Will a US garden hose fit on a UK spigot?

Well, you know we're getting close to our move date when I ask silly questions like this:

Will our US garden hose fit on the end of a UK water spigot?

How about our energy saving low flow shower head? I bet most shower heads in Europe are low flow anyway, eh?

thanks

Hi,

Our house has a cut off length of hose that sticks out from the outside wall.  Imagine a regular green garden hose coming out of the wall about 4 inches, with no connection on the end.  (I'd take a pic, but my girlfriend has the camera and is out of town.) 

Rather than try to explain what kind of connection is required to hook up to it, take a look at this link:

http://www.hozelock.com/watering/hose-fittings/connect-to-tap/2175---tap-connector.html

From what I gather, most outside taps are like this, so I wouldn't bother bringing a US hose.

As for shower heads, all the showers I've seen in the UK are the kind that are at the end of a hose and can be detached from the wall like the one in this pic:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g186518-Dundee_Scotland.html

Don't know if the connections are the same size as US ones, but I'd bet on no.

good luck,
Carl

p.s.  According to that Tripadvisor review, that hotel is the worst one in Scotland.

I can't vouch for all homes, but I don't think a US hose would fit on a UK spigot.     I know ours doesn't  have the device Camoscato pictured, but that's probably down to the fact that DH & FIL installed our spigot on our house (there wasn't one previously)...

IMO you'd probably do better to wait 'til you've moved over to decide on buying a hose for your home here in the UK.  You may find yourself living in an area that is prone to having hosepipe bans in addition to spigot issues.   

RSB,
I don't think there is a water shortage in the UK. Leave the water running all day!

Cheers - we weren't debating whether to buy those things here as we already own them -- the decision is whether to sell that stuff in our moving sale next weekend or to keep it.

Sounds like... sell both.

thanks

I don't think there is a water shortage in the UK

Some areas of the UK are subject to a shortage of water, and can be subjected to hosepipe bans. Thankfully here in Birmingham, in the West Midlands, we get our water from the Welsh mountains and the water supply tends to be adequate in most years.

Don't think I ever ever saw an outside spigot on any houses in the UK.  Generally people had to hook up the hose pipe to the kitchen sink and run it out through the window.  We used a watering can (gardens were never that big)

Don't think I ever ever saw an outside spigot on any houses in the UK.

I am surprised by that comment. Outside water taps are quite common, and places such as B&Q supply kits to enable homeowners to fit an outside tap, if one is not already present. Indeed the kit sells for just £8.98!

We have an outside tap. Very old. It howls like something in pain when you turn it on. Scares the fool out of me every time he goes to water the garden.

It has a screw thread, but I believe it's smaller than my US one. And he's screwed an adapter on it.

I am surprised by that comment.

I'm not.  In my experience in the UK, whether or not a particular house will have outside access to water at all is a crap shoot.  The subset of houses that do have outside access to water can be broken down further into ones that have a length of hose sticking out of the wall and ones that have actual threaded taps.

Outside water taps are quite common, and places such as B&Q supply kits to enable homeowners to fit an outside tap, if one is not already present. Indeed the kit sells for just £8.98!

Those two statements don't support each other.  If outside water taps were "quite common" there would be no demand for B&Q to sell low-price DIY kits to install them, nor would there be a market for Hozelock to sell mutiple types of connectors to connect hose reels in the various ways required in the UK (i.e. length of hose sticking out of the wall, kitchen faucet with hose going through the window, etc.).

Again, it's only my experience, but access to outside water taps in UK homes is not always present, and when it is, the type of connection varies.

I've lived in 6 different houses or flats, and the only one that didn't have an outside tap was the university housing. Must be a regional variation or something.

This is exactly the kind of technical and anecdotal detail I was looking for. Thanks all.

The bottom line (for me): Anything from the USA that screws onto or plugs into anything in a UK home: sell it, store it or bin it.

Excepting of course our beloved bread maker, which we will plug into a Super D-luxe 1000 watt voltage-regulated step-up/step-down transformer!

And oh yes, the blender (margaritas)...

Oh, and the slow cooker (BBQ pulled pork)...

Those two statements don't support each other.  If outside water taps were "quite common" there would be no demand for B&Q to sell low-price DIY kits to install them

Outside taps are now quite common, because DIY places such as B&Q sell such inexpensive kits.

Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting for one moment that every house has an outside tap, but I still say they are quite common.

I lived in 7 different places in the UK and only 2 had outside taps. One because it was an old converted stable so the hose was used for horses, and one in a newer build place. Even a flat built in the 70s with a large garden didn't have one. We had to attach the hose to the kitchen or bathroom sink and run it out the window. Grrrrr.

Yeah well, maybe it is a regional thing.  Neither of the houses we lived in had anything -- nor my MIL's house (although she did have a rainwater collection pan on top of the outside toilet and they could access that for the garden)