The Grow Monster knows that sometimes you need to get water from one point in the house to another for a number of purposes. Water might be needed within the house itself (e.g., to support a cleaning project in the basement), or outside of the house (e.g., water the garden, to wash a car, etc.). Either way, you need to get the water there via a garden hose and are attempting to connect to an outdoor faucet / spigot to do it. You want to connect a garden hose to an outdoor spigot and we’ve got three things you need to know to make that task easier.
There are three things you need to know to connect a garden hose to an outdoor spigot:
- The Standard Hose Bib Connector Size: 3/4″
- Standard Garden Hose Connector Sizes: 3/8″, 1/2″, 5/8″, 3/4″, and 1″ diameters
- Fittings Required to Complete the Connection
You will need to know the following three things: the size of the hose bib connector, the size of the garden hose, and if you need any additional fittings. Read on to find out the answer to these questions along with diagrams to help you connect a garden hose to an outdoor spigot.
The Standard Hose Bib Connector Size: 3/4 inch
For outdoor projects requiring water, you will have to connect a garden hose to an outdoor spigot /faucet that is generally located outside the house. Outdoor faucets are sometimes referred to as ‘spigots’. Spigots will need to have something called a ‘hose bib’, which provides a male threaded connection that will enable the connection with a garden hose. Depending on the house’s age, some spigots may not have a hose bib and would either require replacement of the spigot itself, or a special adaptor/fitting/connector to connect a garden hose to an outdoor spigot.
The standard hose bib connector size on most outdoor spigots will be the standard 3/4 inch connector size. You can verify this size by measuring the inside diameter of the externally threaded end of the male connector on the hose bib, which should be 3/4″. If it is not measuring out to be 3/4″, it is possible you have an adapter / fitting / connector already attached to the hose bib to accommodate for a previous garden hose connection.
The size of outdoor spigots themselves will either come in the 1/2 inch size or the 3/4 inch size based on the size of the house-side connection that is supplying the water to the spigot. Regardless of the 1/2 or 3/4 inch connection to the house, the hose bib connection size – which the hose will connect to – should always be the standard 3/4 inch connector. You can see this illustrated in the diagram below.
Standard Garden Hose Connector Sizes: 3/8″, 1/2″, 5/8″, 3/4″ and 1″
Now that we know that the standard hose bib connection generally comes in the 3/4 inch connector size, we need to know the hose connector size that we will be dealing with to connect a garden hose to an outdoor spigot. Garden hoses themselves come in a number of diameters including 3/8″, 1/2″, 5/8″, 3/4″, and 1″ sizes. The most common garden hose sizes you will find will be the 5/8″ and 3/4″ diameter garden hoses. The size of a garden hose is determined by the inside diameter of the garden hose itself as shown in the diagram below.
There are generally two ends to a garden hose: a male end, and a female end. The connector size at either end are generally the same. If the female end of the garden hose can accommodate the standard 3/4″ connection, then it will be able to connect to the standard 3/4″ male end of a spigot hose bib connection and no other adapter / fitting is required to connect a garden hose to an outdoor spigot /faucet.
It is important to note that the garden hose connector diameter size at either end of the garden hose may not be the same diameter size as the garden hose itself. For example, a garden hose that is designated as having a 5/8″ diameter size may have a 3/4″ male connector size and a 3/4″ female connector size at either end.
The reason why garden hoses come in many sizes is due to their purpose. We know that the standard spigot hose bib connection is 3/4″ so any hose diameters connecting to the hose bib connection that are less than 3/4″ will have higher water pressures coming out of the other end. The 3/8″ and 1/2″ garden hoses will have higher pressures useful for cleaning and washing, whereas 3/4″ and 1″ connections will have lower pressures useful for moving larger volumes of water with the purpose of watering the garden, filling troughs, buckets, ponds, and pools.
Fittings Required to Connect a Garden Hose to an Outdoor Spigot / Faucet
In the event that your 3/4″ hose bib connection is not the same size as the garden hose connector, or in the event that you are attempting to connect two garden hoses of different sizes, you will need a ‘fitting’ to complete the connection. Sometimes these fittings are called ‘adapters’ by the IT guys (one of us here at TheGrowMonster is an IT guy by the way), others will refer to these as ‘connectors’. Some products are advertised as ‘Adapter Fittings’. We can take it a step further and call them ‘Couplings’ as the rail-fans would call them. Regardless of what we call them, we just need the things to connect together at the end of the day.
Fittings to connect a 3/4 Hose Bib to a Garden Hose Connector
Fittings that accommodate the connection between a 3/4 hose bib male connection and the female end of a given garden hose connector size will have two sides. One side of the fitting will be a 3/4″ female connection and the other side will be a male connection of the same size as the garden hose connection you are attempting to connect to. You need to know what size hose bib you are using to connect a garden hose to an outdoor spigot. The following diagram shows an example of a fitting connection in relation to the hose bib and the garden hose:
When it comes to connecting a garden hose of a given connector size to a standard 3/4″ male hose bib connection, you can use the following chart to determine the kind of male/female fitting combination that you would need:
| Garden Hose Connector Size: | Male Fitting Size (Connects to Female Garden Hose Connector) | Female Fitting Size (Connects to Male Hose Bib connection) |
| 3/8″ | 3/8″ | 3/4″ |
| 1/2″ | 1/2″ | 3/4″ |
| 5/8″ | 5/8″ | 3/4″ |
| 3/4″ | -no fitting required | -no fitting required- |
| 1″ | 1″ | 3/4″ |
Fittings to Connect Garden Hoses /Accessories With Connectors of Various Sizes
There is also the scenario where you will want to connect various hoses of various sizes together. There are a number of fittings available to accommodate these connections. There are the typical male/female combination fittings along with the less common male/male, and female/female fittings to accommodate special garden hose situations.
Are you getting tired of pulling out the pliers or wrenches each time you need to connect a garden hose or sprinkler accessory? There are a number of ‘quick connect’ fittings that facilitate the quick connection of hoses together without the use of pliers or wrenches. They also call these fittings quick-release connectors, quick coupler, or quick disconnect couplers.
What is interesting about these connectors is that they require no teflon, no joint compounds, and are just hand tightened. Not only can you use these to connect a garden hose to an outdoor spigot hose bib connection, you can use them to connect to other hoses as well as other accessories such as sprinklers and spray nozzles. These are products to consider if you want to save time as well as prevent yourself from getting wet with the hassle of joining hoses or screwing accessories on to the end of the garden hose.
Final Thoughts
The Grow Monster needs to have the garden watered and knows that you need your garden watered too. In order to get water to the garden, we need a hose and a number of connections to get water there. Now that you know that the hose bib connection is a standard 3/4″ threaded male connection, you now have an idea on the types of hoses and fittings needed to maintain that connection. At the very end here we proposed the use of a new type of quick-connector fittings that will make connecting the hose bib, hoses, and accessories easier in less time and with less mess.
To learn more about garden hose faucets /spigots, check out this related article here. Congratulations! You should now be able to connect a garden hose to an outdoor spigot /faucet.
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