How to Buy the Right Garden Hose

You have a right to expect that the garden hose you buy will serve you for many years, but most gardeners find that they have to replace their hoses far more often than they’d like. How do you choose a durable garden hose that won’t kink, won’t leak and won’t let your down? Check out these tips from Family Handyman on how to check out a garden hose before you buy it.
Try to Put a Kink in the Hose
The last few years have been big ones in the gardening hose industry. You could have gone years without hearing about hoses unless you were specifically looking for one. The past few years, the airwaves and your inbox have been crowded with advertisements for flexible garden hoses, coil garden hose, shrinking garden hoses and even more specialty hoses for your home and garden. How do you decide which one is a good gardening hose for you?
First, ignore the advertisements and hype. When Consumer Reports did an investigation on those amazing shrinking hoses, they found that they simply didn’t perform as advertised – and their Facebook page was inundated with messages from people who had been disappointed by hoses that leaked, exploded and otherwise made things even worse. Instead of believing the marketing hype, do a few tests of your own on the garden hose you’re thinking of buying.
First, try to bend the hose at a 90-degree angle. The thicker the walls of the garden hose are, the more difficult it will be to bend at an angle. A cheap vinyl hose will easily form an angle – and will almost certainly kink in use. A better quality garden hose, including many well-made polyurethane hoses, will resist bending. With the highest quality hoses, the best you’ll be able to do is make a U shape where you’re bending it.
Second, try to kink the hose deliberately. Uncoil a couple of feet of the garden hose and try to coil it back in the other direction. If it develops kinks before it’s been used, you can just imagine how it will kink after it’s been baking in the sun for a few weeks.
Finally, check out the garden hose fittings and choose one that has solid, heavy, cast-brass fittings. The fittings on your hose determine how securely it will connect to the faucet. Flimsy stamped fittings or plastic fittings can bend, break and crack, resulting in either a useless garden hose that can’t be attached to the faucet at all, or one that sprays water at the connection.
A high-quality garden hose can be your best friend when you’ve got watering and washing tasks to do outside. Don’t depend on a hose that will only let you down.