Safety Bulletin - Garden Hose Water vs Domestic Drinking Water
✖ Never drink water or use it on food crops if it has an odor, taste, or is unclear. ALWAYS THOROUGHLY FLUSH BEFORE USE by running domestic water for several minutes to clear contaminants including stagnant water, debris, critters, etc.
- Domestic water or long-term connections should be supplied through appropriate domestic water piping systems (refer to your local codes), not a garden hose.
- Though a garden hose may be manufactured of drinking water safe materials, rarely is drinking water through a garden hose considered safe due to varying conditions, applications, temperatures, and uses.
- Always drain hose when not in use and store it indoors in winter; keep it covered or shaded in summer.
- Stagnant water in a hose can contain parasites and bacteria, making it unsafe to drink.
- Cross contamination can introduce harmful bacteria and chemicals to your drinking water supply.
- Never use same hose for domestic water use and other applications like washing, chemicals, fertilizer sprayers, or septic flushing.
- Elevated temperatures and sun exposure can cause hose compounds to leach into water, affecting it’s smell, taste and clarity, making it unsafe to drink.
- While some garden hose manufacturers utilize FDA compliant compounds, the actual production process, maintenance, handling, and applications of garden hose cannot assure an ongoing, high quality food grade hose. Exercise caution when using garden hoses for potable water.
✔ New-Line offers certain food grade washdown hoses designed for food or beverage processing plants, facilities, growing operations, etc. These hoses can be used when sanitizing, sterilizing, or applications requiring higher safety standards when purity is important. We DO NOT recommend any traditional garden hoses for such applications.