Stainless Steel Zip Ties
Steel ties for outdoor work where UV kills plastic ones, and the tensioning tool that pulls them tight and shears the tail flush.
Coil Hoses Over-Under So They Pay Out Without Kinking
Alternate every coil — one loop laid normally, the next flipped underneath — and the twists cancel each other out, so the hose pulls out straight in a hurry instead of kinking and fighting you.
extension cord keeps tangling, how to roll up a garden hose, wrap cables neatly, untangle a stubborn hose
The Problem
Coil a hose the obvious way — every loop laid the same direction — and you put a half twist into the hose with each coil. The twists stay stored in the coil, and the moment you pull the hose out fast, they reappear as kinks that stop water flow and snag on everything. Fire crews care because a kinked line is an emergency inside an emergency; the same failure only costs you a walk back to unkink the garden hose.
The Technique
The over-under coil — familiar to film-set gaffers and stagehands from cable work, shown here by a fire department on hose:
- Lay the first loop the normal way: hand rolls forward, loop lies over.
- For the second loop, reverse your wrist and flip the loop so it lies under — the hose crosses to the inside of the coil instead of the outside.
- Alternate — over, under, over, under — until the hose is coiled.
- To deploy, hold the coil and throw or pull the end. Because each under-loop cancels the twist of the over-loop before it, the hose pays out straight, with no stored twist to become kinks.
The wrist flip feels wrong for the first dozen loops — watch the video once and copy the hand motion; it becomes automatic quickly.
Pro tip: The same coil is the professional standard for extension cords, audio cables, and anything else with memory. One warning: an over-under coil pulled from the wrong end, or with the coil flipped, can throw a loop into a knot — always pay out from the end you finished on.
DIYsolvr helps you find the best DIY videos. Browse all 526 techniques