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Even if you don’t have a green thumb, you’ll still want to have a quality garden hose around the house. A reliable hose will make washing a car or cleaning up unwanted debris a much easier task, even if you never use it to water a garden. Though of course, it will also come in handy for watering the hedges or your garden.
There are plenty of garden hoses on the market, but finding one that’s dependable and versatile is tricky. While a standard 50-foot garden hose may look simple and straightforward on the surface, there are plenty of details to consider when buying one.
A hose’s material, weight and water flow rate all play a factor in how it operates. Some tasks do require a heavy duty rubber hose that’s capable of withstanding extreme temperatures and water pressure. On the flip side, sometimes a small, lightweight hose is the best tool for the job.
I looked at all these factors and used calculated tests to see how seven different hoses compared. I also looked at more-subjective details like whether a hose felt comfortable to hold and if it scratched when it was dragged across concrete. The goal here is to help you find a garden hose you can rely on when you need it. Check out my top selections to find the right hose for your home and garden.
Teknor Apex Zero-G Hose (4001-50) – Best overall
If you were asked to design a garden hose, you’d probably want it to be lightweight while also having a fast flow rate. Ideally it wouldn’t kink easily and wouldn’t be a pain to screw on or off of a spigot. The well-rounded Zero-G Hose from Teknor Apex ticks all those boxes, including having the second fastest flow rate, at 0.98 pounds per second.
This hose will work well for casual use around your home, but it should also be able to handle a more involved landscaping project. Unlike expandable fabric hoses, the Zero-G doesn’t expand or retract, so there’s no shrinking sensation that you have to accommodate for. This hose promises abrasion and puncture resistance, and Teknor backs up those claims with a five-year warranty, which is a nice step up from the one- or two-year warranties you’ll find with most hoses.
This is a great all-around hose for most people, and I especially liked its twisting end pieces to help make it easier to connect to a spigot. The hose wasn’t unwieldy and should be light enough for most people to move it around without trouble. As long as you can tolerate its exterior staying damp a little longer than rubber hoses, and the relatively low maximum water feed temperature of 80 degrees, then I think this hose is worth its retail price.
Eaduty Hybrid Garden Hose – Best traditional rubber hose
The Eaduty Hybrid Garden Hose is about as traditional a garden hose as you can get. There’s very little about its design or construction that feels unique. That isn’t a problem, however, because water flowed freely and its plastic twist grips on the ends made it easy to get the hose on and off a spigot with minimal effort.
This Eaduty Hybrid Garden Hose was similar to the Giraffe Tools Garden Hose in most ways, but it edged that one out with a lightweight design, faster water flow and slightly better value at $35 ($32 with the current on-page coupon). Plus, I preferred how its plastic twist grips stayed put and didn’t slide up and down the hose body.
This hose is capable of handling extreme temperatures and pressure bursts up to 450 psi. Its rubber body didn’t show any visible scratches after I dragged it across a concrete driveway, just a few minimal scratches on the plastic twist grip.
If you prefer to stick to a more traditional rubber hose, for whatever reason, I think this is the one to pick. The two-year warranty is a bit stingy for its price, but beyond that consideration, I was satisfied with the product.
Rosy Earth Water Hose – Best hose for durability
With a stainless steel design, the Rosy Earth Water Hose is an unusual contender in the garden hose category. And while it might not be the right hose for everyone, its minimal footprint and ability to never kink makes it superior to a common rubber or fabric hose in a number of use cases.
Because of the hose’s metal construction, I was very curious about how it would fare across a concrete driveway. I was pleasantly surprised to see it didn’t cause any damage, nor did it look overly worn from being dragged back and forth. In this instance, it proved to be more durable than the WeGuard Expandable Water Hose and its polyester fabric cover, which quickly began to fray.
The Rosy Earth Water Hose never got overly tangled, so it always uncoiled quickly and was speedy to manually roll up — that aspect was great. It isn’t the tidiest pick, though. The metal exterior did cause the hose to be a bit slippery against itself and that, in turn, made it a challenge to keep the thing neat and orderly during storage.
Storage woes aside, this hose had a solid but unspectacular flow rate of 0.86 pounds per second. It didn’t feel slow while filling the test bucket, but it was slower than most other tested hoses because of a narrower body diameter. Being narrower did give it a bit more natural pressure, however.
One aspect I was surprised by was that the hose became stiffer and much less flexible when water was flowing through it. It was interesting during my hands-on testing, but it didn’t prevent any functionality. The Rosy Earth Water Hose with a retail price of $46 (and often on sale for less) is a good option for people who are intrigued by the expandable fabric hoses for their compactness but want better durability.