commonly sold in roughly 13 mm (1/2 in), 16 mm (5/8 in) and 19 mm (3/4 in) sizes. A wider hose carries more water with less loss along the way. The middle size is the usual all-round choice; the widest is worth it for long runs or for running an impact sprinkler at the back of a big lot.
- Length. Every extra metre of hose costs a little pressure through friction. Buy the length you need to reach the farthest corner, not the longest one on the shelf. Two shorter hoses joined together let you use one or both as needed.
What it means for you: if your sprinkler barely reaches its rated spray pattern, try a shorter or wider hose before blaming the sprinkler. Also check that the tap is fully open.
Kinks, fittings, washers and storage
Kinks
Each kink weakens the hose wall, and a hose kinked in the same spot many times will eventually split there. Kinks are worst in vinyl and in cold weather. Pull the hose straight off the reel rather than yanking it around corners, and use a spring guard at the tap or a guide stake at the corner of a bed.
Fittings and washers
Most drips at the tap or between hoses come from a worn or missing rubber washer inside the female (threaded collar) end. Washers dry out, crack and fall out over a few summers in our sun. A bag of spares costs little and fixes most leaks in seconds.
- Brass fittings last longer and are easier to repair than plastic, which can crack if overtightened or frozen.
- Hand-tight is enough. If it still leaks, replace the washer rather than cranking harder.
- A damaged hose end can be cut off and replaced with a repair fitting.
Storage
A wall-mounted reel or a reel cart keeps the hose off the lawn and out of the mower’s path. Coil it loosely, keep it in the shade when you can, and for winter, drained and indoors is the rule.
Sprinkler types
Oscillating
A bar with a row of holes that sweeps back and forth, covering a rectangle. Good for square lawns. Its high, fine arc is easily blown around and loses a lot to evaporation, so it’s the least suited to our wind.
Impact
The classic “tick-tick-tick” sprinkler that throws a single stream in a circle or part-circle. It sends large drops low and far, so it handles wind better than most. Adjustable for full or partial circles.
Rotary
Spinning arms or a turret of streams. Small ones for lawns throw a gentle pattern; rotor-style heads on in-ground systems put down water slowly and evenly, which suits clay soils that can’t soak it up fast.
Fixed spray heads
Stationary heads that spray a fixed fan or circle, common on in-ground systems for small areas. They put water down fast, which can lead to runoff on clay and slopes.
Soaker hoses
Porous hoses that ooze water along their length. Lay them under mulch in beds, along hedges and in the vegetable garden. Almost no water is lost to wind or evaporation, and leaves stay dry.
Drip lines
Tubing with emitters that drip water at the base of each plant. The most water-efficient option for beds, shrubs, trees and containers. Usually needs a pressure reducer and a filter at the tap.
For lawns, an impact or rotary sprinkler is usually the best fit here. For beds, hedges, trees and vegetables, soaker hoses and drip lines put water exactly where the roots are and nothing on the sidewalk. More on water-wise planting is on the xeriscaping page.
Watering in the wind
Lethbridge averages 116 days a year with wind gusts of 40 km/h or more. A fine mist sprayed high into that wind ends up on the neighbour’s driveway, or simply evaporates before it lands. A few habits make a big difference:
- Water early in the morning. Our winds usually pick up through the day and are often lightest around dawn. Morning water also has time to soak in before the afternoon heat, and the grass dries off during the day.
- Keep it low. Choose sprinklers that throw water at a low angle, close to the ground.
- Go for bigger drops. Large droplets fall where they’re aimed; fine mist drifts. Lower pressure at the sprinkler, or a sprinkler designed for coarse drops, helps.
- Skip the windy day, or use soaker hoses and drip lines, which don’t care about the wind at all.
Check the wind before you set the sprinkler. Current wind speed and gusts for West Lethbridge, plus the day’s forecast, are on the forecast page. If rain is coming in the next day or two, you may not need to water at all.
How much water are you putting down?
Most established lawns need about 2.5 cm (1 inch) of water a week in the heat of summer, from rain and sprinkler combined. It’s better to give that in one or two deep soakings than in a little sprinkle every day. Deep, less frequent watering trains roots to grow down where the soil stays moist; daily sprinkles keep roots shallow and the lawn needy.
The trouble is that almost nobody knows how much their sprinkler actually puts down in an hour. The tuna-can test answers that.
- Collect a few cans. Five or six empty, clean tuna or cat-food cans (short, straight-sided containers about 2.5 cm deep) work well.
- Spread them out. Place them around the sprinkler’s pattern: some near, some at the edge, some in between.
- Run the sprinkler. Time it, for example for 30 minutes.
- Measure. Use a ruler to check the depth of water in each can. Average them.
- Do the math. If the cans averaged 1 cm in 30 minutes, it takes about 75 minutes to apply 2.5 cm. If one can is nearly empty and another is full, your coverage is uneven: move the sprinkler or overlap the patterns.
What it means for you: on our clay soils, water often runs off before it soaks in. If you see puddles or water running onto the sidewalk, stop, wait an hour, and finish the watering in a second round. A screwdriver pushed into the lawn the next day should slide in easily to about 15 cm if the water reached the roots.
More on watering, soil and compost is on the soil and water page.
Timers and rain barrels
Timers
A simple timer that screws onto the tap is one of the best water savers there is: it shuts the water off even if you forget. Programmable ones can water at dawn before you’re up. Bring timers in before freeze-up, since trapped water can crack them.
Rain barrels
Rain barrels catch roof runoff from a downspout for use on beds and containers (more on the soil and water page). Our wettest stretch is usually late May and June, so a barrel can carry some of that water into July. Rain barrel water is best for watering plants, not for drinking.
- Set it on a firm, level base raised on blocks, with a screened, secure lid, and the overflow aimed away from the foundation.
- Before freeze-up, empty it, store it upside down or indoors, and reconnect the downspout so meltwater drains away from the house.
Rebates: the City of Lethbridge has offered a rain barrel rebate through its Environmental Incentive Program. In recent years, including 2026, it has paid back part of the cost of a new rain barrel for households with a residential water utility account. Programs and amounts change from year to year, so check lethbridge.ca for current rebates before you buy, and keep your receipt.
In-ground irrigation and the fall blow-out
An in-ground system is buried pipe, valves and heads run by a controller. Done well, it waters evenly and on schedule; done carelessly, it waters the sidewalk at noon on a rainy day.
- Check the heads each spring. Run each zone and walk the yard. Look for broken heads, heads tipped by the mower, sprays blocked by grown-up shrubs, and spray hitting the house or the street.
- Adjust through the season. Water less in May and September than in July.
- Know your shut-off. Find where the system’s water supply and backflow preventer are, and how to shut them off, before you need to in a hurry.
The fall blow-out
Buried irrigation pipe is usually not deep enough to stay below our frost line. Any water left in the lines, valves and heads over winter can freeze, expand and crack them. That’s why in-ground systems in Alberta are “blown out” each fall: the water is shut off and compressed air is pushed through each zone to clear the water out.
Do the blow-out before the first hard freeze, usually in late September or October here. Blowing out a system with compressed air takes the right equipment and care: too much pressure can damage pipes and fittings, and flying debris and air pressure can cause injury. Many homeowners hire this job out. If you do it yourself, follow your system’s manual, keep the pressure modest, and wear eye protection.
Freeze protection for outdoor taps
This is the most important job on the page. An outdoor tap (also called a hose bib, sillcock or outside faucet) brings a water pipe right through the wall of your house. If water in that pipe freezes, it expands and can split the pipe, often inside the wall or the basement ceiling where you can’t see it.
Rule one: disconnect the hose before freeze-up
Take every hose, splitter, timer and nozzle off the outdoor taps in fall. Drain the hoses by stretching them out on a slope or walking them hand over hand, coil them, and store them indoors.
Frost-free taps, and why a hose defeats them
Many newer homes have frost-free (frost-proof) sillcocks. The handle is outside, but a long stem runs through the wall to a valve that sits inside the warm house. When you shut the tap off, the water stops inside the wall, and the short length of pipe out to the spout drains empty, as long as the tap is installed with a slight downward slope to the outside.
That draining only works if the spout is open to the air. A hose left connected traps water in the stem. The trapped water can freeze and split the stem inside the wall, and the frost-free tap gives you no protection at all. This is the most common way a frost-free tap fails.
Standard taps: shut off and drain from inside
Older homes often have an ordinary outdoor tap with a separate shut-off valve inside the house, usually in the basement near where the pipe goes through the wall.
- Find the inside shut-off valve for each outdoor tap. It may be a round handle or a lever on the pipe leading to the outside wall.
- Close it fully.
- Open the outdoor tap and leave it open so air can get in.
- Drain the pipe. Many inside valves have a small bleeder cap on the side. With a bucket underneath, unscrew it to let the trapped water run out.
- Let it finish draining, then put the bleeder cap back on. Advice differs on whether to leave the outdoor tap open or closed afterward; the key is that the pipe between the shut-off and the outside is empty.
Not sure which kind you have? Look inside, on the pipe behind the tap. If there’s a separate shut-off valve, use it and drain the line either way; it does no harm, even on a frost-free tap.
What a burst outdoor tap looks like
A split pipe or stem often stays hidden all winter, because the water is shut off or frozen. The damage shows up in spring, the first time someone turns the tap on to fill a watering can. Watch for:
- Water spraying or dribbling back out around the tap body where it meets the wall, instead of from the spout.
- Weak flow from the spout while you can hear water running.
- Water stains, dripping or a wet spot on the basement ceiling, wall or floor near where the tap comes through.
First spring use: turn the tap on for the first time while someone watches the inside wall and basement near the tap. If you see any leak, shut it off right away and call a plumber. A split that runs unnoticed for hours inside a finished basement can do a lot of damage.
When to do it in Lethbridge
Do it before the first hard freeze, typically sometime in October, and certainly by the time nights are dropping well below freezing. Lethbridge often gets a light frost in September with warm weeks after, so there’s no rush on the very first frosty night, but don’t leave it until the first arctic cold snap.
A winter chinook can bring a week of +10°C weather in January, and it’s tempting to hook up the hose to wash the truck or rinse the dog run. If you do, take the hose off again the same day and drain it. More hard freezes almost always follow, sometimes within hours of the chinook ending. Check the forecast first, and learn more about chinooks in Weather School.
Fall checklist for water outside: hoses off, drained and stored indoors; tap timers and splitters in; standard taps shut off and drained from inside; irrigation blown out; rain barrels emptied and downspouts reconnected; vacuum breakers drained. The garden calendar has the rest of the fall jobs.
Backflow: keeping the house water clean
Normally water flows one way: from the city main, through your pipes and out the tap. But if the water pressure drops suddenly (for example during a water main break or when firefighters draw heavily on a hydrant), water can be pulled backward into your pipes. If the end of your hose is sitting in a wading pool, a pail of soapy water, a pond or a hot tub, that dirty water can be siphoned back into the drinking water in your house. That’s called backflow, and the hose is the link (a “cross connection”).
- Keep the hose end out of the water you’re filling. Hold it above the surface of the pool, pail or pond.
- Use a hose connection vacuum breaker. This small fitting screws onto the tap before the hose and lets air in if pressure drops, so nothing can be drawn back. Some outdoor taps have one built in.
- Drain vacuum breakers before winter. They can trap water and break if they freeze.
- In-ground irrigation systems need a proper backflow prevention device, installed and maintained to code. If you’re adding or changing a system, ask a licensed plumber or irrigation installer, and check lethbridge.ca or call 311 for any City requirements.
Why does freezing water break pipes? Almost everything shrinks when it gets cold, but water is different. When water turns to ice, it takes up about one-tenth more space. Inside a pipe, there’s nowhere for it to go, so it pushes until the pipe cracks.
Wonder: if ice takes up more room than water, should ice float or sink?
Try this: with a grown-up, fill a small plastic container right to the brim with water, mark the level, put the lid on loosely and freeze it overnight. In the morning, see how far the ice has pushed up. Then help a grown-up with a safe fall job: coiling the drained garden hose and carrying the sprinkler and nozzles indoors for the winter.
Sources
- City of Lethbridge, Environmental Incentive Program (rain barrel rebate terms, 2026 program) and news release “The Environmental Incentive Program makes a splash.”
- City of Lethbridge, Water Conservation page.
- Oldman Watershed Council, “Water-Wise Yardwork” (2.5 cm of water a week, tuna-can test, watering times, rain barrels).
- Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Fall/Winter Home Maintenance Tips (archived publication): disconnecting hoses and draining outdoor faucets unless frost-proof.
- City of Calgary, “Protect Your Drinking Water” residential cross-connection brochure (hose connection vacuum breakers, keeping hose ends out of contaminants, draining before winter).
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canadian Climate Normals 1991–2020, Lethbridge Airport (wind gust days).