Can I get an adapter to connect my garden hose to my bathtub faucet?

July 17, 2021 10:40 AM

I have a sort of classic bathtub faucet with a square shape where the water comes out. Here and here are pictures of the faucet. I want to know if there is an adapter that I can put on it and attach a garden hose to the adapter.

I am filling an outdoor inflatable pool and it's taking forever using a sink faucet. The tub faucet has incredible water pressure; the sink faucet does not.

I can't use my outdoor faucet because the water is too cold. I really just need the indoor faucet for hot water to mix with the cold.

Thank you!

posted by DMelanogaster to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

If the pool is downhill from the bathtub you could maybe set up a siphon: fill the tub, submerse the hose completely in the tub and try to get all of the air out of the hose (this is the hard part) and then cap the end of the hose while you carry it over to the pool. Then uncap it in the pool and let gravity move the water.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 10:49 AM on July 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Something like this could work , maybe with the addition of one or two of these. But you're going to need to check the dimensions of your tap, to see if it's within the tolerances of the rubber part of the first linked product.
posted by multivalent at 10:54 AM on July 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

One of these? I'd add a hose clamp or have someone standing near in case it slips off
posted by wwax at 10:57 AM on July 17, 2021

If you already can connect your hose to the sink faucet, why not just fill with two hoses at once, one with cold from the outside faucet and one with hot from the sink? Or if the sink is really so slow that it's the gating factor even in this situation, fill some buckets or pots of hot water from the bathtub?
posted by goingonit at 11:01 AM on July 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

If you're inclined to go the siphon route, you can get one of these or something similar from a hardware store. The hand pump makes it easier to get the siphon going.
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 11:51 AM on July 17, 2021

Can you spin the shower head off? The remaining pipe usually has a 1/2" male NPT thread so this should work:

1/2" Female NPT to 3/4" Male GHT Garden Hose Thread Adapter
posted by tinker at 3:26 PM on July 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

I was thinking showerhead too, but it looks to me like you could unscrew the tube that leads up to the showered and replace that with an adapter. You'd probably want to put teflon tape on the showerhead tube and the adapter to make them both easier to screw and unscrew as well as reducing wear from all the activity.
posted by jamjam at 3:59 PM on July 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Another way: Do you have access to the hot water heater? It'll have a drain valve near the bottom with a Garden Hose Connection if you are lucky. I will say I'm scared to open mine anymore as it is plastic, old & has dripped... others may know the likelihood of trouble.

A second garden hose would be handy for mixing with the cold outdoor faucet.
posted by tinker at 4:42 PM on July 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

This might not be the solution you are looking for, but when my kids were little and I filled their kiddie pools from the hose, I added several buckets of very hot tap water from my kitchen tap to the pool water, and it worked fine. You might also leave several full buckets in the sun for a few hours to warm the water.
posted by citygirl at 6:41 PM on July 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

My larger pool has a "solar cover" that traps sunlight and heat. It also helps keep leaves and bugs out.

It is just a very large sheet of bubble wrap.

It won't make it instantly swimmable, But it does help.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 7:41 PM on July 17, 2021

Response by poster: tinker: coincidentally, the plumber came today because a sink was clogged. I showed him the water heater and he showed me how to close off one valve (the feeder to the building) and open the one that is next to the "garden hose" inlet, just as you showed! He said it would be fine to use that technique to let some hot water into the pool (which is maybe only 20 feet away from the hot water heater! (but outside, obviously))!

[solar covers don't do anything; the pool is mostly in the shade; and the plumber didn't like the idea of using the shower -- it would be a lot of work to adapt the faucet]

So THANKS!!!
posted by DMelanogaster at 10:34 AM on July 19, 2021 [1 favorite]