I just bought a new garden hose. Although it may sound uneventful, I have been enjoying this new yard gadget and all of the uses it has. I simply needed a longer hose to reach a new patch of flowers I planted along the eastern side of my house. The only water spigot that I have outdoors is located in the back and the hose that the previous owners left here could not reach my new flowers. But soon I found other uses for the new hose. It has a valve on the end that can pressurize the water stream so much so that it’s as strong as a weak pressure washer. I started using it to blast away mold and grime from my driveway and the siding along the edge of my house. For a fraction of the price, I effectively had a pressure washer strong enough to handle most of the cleaning jobs around outside. I had heard that it’s a good idea to use a hose to clean an outdoor HVAC condenser every once in a while. You can remove the metal housing and pull any clumps of leaves or pine needles away by hand before blasting the dirt and grime with the hose. It’s a time consuming procedure when you factor in the time it takes to remove and reinstall the metal housing, but it’s important for keeping your home’s heating and cooling system working without becoming another potential source of malfunction. I can’t imagine the feeling of dread when you find out that you need a new A/C system because something unfixable happened to your condenser outside.