Love, love, love our USA made Eley hose. It’s light, easy coil, slow to kink and a nice unobtrusive grey. Expensive but so much better than any other hose we've tried! one by one the others have been replaced and we now have three.

Coincidentally, I was just recently planning to replace my old, simple, classic, brass, twist control nozzle with either a new one or with a high tech one, if possible. Will post soon on my progress.

A few years back I stumbled upon a very good garden hose, the Flexzilla Garden Hose. It is great. Amazon sells it, 50 ft., for $39.98. It takes a lot of abuse, but has never leaked. It's very flexible, does kink, but rarely does. It stays outside, summer and winter, just coiled up under my 2X4 Basic Outdoor Chair all winter, drained, but not entirely so. It may outlive me if it keeps going like it has, but if it begins to fail me soon, I won't hesitate to replace it with another Flexzilla.

Moses.

Maria and moses…ty both so much.! I will,check them out. . For the nozzle…a high tech nozzle?! Moses! Hoping you‘re getting all the research asap! Sounds intrigueing, tho maybe scary. 😳 I’ll be looking for your post!

I do love my hose. Not because it is lightweight, but because I ordered it 20 years ago and I'm still using the same one. [g] A rubber hose. It lasts for sure. I only have one piece of tape around the connector end of one of them. And I have resigned myself to how much exercise I am getting dragging it around. lol

I can recommend my hose nozzle. I've tried probably a half dozen different nozzles that never lasted me more than 2 years and all had something I didn't like about them. I forget where I saw this one recommended, but it was inexpensive to boot and I liked it so much I bought myself two more as back ups. It doesnt leak. I do use quick connects on all my hoses, sprinklers and nozzles and I keep them tightened with pliers. I can't say how long it will last, I only bought it last year. But while it lasts, I find it works well and the price is low enough that I could keep replacing it if I have to.

Automan Hose Nozzle

Like mojavemaria I love my polyurethane hose from Eley. I’ve been a serious gardner for more than 50 years, I have owned dozens of hoses and loudly cursed most of them. Before discovering this one I would have recommended a good quality rubber hose, I have one that is more than 10 years old and still going strong, but they are very heavy, as they age the rubber surface starts oxidizing and leaves black residue on your hands, and they do kink. PU hoses are much lighter and resist kinking better than any hose I have used. They are expensive but well worth the money. And Eley uses high quality, thick milled brass fittings, it is the best hose I have ever used and I have used a lot of hoses in 50+ years.

I like this one. I have the 25 ft.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Zero-G-5-8-in-X-50-ft-Premium-Duty-Kink-Free-Gray-Woven-Hose/999972996

Love my hose. Hate my nozzle.

I have old Craftsman hoses. Must be about 15 years old by now. They are very heavy, and can be difficult to pull around my large yard, but after 15 years of trying other hoses, these have worked best for me. I will say that because they are heavy, and because my spigot is on the far end of the house from my garden, we pull the house out, in front of the house, across the driveway (making sure no connections are in the driveway to get run over), through some trees, and then just leave it out all season, moving it around the yard as needed (my driveway splits my property in half, and the main gardens are on the other side of the driveway from the house).

For the front yard, which is much closer to the spigot, I will drag the hose out to the beds, and then pull it back in where we coil it up in front of the house.

I have never had a trigger I really like. Sooner or later they all break down somehow - won't turn on, won't shut off, leak a bit, leak badly, only certain settings work - ugh it drives me crazy. Admittedly, I always say that's it, I'm spending the money and getting a really good one! Then I see $30-$40 bucks and get the $8 one lol. So maybe that part is my fault!

:)

Dee

P.S. yes, sometimes the Craftsman hoses leave black residue on my hands but to me it's a small price to pay for the fact they have lasted and worked for 15 years and counting. My hands are dirty from gardening anyway!

I have three very heavy 100 ft hoses that are fine, probably at least 20 years old, but a pain to use. They are used for watering the yard or washing the cars. I like the other for the patio, because it is light weight fabric and goes flat when the pressure is released.

The nozzles I like are the Melnor.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Melnor-Rear-Trigger-7-Pattern-Nozzle-67000HD/314333719

My husband likes the wand As Seen on TV ones.

https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lawn-and-garden/watering-and-irrigation/nozzles-and-wands/6265730

Thank you for this post & the recommendations. I do a lot of cursing when using my hose. My favorite nozzle is called a fireman’s nozzle. Wasn’t cheap, but at least 12 years old now. I bought a 2nd, cheaper knock-off once, and hated it.

I hate watering, so I don't think it's so much the hose as it is that. I have a battery-operated retractable hose reel on the patio which is a wonderful contraption, but it only retracts, it doesn't lay the hose out and drag it around for me LOL!

On my wish list is an Eley 4-wheel hose cart and accompanying hose. I was ready to hit the send button on my order but then had an unexpected bill and decided to hold off until 2026.

I also have the quick connectors, mine are brass but they sometimes get stuck or break or lost so I have to replace occasionally. I have a Dramm sprinkler, which I like, and a Dramm long watering wand, which leaks. I changed the washer and it still leaks so I don't know if I would replace with another Dramm or a different brand wand. I don't use an actual hose nozzle that much, so the cheapie ones from the hardware store is fine as long as it has the different settings -- I haven't replaced in years, though, because I don't use the ones I have that much.

I have yet to gind a hose that I like and I have tried lots. I have killed so many pocket Hoses because of conder blocks and or gravel. I have hose out front that was suppossed to never kink. That hose not only kinks but is now covered with sticky black oxidation , oh, and the metal end that the nossle screws on to blew off under pressure. This was an $80 purchase 3 yrars ago. Time to replace that hunk of junk

Kristine I have cinder block beds and yes, they can be a hassle to drag hoses around. Even though my heavy craftsman hoses still get stuck at times, the hose remains undamaged for the most part, so it's just a curse-inducing annoyance. I can't believe the end of your hose blew off - lucky no one got hurt!

DDinSB, when you said fireman's nozzle I was suddenly transported back to childhood! I have no idea if this is a fireman's nozzle, but I suddenly remembered the nozzle on my hose at my childhood home. It was metal, silver, with a pump/trigger handle that you squeezed to use, and it had no settings, only one spray. You could adjust the spray by turning a small nozzle on the end, kind of like you do nowadays on a spray bottle, which made the spray wider or narrower.

I'm surprised to see many of you are okay with the cheap $6-$8 nozzles! Gosh these things drive me bonkers. They just break and leak too often. Often my feet get watered more than the garden! The worst is when you can't shut the darn thing off lol! I have a whole collection of broken ones in my garage. I hold on to them in case the new one breaks worse than the old one lol, and I guess they have kind of piled up over the years.

My dream is to run a water line out to the garden and have spigot out there. Sadly it's so far down the priority list of things to do here. It would have to run under the driveway, and my property is an awful lot of solid rock. Lol that's one reason I hope my well never dies. If I have to connect to the city water in the street 80 feet away it will cost a fortune!

:)

Dee

Okay hubby, quit keeping the trash! THROW IT AWAY! LOL.

The Melnor last several years for me and I just buy a new one. They are only $8.

ETA: I do have to replace the washers in the hoses and the nozzles.

Yes, the title of this thread makes me chuckle, we really do need more good humor in the rather insane times in which we endure! I have a thick black old hose, (mmm, that still sounds bad, lol) I've had for what must be 40 years, it does not kink and only ever have needed to replace the female end and make repair to where I had run it over with the riding mower, but dang, nowadays anything of such quality costs a mint!

LOL, Sherry, I'm working on it! Did a partial clean-out of the garage a few weeks back. Have yet to go through the hose nozzles though lol. But mine do seem to break more often than yours - if I get through a whole season without an issue, that's a win. Sooooo.... you never know when you might need to replace a really bad nozzle with an old, SLIGHTLY bad nozzle....

Yes, FB, agree about the quality. We have had the occasional "run over in the driveway" repair to make too, but so easy and so worth it.

Actually, lol, we just had to cut the old nozzle off earlier this summer, and repair the end of the hose to put the new nozzle on! The old nozzle just would not come off. So it was broken AND stuck lol!

:)

Dee

Maybe I should keep one brand new nozzle as a back up. On my list.

I recently purchased a Velybrin 50 foot hose from Amazon. It’s very light and flexible and I love it so much so that I’m going to purchase another one to replace the heavier hose for the front yard. It is $29.99. Can’t beat that.

debra

Also, not sure what brand nozzle I have, but I use one that turns on by sliding the top piece forward and back. My arthritic hands can’t hold the ones that have to be squeezed.
Here’s the hose and nozzle:

debra