Calculating the amount of water that is in a 50 foot hose is fairly simple, as the hose is basically a large cylinder. Please remember the diameter of your hose will affect how much water it holds (most common diameter is 5/8 inch). When you know how much water is in a 50 foot hose, you can also calculate how much extra weight is in it. How much water is in a 50 foot hose?
A 50 foot 5/8″ diameter hose holds .80 gallons of water, which weighs 6.6 pounds. Two other common hose diameters are 3/4 inch and 1/2 inch. A 50 foot 3/4″ diameter hose holds 1.15 gallons of water, which weighs 9.1 pounds. A 50 foot 1/2″ diameter hose holds 0.51 gallons of water, which weighs 4.2 pounds.
While these are the three most common hose diameters, if your hose has a different diameter, you can use an online calculator to figure out how much water it holds. For example, here is an online calculator you can use.
In this article, we will discuss how to calculate how much water is in a hose for any length and diameter, and how to convert that into pounds. We will also discuss hose flow rate and what affects it.
Pro Tip: If you don’t know the diameter of your hose, you can put a nozzle or valve on the end of your hose, then turn the water on until the hose is full. Then turn the spigot off and carefully drain all the water trapped inside the hose into a bucket or container. At that point, you can pour the water into a measuring device or weigh the container to see how much water you have.
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How Much Water is in a 50 Foot Hose?
As we discussed above, the diameter will be key to calculating the amount of water that is in your 50 foot garden hose. Once you have the diameter, you can easily calculate the volume of the hose, turn that into gallons and eventually into pounds.
The larger the diameter of the hose, the more water it will hold. To be clear, you will need to know the inside diameter of your hose. If you don’t know the diameter, it may be imprinted on the hose or you can check out our article on how to measure the diameter of your hose. Let’s walk through the formulas needed to calculate how much water is in a 50 foot garden hose.
How to Calculate How Much Water is in a 50 Foot Hose
Your hose is a very long cylinder. To find out how much water is in the hose, we first need find the volume. Once we have the volume in cubed inches, we can turn that into gallons. While this may seem complicated, it is a pretty simple process. Here are the three steps we will need to do
- Find out the diameter and calculate the radius (divide diameter by 2)
- Calculate the volume
- Convert the volume into gallons of water
How to Calculate the Volume of a Hose
To find the volume of a hose, we will need to know the radius (which is the diameter divided by 2) and the length of the hose (in inches). Once you have these two measurements, you are ready to find the volume. As we mentioned above, your hose is a long cylinder, and so that is the volume formula we will use.
Volume=radius*radius*3.14*length of the hose (in inches)
- The radius is the diameter divided by 2. So for a 1/2″ hose, the radius is 1/4″. For 5/8″ diameter, the radius is 5/16″.
- We multiply by 3.14 which is roughly equal to Pi.
- Then multiply by the length of the hose. Since our radius is in inches, we need to get the length in inches as well. For a 50 foot hose, the length would be 600 inches (50 feet times 12 inches in a foot).
So for a 50 foot 5/8″ hose, our radius is .3125 (5 divided by 16) and the length is 600 inches (50 multiplied by 12).
To find the volume, you multiply .3125*.3125*3.14*600. That comes out to roughly 184 cubed inches. Cubed inches is how volume is stated.
How to Convert Hose Volume to Gallons
Once you have the volume of your hose, you can then turn that into how many gallons your hose will hold. To convert cubed inches into gallons of water, you simply divide by 231.
So for our 50 foot 5/8″ hose, the volume is 184 cubed inches and it will hold approximately .8 gallons of water. We got this by dividing 184 (which is the volume we calculated above) by 231 (which is the conversion factor for cubed inches to gallons).
To calculate other sizes and lengths, you calculate the radius, convert the length of the hose to inches and follow the steps above. This will work for any length and diameter of hose you have.
How to Convert Gallons of Water into Pounds
By following the steps above, we have been able to determine that our 50 foot 5/8″ hose has approximately .8 gallons of water. Converting gallons of water into pounds is pretty simple. One gallon of water weighs about 8.3 pounds. Since we now know the conversion factor and the gallons of water your hose holds, we just simply multiply them together.
Using a 50 foot 5/8″ hose, we take the .8 gallons multiplied by the conversion factor of 8.3 pounds per gallon and we find out the hose will have about 6.6 pounds in it. Keep in mind, this is assuming your hose is full of water. While your hose should be full when using it, if you have a leak, kink or a really low flow rate it may not be completely full of water.
What is Water Flow Rate?
Flow rate is the measurement of how much water is coming out of the hose over a period of time. It is typically measured in gallons per minute, or GPM. Hose flow rate will be affected by the diameter and length of the hose, and the material of the hose can affect it also (rubber vs vinyl hoses).
Larger diameter hoses will have more water in them and higher flow rates. The longer hose the hose is, the lower the flow rate will be. Flow rate is lower for longer hoses because the water has to be pushed over a longer distance.
Flow rate typically won’t determine how much water is in a hose, but it does help you know how much water will be coming out of the hose. If the flow rate is extremely low, the hose may not be full which would mean less water is in the hose.
However, flow rate can help you plan how long projects will take and make sure you have the right hose for whatever you are doing. If you want to know more about flow rates and what affects it, we discuss all of this and more in our article.