I’m going to get a new 100 ft garden hose. I’m looking for one that doesn’t kink. My budget is 70$.
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dont remember the brand but the reddish tan ones that say professional are very durable and run about $50 for 100ft. I have a few now that are 6 yrs old that are still good even though they stay outside 12 mo. of the year. black ones degrade quickly in the sun. id avoid them. if it feels heavy when you pick up the roll its usually heavy duty.
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I’ve been pretty happy with Flexzilla brand hoses. They really do a good job of not developing kinks and they’re not too heavy, etc. I have a couple that are 3 years old and seem to still be in good shape.
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Craftsman used to make really thick high quality black rubber hose.
Continental makes a decent one, they sell it at Walmart.
I just bought a cheap expanding one to try it out for watering stuff on the deck. I expect it won’t last long.
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I bought a 75 foot Goodyear hose last summer at HD for a pretty penny. It kinks.
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I’m going to give Flexzilla the second nod. I picked one up a couple of years ago on sale $59, will probably burn up your whole budget not on sale. Light and fairly kink free.
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For those looking for a shorter one don’t buy the one with a nozzle attached. You can’t change it or add on another hose.
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I have a mix. Quality real natural black rubber hoses, the Craftsman mentioned above, that I can leave out in the winter and they are fine. But also cheap, smaller diameter stainless clad hoses. They can’t move as much water, and won’t last as long, but are super easy to move around and don’t tangle.
I greatly prefer working with the cheap hoses as long as I don’t need full water pressure. The pressure drop is much higher.
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@Fishinjunky
Kinking is due to the hose being inflated with water when it is also “twisted”. By twisted I mean the hose – whether stretched out or in 1 or more loops, has been torqued. For example, some garden hoses have stripes running length-wise. When lain out straight, if the stripe on top at the beginning remains that way to the end then the hose is not twisted.
Keeping a hose untwisted (as defined above) is very difficult if not intractable. It is natural to torque a hose during use. Afterwards, the hose cannot easily “spring back” because (a) it is usually laying on the ground and (b) hose material has poor elastic properties.
The best care I’ve found for watering hoses is: after use, keep them in the shade, loosely coiled, not under pressure (hose bib turned off), and open-ended. For the latter, I do keep a non- triggered spray head on the end to keep critters from crawling inside.
The most resilient hoses I’ve found are the reddish-brown “heavy duty” ones sold at Home Depot. These actually have an inner “core” and outer sheathing. They become twisted over time - you can see it in the sheathing. After a couple years of year-round outdoor use here they start kinking under pressure and then that weak spot will also kink again without pressure.
twisted outer sheathing:
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I leave the black rubber hoses out all the time, and some pressurized most of the growing season. Some 10+ years, no issues.
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I really like the bionic steel one. I use mine often and going around obstacles so it doesn’t kink and it slides around objects very easy. Also by far the lightest hose I’ve used which makes it really easy to drag
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I second this. I got several of these — different Chinese versions off of Amazon — expecting them to last only a couple seasons at most, but they’ve been going strong for four years. I’ve been treating them horribly, too — leaving them out in sitting in the sun all summer, and the (light) freezes in winter, dragging them everywhere without a care for scraping them against bricks, etc.
They all seem to be the same except for the fittings. If I could do it over again, I would be sure to get only the ones with real solid brass fittings, as a lot of them are just aluminum painted to look like brass, and will slow weld to the spigot due to galvanic corrosion.
All of them have right around a 1/2 inch internal diameter, so they are not good for high flow, but there is one positive point: because of the stainless steel exterior cladding, you can roll 200 feet worth onto a reel and the hose won’t compress under its own weight, meaning that your flow is pretty much the same whether the hose is stretched out or on a reel.
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Although I like the stainless steel hoses for convenience, if I were starting over and wanted to get a nice hose (with high flow) and a durable reel, I would get one from Eley: https://www.eleyhosereels.com/
I haven’t used one myself, but a friend swears by them. And they seem to have one of the only well-designed hose reel carts on the market. It will probably be my next hose purchase when the time comes.
They are a little expensive, but I’ve spent twice as much over the years buying cheaper equipment and watching it deteriorate and break.
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Do not buy the one at Lowe’s that is named Neverkink! It’s guaranteed to kink more that you will like, I do not know of one that does not!
But this one is at best a sales fraud
Dennis
Kent, wa
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Thanks for all the help and recommendations everyone I really appreciate it
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I bought Xhoses last year and I like how flexible and expandable they are but not the most durable —maybe one of the least durable I’ve owned. But I’m kind of rough with them, they get whipped and drug around pretty good all summer. I had 2 of the 4 pop a hole, which Menards replaced for free, but I’m sure by next summer it would be too late for that.
I’d like to find a similar hose with its features that was a lot more durable.
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@DennisD, I am so sorry to hear that you had a negative experience with your NeverKink hose. I was going to suggest that one to the thread as being my favorite. I had done extensive research and had purchased several for my own use. I was satisfied with their performance. I am now wondering if their quality has changed over the years.
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My first steel hose broke at the faucet connection, it leaked. I was able to buy a brass fitting to repair it.
The fittings were inexpensive, then I covered the connection with high shrink rate heat shrink, like 4:1 so I could get it over everything.
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I had suggested that they just remove the N from the name and it would meet expectations
Dennis
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I listen to the Joe Gardener show podcast. He also does a PBS garden tv show. Every year he reviews equipment and suggests Water Right hoses. I need a hose and will try them this next season.
Excellent podcast btw. Very informative.
Show number 340 from 2023 goes over the best equipment. The best of the best. Worth a listen.
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