“A good garden hose makes the gardening much more fun and therapeutic. Buy a bad one and you’ll end up cursing the company, or maybe yourself.”
With thousands of versions and models available on the market, it often becomes mind-boggling to select the best garden hose for you. It tempts to buy the cheapest one, thinking its only a hose, what difference can price make. But trust me it makes a world of difference.
You need to do your homework. Read up on the best garden hose reviews. Read up blogs for recommendations. There are lightweight garden hoses, heavy-duty garden hoses, flexible garden hoses, 50ft long, 100ft long garden hoses, heck even fabric hoses. Recommendation blogs will surely help.
But as the saying goes, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
What This Article Has To Offer
This article will give you perfect insights into what makes a good garden hose. What qualities should you be looking for, whether you are buying from Walmart, Amazon, or even the local hardware store? The next time you need to buy a hose, you won’t need to spend hours searching for brands, instead you will know the functionalities you need and hence know what is the best garden hose, just for you!
So, when looking for a garden hose, here are the things you should consider:
1. Length:
Unless you have a huge lawn, trust me buying a very long hose will only be a hassle. Don’t think that since you are spending, why not buy a long one. Long ones cost more, weigh much more, are difficult to drain to keep them away for winters, take more space, and even let water out from the end at considerably lower pressures.
In order to ensure you are buying the optimal length simply measure the distance from your tap to the end of the yard diagonally and buy a hose that’s just 2-3 feet longer than that. You don’t want to be tugging on the hose. That can cause leaks and cracks, especially when the hose gets old. This is the optimal length of a garden hose.
2. Water flow:
Water flow directly relates to the diameter of the hose. Not the external, the internal diameter. Most light-weight garden hoses are small diameter hoses i.e. three-fourths inches or five-eights inches. Unless you work in the fire-fighting department and require very heavy-duty hoses, anything bigger than 3/4 or 5/8 inches shouldn’t be needed.
The bigger the diameter, the more water shall pass through the hose. Generally, 5/8 is the perfect once since it carries the optimal amount of water and delivers great pressure as well.
Weight is an important deciding factor for the best garden hose that is on the market. If weight is an issue for you then you can consider a smaller diameter garden hose of about half an inch. These are pretty light-weight garden hoses and are best suitable for simple plant watering only. The downside is that they have very low water pressure so that can be used effectively with a sprinkler, nozzle, or anything that requires high pressure.
3. Material:
Under normal circumstances, Rubber garden hoses provide the best value as well as durability. You’ll find 3 kinds of garden hoses materials:
Rubber
Vinyl
A mixture of both.
As said above, the rubber makes the best garden hose. They are heavy duty garden hoses; however, they do come with a heavy price tag as well. Rubber is much more long-lasting, weather-resistant
Rubber Garden Hose
can carry hot water as well. They are more flexible and usually don’t develop kinks and cracks and last through all 4 seasons easily. However, as well as being expensive, they are also very heavy to move around the yard.
Vinyl hoses on the other hand are inexpensive and lightweight garden hoses. They are easy to carry around or wrap up to store in the shed. But they also are the least sturdy ones. They are prone to develop kinks and cracks very soon especially if left in the hot sun for long times. They are not very weather resistant either. However, they are common due to their prices and simple gardening tasks. For the price, they can be considered as the best garden hoses for small yards and simpler tasks.
Vinyl Garden Hose
The best way to go around is the mixture of both rubber and vinyl. These are relatively stronger yet lighter. Inexpensive as well and can last longer than vinyl hoses.
But obviously, if the budget allows then a heavy-duty rubber hose is the best garden hose available on the market.
4. Strength:
The strength of a hose can be determined by “burst pressure” i.e. the water pressure at which it is likely to rupture the hose. If you plan on using a garden hose nozzle or a sprinkler then the optimum burst pressure would be around 350psi or a bit higher.
But if you are using something that requires more pressure such as pressure washers then consult the manual of the equipment you are using. It is quite possible that the best garden hose you need should be capable of handling much higher PSIs.
A garden hose should be flexible in its motion. It shouldn’t be so stiff that a normal turn will cause it to kink. This would potentially lower the hose’s life causing it to develop cracks and raptures. To check how flexible the hose is, simply bend it in a U-form. If it kinks, put it away and look for some other hose.
Twisting any garden hose would cause is to kink obviously, even the ones that claim to be “kink-free” however some are better than others. Rubber hoses here outperform any other since they are prone to the least kinks and ruptures.
6. Couplings:
These are basically the end pieces that connect your hose to a tap, nozzle, or sprinkler. They usually are of 2 materials; plastic and metal.
Even though metal couplings can cost a bit more but you really want to keep yourself away from plastic couplings if you want peace in your life. Plastic couplings are weak, can break easily, are much prone to leaks, and weaken over time due to weather changes.
Metal couplings on the other hand are exactly what the plastic ones are not. Sturdy, strong, weather-resistant, and leak proof. They are usually made from brass or sheet metal. They usually are made in octagonal shapes so that they can be tightened or loosened easily with a wrench.
Also, do look for a collar i.e. a piece of plastic or rubber extending around 3-5 inches from the end of the hose to one coupling. This mitigates the chances of the hose developing kinks and cracks around the spigot, where it is particularly common.
Additional Information
Types of Garden Hoses:
Light-Weight Garden Hose:
These are usually made of vinyl or a mix of rubber and vinyl, which are relatively inexpensive and less sturdy as well. They are more prone to kinks, often have plastic couplings, and are usually in lesser diameters. This means lower water flow and pressure.
They are well suitable if you have simple needs. A small yard. Don’t require more than 50 ft of pipe and don’t use any high-pressure nozzle or sprinkler.
You can easily find lightweight garden hoses at your local hardware store.
Heavy-Duty Garden Hose:
These ones are much more sturdy, kink-free, come with metal couplings, have larger diameters, can carry more water flow, and handle high pressures. They are made of high-quality rubber and can last a lifetime as well.
If you plan on using high-pressure nozzles for example nozzles for high-pressure car wash then these rubber high-quality nozzles are what you need. Although they do come at a higher price as well.
Expandable Hose:
These very popular kinds of hoses are extremely light-weight garden hoses, usually have a ½ inch diameter, and can expand/contract making them easier to store and coil. However, over time their contraction becomes worse and it gets difficult to coil them up.
Some more common types of hoses are:
Drinking-safe garden hoses.
Flat Garden hoses.
Soaker Hoses.
Coiled hoses.
Conclusion:
With so many Garden Hoses available on the market, it usually gets mind-boggling selecting the best garden hose for yourself.
I hope this article has given you some great insights on how to select the best garden hoses available on the market.
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