Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us?
These are the 10 best hoses for your lawn, garage, farm, or RV. Pp Pipe Fittings
Around the house, the business, the farm, or the garden, the humble garden hose is one of the most important tools for outdoor chores. Having a reliable hose is essential: It makes every job that much easier and more enjoyable.
But choosing a garden hose can get more complicated than you might think. Though hoses are simple tools, they come in many lengths, and are made from many materials. Some can stand up to higher water temperatures and pressures, while others are made to be compact and easy to handle. There’s plenty to think about, but after plenty of testing and research, we have some thoughts on what makes a great one.
More Guides For Gardeners: How To Grow Your Own Food ● Best Lawn Mowers ● Best String Trimmers
If you’ve ever wrestled with a garden hose, you know how unwieldy they can be. They’re heavy, difficult to drag around, and seem to kink just as you turn on the water. The trend is toward lightweight, kink-resistant hoses that are designed to address these common complaints.
There are two simple ways to reduce the weight of a garden hose—make it out of lighter material or use less material by reducing the hose’s diameter or wall thickness. A smaller diameter weighs less, but it also holds less water, making it lighter while you’re using it too. Of the 50-foot hoses we tested, the smallest diameter was 7/16-inch -inches, which held 3.25 pounds of water. The half-inch hose and 5/8-inch hose held 73- and 104-percent more water by weight, respectively.
Hoses are typically made of rubber, rubber hybrids, vinyl, or polyurethane. Rubber tends to be more flexible regardless of temperature, but it’s also the heaviest. Polyurethane and hybrids tend to be more kink resistant, and lighter. Vinyl, used for inexpensive hoses, is heavier, prone to kinking, and often has a strong coil “memory.” Polyurethane and hybrid hoses have less coil memory, and will lay flatter as temperatures rise, or if used in the sunlight.
There’s a newer variety of hose that has a very thin, flexible lining inside a woven, fiber jacket. These hoses are very flexible, do not have any coil memory, and rarely kink as a result. Some of these hoses expand both in length and diameter when pressurized with water, until the liner is restricted by the woven jacket. This makes them convenient to store, as they collapse when the water is turned off and pressure is released.
Virtually all hoses will kink, even the kink-proof kind. The best way to prevent kinks is to use a hose reel, which helps you roll and unroll your hose without twisting. If you pull a hose straight from a coil, on the ground, or hanging on a wall, it will kink eventually, as the coils tighten and get smaller. You can avoid this to some extent by twisting the hose as you drag it out.
If you or your animals drink water from the hose, if you fill kids’ swimming pools, or if you connect to an RV, you’ll want to get a hose approved by the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF). Ordinary, or unapproved, hoses can leach lead, BPA, or phthalates into the water as it passes through them.
A hose is only as good as its fittings, and there’s a wide spectrum. The connections on a hose are typically made of either plastic or brass. Plastic tends to be a bit easier to use, but won’t hold up against the elements and long-term abuse. Brass fittings are generally more weather-resistant, and some, but not all, tend to be more durable. Stamped brass is thinner and easier to bench or crush. Cast brass connections are the most durable option, but may be tougher to tighten than the thinner alternatives.
Some hoses now offer quick-connectors, which use a pull-back collar to attach to a spigot or attachments. While they’re much easier to connect and remove fast, they may not be able to take the same water pressure as a traditional fitting. If you plan to use a connector, double-check it’s rated to stand up to the pressure you intend to put through the hose.
Many of the hoses on this list have been thoroughly vetted and evaluated by the Popular Mechanics test team. We evaluated our initial picks based on dry weight, friction when dragged, kink resistance, as well as rate of flow. To measure friction, we used a spring scale attached to the hoses, and dragged them, while full of water, across grass and concrete.
Flow rate was determined by attaching each hose directly to a faucet, and with no restriction, used a stopwatch to time filling a five-gallon bucket. Finally, for the hoses that claimed to have crush-resistant couplings, we drove a 4,500-pound truck over the connected couplings on a paved surface.
More recently, since its initial publication, we’ve updated the list to include newer models and additional categories. The updated selections were picked by our expert, in consultation with the test team, based on the experts’ personal testing experience, market research, and user reviews found on Amazon and manufacturer’s websites.
We have to admit, when we first saw The Perfect Garden Hose, we thought it looked a little wonky. So, we got one in to see if it was as good as they say. Wonky looking or not, the hose surprised us—it’s light, stiff, and darn near impossible to kink, even when we were trying.
The unique design incorporates a helix made of a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), wrapped around the outside of the hose. This stiff material prevents the hose from collapsing when folded over on itself, making it very difficult to interrupt the water flow.
The TPE also makes The Perfect Garden Hose relatively light for its size. Although the outside of the hose has pronounced ridges, it dragged much easier than we expected, requiring only 6.8 pounds of force to pull across concrete. On grass it took a little more effort, but still low, at 8.1 pounds, to drag.
The Perfect Garden Hose comes with nice thick brass fittings that will withstand the weight of most vehicles, although the brass collar over the hose may deform a little. With a flow rate of over 500 gallons per minute, the hose would be great for anyone who needs to move some water and has been stymied by kinks in the past.
Stanley’s Fatmax hose has all the attributes of a professional-quality hose. It has a larger inside diameter to move more water. In fact, at 587.3 gallons per minute, it has the highest flow rate of any ⅝-inch hose we’ve tested. While the hose fittings aren’t marketed as crushproof, the large-diameter swivel grips protected the fittings when we drove over them with a 4,500-pound truck—the swivel grips also make it easy to connect the fittings tightly.
We liked the soft, flexible feel of the polyurethane and PVC hose, as well as the minimal memory it displayed. This made coiling and uncoiling the hose go a lot smoother. During testing, we found it tends to twist out of tight coils before it kinks. Paying attention and giving the hose a twist often helped it uncoil quicker. A bigger hose does hold more water, so it was no surprise the Fatmax took a little more effort to drag out to full length—on concrete it took 9 pounds of force, while on grass it was a little less, at 8.6 lb.
Stanley’s Fatmax is a good choice for folks who are less concerned about weight and more concerned about durability and moving a lot of water—because of the high flow rate, it would be a good choice to use with a pressure washer.
BluBird’s Ag-Lite rubber hose is about the burliest hose you’ll be able to find. Real rubber hoses tend to weigh a lot more than any other material, but the folks at BluBird managed to reduce this model’s weight by 20 percent compared to other rubber hoses.
The version we tested had a ¾-inch inner diameter, the biggest in this test, which means it holds a lot of water. That makes the hose heavier to handle and drag when filled: It took 15.3 pounds of force to pull it out to full length on grass. On concrete sidewalk, it dragged it a little easier, requiring 12.4 pounds. On the plus side, the hose is heavy because it carries a lot of water. We measured the flow through it, at 650 gallons per hour, 17 percent more than the next closest hose in this test. The heavy brass hose fittings are plated with chrome, so they’ll stand up to plenty of abuse.
One notable advantage of rubber hoses is that they remain flexible through a wide temperature range, so that they’re not too stiff in the cold, or too soft in the summer. The Ag-Lite is rated to handle water up to 212°, so it’s good for washing down equipment in the winter or janitorial tasks. If taken care of properly, a rubber hose can last for years, and BluBird is so confident in its durability that it offers a 10-year warranty.
Giraffe Tools’ Hybrid hose has solid brass fittings that are plated with nickel, making them incredibly corrosion-resistant and almost impossible to bend or crush. The ends also feature protective plastic collars that help prevent them from kinking or tearing near the fittings. A moveable rubber handgrip not only helps protect the end of the hose, but rotates naturally in your hand, making connecting this hose to a faucet, spigot, or hose reel easily.
It’s also a very durable hose. The hose is made from a hybrid rubber-polymer blend, which is light enough to lug around without too much difficulty, but capable to stand up to the elements. It remains supple, flexible, and easy to move and coil even when temperatures dip below freezing. From the hose itself to its connectors, this one is built to last.
Buying a portable hose reel, where the hose comes with a spinning housing, is one of the easiest ways to ensure you can easily move and store your garden hose. We like the Gardena 2662-U because it doesn’t require you to sacrifice length for the sake of storage. At more than 50 feet long, this is all the hose you’re likely to need for projects around the house, but the hose has a tiny footprint when you retract it back into the reel.
It’s surprisingly sturdy for a hose that takes up so little space and, though it’s narrower than a standard garden hose, it comes with a set of adapters so you can use it with any standard spigot.
If you often need to carry your hose around or storage space is an issue, the Fitt Force Pro is a thin and extremely light hose that’s just as durable as its thicker, heavier counterparts. It’s made with an innovative polymer called Thermoplastic Vulcanizate, or TPV, which blends materials that are set at high temperatures, otherwise known as vulcanizing. TPV is strong, super elastic, and can stand up to high and low temperatures and won’t wear out easily.
It’s flexible and flattens out when the hose is not full of water, making it easier to roll up and store. Even better, it’s PVC-free and safe for drinking water. The Fitt Force Pro is an amazing choice for RVs or if you need to bring a hose along on a road trip: It’s versatile, durable, light, and compact.
Gardener’s Water Right Light 75-foot hose earns its name, weighing in at just 5 pounds. It’s optimized for weight by using small ½-inch diameter, polyurethane tubing and aluminum fittings. In use, this is evident, dragging it out to full length on grass takes only 4.9 pounds of force and just a little more at 5.8 pounds on concrete. This makes it convenient to handle in the garden, on the patio, or around raised beds.
Kink resistance is good, and the weight makes it easy to correct or avoid kinks by twisting or flipping the hose. It is intended for garden use, and it is ideal for that, but it is also drinking-water safe, so it could be used for an RV hook-up as well. It could also be used for anything else, although the flow rate isn’t optimal for things that require a large volume of water.
Gilmour’s AquaArmor Lightweight Hose is among the lightest we’ve tested. In fact, only three of the hoses we’ve tested to date have been lighter, but at nearly 400 gallons per hour, the AquaArmor’s flow rate is considerably higher.
Like many manufacturers, Gilmour claims the hose is kink resistant and able to unkink itself. We were able to kink the AquaArmor hose in use, dragging it out from a coil, but we discovered that if pulled taught, kinks would “pop” out. So, if pulled to half-length, kinks could occur and inhibit water flow, but reaching full length, under tension, they disappear. The hose has internal kink protection at both ends to prevent collapse when pulled tight at an angle.
When we tested resistance, dragging the AquaArmor hose to full length across concrete and grass, it fell in the middle of those we tested at 6.7 and 7.3 pounds of force respectively. Due to its weight and relative ease of handling, the AquaArmor hose is good to use around gardens, patios, and lawns—plus, it’s drinking water safe because it's made from FDA food contact compliant material.
A hose for extreme conditions, Gilmour’s Flexogen Pro is designed to survive “professional” abuse. With eight layers in the casing, kink-resistance is good, although it can kink when it’s hot from sitting in the sun. A coiled spring collar is provided on the faucet end of the hose to protect against kinking. The enhanced casing also increases burst strength and durability on rugged job sites.
The large, steel, hex-shaped couplings proved to be crush resistant under the tires of a 4,500-pound truck. Flow rate is on the high end of those we tested, delivering over 530 gallons an hour. Dragging the hose out to its full length on a concrete sidewalk required 9.8 pounds of force, while on grass it took 20 percent more effort.
The Flexogen Pro is suited for construction sites, auto repair shops, anywhere around heavy equipment, as well as watering the lawn at home.
There are plenty of reasons you might need to run hot water through a hose: Draining a hot water heater, washing down a restaurant, or other home and garden chores. But not every hose is built to withstand high temperatures. The materials of many standard hoses, especially cheaper vinyl ones, can leach into water when they’re heated.
Even if you don’t plan to drink the water from your hose or otherwise come in contact with it–and you shouldn’t– frequently running hot water through a standard hose can drastically weaken and eventually break it.
The Stanley FATMAX Polyfusion is our favorite hose that can take the heat. Its thick walls feature a durable, three-ply construction that helps it withstand up to 500 psi without bursting. The couplings are titanium-coated to prevent crushing or warping, and it has zero memory, which helps with kink-prevention and maneuverability.
PM: What length garden hose should I buy?
KM: When buying a new garden hose, you might assume that longer is always better. In fact, you should try to only buy the length you really need for your specific home or business. If you only need 50 feet–a standard size for consumer hoses–that’s all you should get. A longer hose is harder to coil up and heavier to lug around. Plus, longer hoses get less water pressure from your faucet.
If you can generally get by with a shorter hose but you think you might very occasionally need more length to wash your roof or something at the far end of your yard, it may be easier to get two hoses and join them together when you need to, rather than dealing with an unwieldy XL hose all the time.
PM: How do I keep my garden hose in good condition?
KM: A hose is often the tool used to perform maintenance on other things, so you might not think too much about taking care of the hose itself. But hoses need maintenance, too.
To keep yours in good condition, make sure you’re completely draining it of water after every use. Leaving water sitting inside can lead to a build-up of bacteria, which can degrade the hose’s inner lining. It's especially important to fully empty your hose and disconnect it from the spigot in the winter, especially when you’re expecting freezing temperatures. Water expands as it freezes, so a frozen hose full of ice could easily spring a leak.
Exposure to UV light will also degrade plastics and rubbers over time, so try and keep your hose inside or at least in the shade to ensure it lasts as long as possible.
PM: What do I do if my garden hose springs a leak?
KM: Finding a hole in a hose doesn’t automatically mean it’s destined for the dumpster. Small (and even not-small) leaks can be easy to fix. If you’ve made a considerable investment on a high-end model, spending a little extra time on a repair is worth it.
You can cover most small holes easily with a strip of electrical tape to reseal them. Wrap the tape around a few times to get a good seal, but try not to use so much that you create a trouble spot that will collapse or crimp.
Bigger leaks can be solved with a gadget called a hose mender, which couples two ends of the hose back together. You can cut out the damaged section of hose, then use the mender to put the ends back together. As long as you’ve installed it correctly, your hose should be good as new.
Kate Morgan is a freelance journalist based near Philadelphia who writes about science, food, travel, culture, awesome people, and a little bit of everything else. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Washington Post, O Magazine, The Cut, Woman’s Day, USA Today, Harper’s Bazaar, Slate, Saveur, Medium, Popular Science, and others.
Brad Ford has spent most of his life using tools to fix, build, or make things. Growing up he worked on a farm, where he learned to weld, repair, and paint equipment. From the farm he went to work at a classic car dealer, repairing and servicing Rolls Royces, Bentleys, and Jaguars. Today, when he's not testing tools or writing for Popular Mechanics, he's busy keeping up with the projects at his old farmhouse in eastern Pennsylvania.
The Best Plastic Rakes for Fall Cleanups
The Best Leaf Rakes for an Enviable Lawn
Best Metal Sheds to Keep Outdoor Equipment Covered
Best Wood Sheds for Stylish Backyard Storage
10 Best Plastic Sheds for Your Outdoor Gear
The 8 Best Soaker Hoses For Your Garden
7 Best Sheds for Organizing Your Gear
The 21 Best Garden Hoses for Watering Your Lawn
Reach Your Whole Lawn with This Expandable Hose
How to Dress Up a Pet Door
How to Build Your Own DIY Smokeless Fire Pit
A Part of Hearst Digital Media
We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back.
Pvc Plastic Union Ball Valve ©2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.