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If you’ve got plants to water, a car to wash, or a sprinkler to connect so the kids can splash around this summer, then you’re going to need a good garden hose. If you want a great garden hose, the Craftsman Premium Rubber Garden Hose is our top pick. It’s a flexible, durable, all-weather hose that’s made in America and backed by a lifetime warranty.
Look, garden hoses aren’t all that interesting, really. But unless you’d rather spend your weekend hours carrying buckets of water to every square foot of your lawn and to the flowers and shrubs lining the property, and unless you love paying top dollar at the local car wash, life probably dictates that you go ahead and get a garden hose.
Since you need a hose anyway, you might as well get a good one. A good garden hose will last for years and will make all your watering, washing, and summer fun projects easier. Also, the frustration of using a shoddy garden hose ranks up there with multiple paper cuts and burned out bulbs on holiday light strands.
This is a lesson I learned personally after buying two cheap hoses shortly after my wife and I moved into our first house. I figured one hose was more or less like the next, so why spend extra cash on something that simply needed to move water from the spigot to the sprayer? Big, annoying mistake.
I spent the better part of a year wrangling tangles and bends, trying and failing to make even coils after use, and soon enough, wrapping plumber’s tape around numerous dripping punctures, cracks, and tears. Long story short, if you buy a cheap hose, you get a cheap hose. But don’t worry, there are lots of great garden hoses out there that won’t break the bank. In fact, our top pick also happens to be right in the median in terms of pricing.
But don’t pick your garden hose based on price even if you aren’t pinching pennies, because the most expensive hose on the market may not serve your needs. Instead, pick a hose that does. For the smaller property, a coiled or expandable hose is a good idea because it minimizes space occupied during storage. For a region that experiences a broad range of cold and warm temperatures, hose durability is more important than expansion and contraction.
Finally, think about who will be using the hose and for what. Coiled hoses are great for watering plants on a patio, for example, but terrible for connecting to a sprinkler set in the grass. A super strong steel plated hose might be great for the home with a dog who tends to chew on things, but might not be ideal for the senior citizen who has trouble lifting heavier objects.
Read on in the slides below to learn why the Craftsman Premium Rubber Garden Hose is our top pick and why you might also like the Water Right 400 Series Slim & Light Garden Hose, the Orbit 26380 25-Foot Coil Hose, the Hospaip Expandable Water Hose, the Beaulife Steel Garden Hose, and the Melnor Flat Soaker Garden Hose.
The best garden hose overall
Why you’ll love it: The Craftsman Premium Rubber Garden Hose will last a lifetime — guaranteed — and it doesn’t get twisted easily.
If I weren’t already calling the Craftsman Premium Rubber Garden Hose a superlative product based on its inherent quality, I’d call it a great buy simply due to its price. This rugged, capable hose could easily sell for double its price tag thanks to its durability.
It just might be the last hose you buy, in fact. Unless you run over it with a lawnmower. And yes, I’ve cut short the life of a hose that way (OK, two), though thankfully not a Craftsman.
The thick yet pliant rubber used in the construction of this hose remains flexible and resists cracking even in temperatures down to 25 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) and it is safe for use with water as hot as 160 degrees, which is dozens of degrees hotter than you’ll probably ever run through it anyway.
The nickel-plated brass hardware is crush-proof and corrosion-resistant, and the octagonal exterior shape of the couplings makes it easy to twist the hose onto or off of a spigot, sprinkler, sprayer, and so forth.
With a few dozen reviews posted on Amazon, this hose has a shining 4.8-star average. One buyer praised it as being “very good quality” and able to “handle high pressure,” while another called it “well constructed” and loved that it “does not kink.”
The product testers from TheWirecutter recommended the Craftsman Premium Rubber Garden Hose, saying “the thick material [used in fabrication] contributes to this hose’s kink resistance” and noted its overall “build quality.”
Pros: Exceptional durability, works in extreme temperatures, kink-resistant
Cons: Leaves scuff marks on some surfaces
Buy a 25-Foot Craftsman Premium Rubber Garden Hose on Amazon for $ 36.50
The best lightweight hose
Why you’ll love it: The 50-foot Water Right 400 Series Slim & Light Garden Hose weighs less than many garden hoses that are half its length yet it still delivers plenty of water pressure and volume.
If you think dealing with a heavy garden hose is no big deal, then you have clearly never dealt with a heavy garden hose. I had a 110-foot long monster hose a few years back, and I guarantee my neighbors learned new curse words listening to me haul the thing around our property.
Even many 50-foot hoses can weigh more than 10 pounds when bone dry, with any water trapped in the tube adding lots of extra weight. For a senior citizen, a person of smaller stature, or anyone with strength limited by injury or ailment, a heavy hose can be a serious hindrance to gardening, cleaning, and other such projects.
With the Water Right 400 Series Slim and Light Garden Hose, weight is hardly an issue. This slender flexible hose weighs scarcely more than three pounds, so you can move about with ease while using it, distributing water anywhere you need up to 50 feet away from the source.
Made with sturdy, durable polyurethane, it also resists permanent kinks and is safe to use in sub-freezing conditions or in temperatures hotter than any yet recorded on earth. (Which was 134 degrees Fahrenheit, recorded in Death Valley, CA on July 10, 1913 in case you were wondering.)
With more than 900 reviews and counting, this lightweight hose has a fine 4.3-star average rating. One elderly gardening enthusiast was thrilled that the Water Right 400 Series Slim and Light Garden Hose “is so lightweight” that it didn’t hurt her “hands, arms, or back” to use. Another customer called it “simply perfect!”
A Garden Hose Adviser write up called this hose “all weather safe” and “drinking water safe,” and of course also noted its light weight.
Pros: Lightweight and flexible, safe for use with potable water, resists permanent kinks
Cons: Quite a pricey option
Buy a 50-Foot Water Right 400 Series Slim & Light Garden Hose on Amazon for $ 61 (originally $ 70)
The best coiled hose
Why you’ll love it: The Orbit 26380 25-Foot Coil Hose is ready to stretch out to its full 25-foot length when you need it and coil back up when you’re done.
There are a few scenarios in which you probably shouldn’t opt for a coil-style garden hose. If you need to use your hose for a sprinkler that rests on the lawn, this design is a bad pick. If you need to run extra high-pressure water through your hose, same story. For just about everything else, however, a coiled hose gives you the reach you need when you need it and stores away in significantly less space than a traditional rubber or vinyl garden hose, and no laborious winding or looping needed to stow it away.
The Orbit 26380 25-Foot Coil Hose is a great choice for your next coiled hose because it’s a good price, it’s of good quality, and because it comes with a sprayer head. For watering potted plants on a porch, balcony, or patio; for irrigating small patches of lawn or garden beds; or for spraying down a car in the driveway, this hose gives you reach and easy control, and then it coils itself right back up again when you don’t need it anymore.
An Orbit 26380 25-Foot Coil Hose owner named Karl said that after using this hose, he would “never go back” to other hose types. Another customer was thrilled that she didn’t “have to roll it up” after watering, as the hose “snaps back in place” once the water is turned off and the hose has been released.
I do have to note that some customer report leaking problems, many of which I suspect were caused by too much water pressure.
Pros: Self-coiling for easy storage, comes with sprayer head, lightweight design
Cons: Occasional leaking issues, not suitable for all applications
Buy an Orbit 26380 25-Foot Coil Hose on Amazon for $ 25
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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