A good garden hose doesn't just let you water your plants; you can even use it to wash your car or clean your driveway. But with so many options out there, how do you choose? Even people on Reddit are asking this common question. This Reddit poster grew tired of buying a new hose every three years, for example. Quite a few commenters replied with some of the same recommendations we have here, including Flexzilla. To find out which hose is the best pick for your watering needs, I spent hours testing seven popular garden hoses at my home to see which was the easiest to use, which is prone to kinking and how it stands up to being dragged, dropped, run over by a car and other rough handling.
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The best garden hoses of 2025
Pros
- Lightweight hose makes it easier to move, store and use
- Easy-to-use connectors for both faucet and sprayer
- Great for people with limited strength/dexterity to connect
- Coils easily for storage
- Potable: Safe for carrying drinking water
Cons
- More prone to kinking and twisting when empty
- Can’t use a wrench or spanner if you need to tighten the connection
- Sustained cracking when tested for durability during car test
- Pricier than others we tested
Our top pick is the Flexzilla SwivelGrip, a flexible garden hose that can withstand rough treatment, lightweight, easy to drag and also safe for drinking water from it.
The Stanley FatMax is a great pick for heavy-duty tasks or bigger yards as it's very tough, and the bright yellow color means you aren’t going to lose it. The Flexzilla SwivelGrip is an excellent combination of a lightweight polymer hose and two comfortable grips, making connecting and disconnecting the hose easy. Most hoses have a small rotating nut or knurled ring that you have to turn to screw the hose to the faucet, but the SwivelGrip, as the name suggests, covers this with a large plastic rotating grip. Turn this, and the whole hose end rotates, including the aluminum thread end, making connecting to the faucet and sprayer much easier. That’s a big plus for those with limited hand strength or dexterity.
If you only want to water a small deck or patio (or just wash the car), the Hosecoil might be the better pick. It automatically coils up for storage, but still has decent reach.
Why I like it:
The Flexzilla SwivelGrip is a light, flexible hose that can easily be dragged around the yard to reach all corners. The swiveling grips make connecting the faucet and the sprayer easier, providing more to hold onto while you turn. Once you're done, the SwivelGrip is pretty light, making coiling it up for storage easier.
Combine the swivel grips with a lightweight polymer tube that weighs just 4.2 pound for the 25-foot version we tested, and you’ve got a great, light and flexible hose.
This was the only hose that sustained some damage in our test where I drove over the end with my car (see our “how we test” section below). During the car test, the long plastic grip cracked, but was still usable and the brass fitting still connected without problems.
The Flexzilla SwivelGrip is the only hose we tested that is labeled “drinking water safe,” meaning it meets federal standards for carrying water you can drink. This is important if you need a hose to fill your child's pool or fill your dog's water bowl, it's labeled as safe, drinkable, lead-free water.
Who it's for: Gardeners with limited mobility or dexterity will find the swivel grips easier to use, and the lighter hose makes it easier to coil up for storage.
Who shouldn't buy it: Those with older faucets or spigots. The grips are not removable, so you can’t use a wrench or spanner to tighten the connection if you have older faucets that need a lot of leverage to tighten onto the thread.
If you're on a tight budget, there are other choices that are cheaper like our best budget pick: The Gilmor Flexogen.
Pros
- Very tough on both tube and connectors
- Bright yellow color is unlikely to get lost.
- Grip collars make it easy to connect
- Durable
- Great for heavy duty use
Cons
- Heavier than some
- Not rated for drinking water
Stanley describes the FatMax range as professional grade, and the FatMax hose fits that description: It's heavier, more rigid and bulkier than most, with a wide, comfortable, contoured hand grip collar on both ends. The faucet end collar rotates so you can turn it to attach to a faucet, while the other end is fixed so you can hold it steady while twisting on a sprayer. Underneath this grip is the familiar brass hex bolt, but like the Flexzilla, you can’t remove the hand grip to use a wrench on the bolt: That’s a pain for older faucets where you have to get the connection tight to prevent dripping.
Why I like it:
The FatMax hose is made of a polyurethane and PVC mix that Stanley calls PolyFusion. That combination is formidable: I found the FatMax very kink and twist-resistant, staying free-flowing when coiled, laid out or when pressed against a wall edge. It also stood up to damage: after driving over it several times with a car, the hose and the end connectors were undamaged and didn’t leak.
Who is it for?
The Stanley FatMax is a tough and bulky garden hose that can withstand rough treatment. It would be at home on a building site or a large yard with lots of rocks, spiky plants and other sharp and spiky obstacles.
Who shouldn’t get it?
The FatMax comes in 50, 75 or 100-foot lengths, but there is no 25-foot version, so it is not a good pick for smaller yards or tasks like car washing. If you're just washing the car or watering the patio, get a Flexzilla instead.
Pros
- Very lightweight
- Squishes down into a smaller space when not in use
Cons
- Doesn’t carry as much water as rigid hoses
- The expanding latex skin is fragile
- Kinks easily
We’ve all seen the TV ads: A hose that magically expands when you turn the water on, then squishes down when you drain it. That’s the Flexihose, a lightweight hose with a double latex skin that is crinkly and small when empty but expands under pressure to triple the size and length. It works as advertised: the 50-foot version I tested was only about 20 feet long when empty, but expanded out to the full 50 feet when I turned the water on. It only weighs about 2.5 pounds and is easy to coil up for storage.
The Flexihose also came with two things that I wished more hoses had: a stop cock on the solid brass connector and a set of spare washers. The stop cock is great if you need to change the spray head or connect another hose: no more walking back to the faucet to turn it off, then back to the hose end to connect the new sprayer and back to the faucet to turn it on again. The spare washers are useful because they often pop out when you disconnect the hose, or get worn and leaky over time.
The downside is that the thinner diameter of the hose, even when expanded, means it only carries about half the water of a normal hose: I measured it as delivering just over 4 gallons a minute from my home water supply, while rigid hoses managed over 8 gallons a minute. The flexible skin feels more fragile and gets kinked or twisted much more easily than rigid hoses. Pull it tight against something, and the water flow reduces even more. It also has the odd quirk that when you use it, the hose changes length, shrinking as the water pressure reduces. That reduces the effective range: I found it started getting taut at about 40 feet from the faucet when I started watering things. Plus the expanding hose looks just like a snake moving in the grass, which my dog found rather upsetting.
Why I like it:
The Flexihose is a neat idea that works pretty well: It's light and compact to store and it expands when it fills with water. For most tasks, it is fine and takes less storage space.
Who is it for?
If you're watering a balcony or small space and you prize portability and easy storage over strength, the Flexihose is a great pick. It's lightweight and squishes down into a smaller space when not in use.
Who shouldn’t get it?
It wouldn’t be a good pick for larger or longer yards, because it doesn’t carry as much water and changes length then you use it. Its material doesn't feel like it will stand the test of time either -- so if it’s a long-term relationship you're seeking, the Flexihose isn't the one.
Pros
- Available in many colors for fashionable gardeners
- Can carry hot water
Cons
- Heavy!
- Expensive
As the name suggests, the Dramm Colorstorm is available in six colors, including berry, yellow and green. If you like to keep things co-ordinated. I tested a 25-foot version in blue, and it’s a great hose, made of tough rubber in a hexagonal shape that lies nicely on a flat surface. That stops it skittering around when you turn the water on, and makes it easier to hold. It doesn’t have any extended hand grips on the ends, but the brass and nickel coated fittings are easy to turn and the hose were completely unfazed when I ran over them with a car.
The Colorstorm is also rated for hot water: Dramm says it can handle water at up to 160°C/320°F, which makes it more flexible for tasks like draining leaking tanks. It is not rated for drinking water, though.
It is a rather heavy hose, though: at 9.9 lbs/4.5 Kg for the 50-foot version I tested, it is a lot to lift and store or to drag around the yard.
Why I like it:
The Dramm Colorstorm is a very tough, flexible hose that can handle hot, cold and everything in between.
Who is it for?
The ability of the Colorstorm to handle hot, high pressure water could prove to be useful if you ever need to drain a hot water heater or get water out of a hot swimming pool. The rubber construction also means that it is more flexible in cold weather, which could again be useful for draining pools or ponds late in the season.
Who shouldn’t get it?
The Dramm Colorstorm is a heavy hose, so those with limited hand strength should go for a lighter hose with hand grips that make it easier to move and connect.
Pros
- Rubber holds up better in cold temperatures
- Strong, rigid design
Cons
- Heavier than plastic hoses
- Not suitable for drinking water
Why I like it:
You can’t mess with the classics, and if rubber is suitable for your tires, it’s also great for your garden hose. The Continental Commercial uses, as the name suggests, the same rubber as your car tires, which is tough and rigid. This hose had no problem going around corners and over obstacles without twisting or getting blocked. It’s also much more resilient in cold temperatures. That's useful if you need to drain a pond just before it freezes or pump out water from a bust pipe in midwinter. The downside is that it's heavy: The 25-foot version of this hose that we tested weighed in at a hefty 5.2 pounds. That's more than double the weight of the Flexihose. That makes it harder to store, and the denser rubber is harder to coil than the polymers used in materials.
Who is it for?
Do you drive a classic car? You might like a classic hose that has the same pros and cons: your grandfather would recognize it, and it is as tough as old tires.
Who shouldn’t get it?
Like a classic car, it is also heavier and may not be as safe as a modern one: rubber can leach lead into the water, so it isn’t suitable for carrying drinking water. It also has no fancy wide grips or easy attachment ends: a standard brass bolt on each end, which may not be comfortable for people with limited grip strength.
Pros
- Coils up into a 13-inch space
- Very light
Cons
- Small inner diameter means only half as much water
- Never completely uncoils, so a 25-foot hose is only usable to about 18 feet
Like a snake in a desert ravine, the Hosecoil Standard makes the most of the space by coiling up to about 14 inches high. Connect it to the water, though, and the coil unwinds (don’t try that with a snake, though). Drain it and it coils up again, ready to be stored for another day. That makes it very compact, and Hosecoil also offers a number of holders and mounts that make it easy to stash out of the way on a boat or in a garage. The Hosecoil is also very light, at just 1.4 pounds.
The hose never completely uncoils, though, so you don’t get to use the full length of the hose: I found that the 25-foot version I tested was only usable up to about 15 feet away from the faucet. The smaller diameter of the hose also means that I only got about four gallons a minute, less than half of the eight gallons that all of the larger hoses could carry. I also found the very small fittings on the end a bit hard to use: there just isn’t much to grab onto when you're trying to twist a spread head into place.
Why I like it: A hose that coils up when not in use, then uncoils when you turn the water on -- what’s not to like?
Who is it for? Those with small yards and even smaller storage spaces will appreciate the compact coil that the Hosecoil ends up in. Get one of the optional holders, and you can store it in the tightest of sheds or equipment lockers.
Who shouldn’t get it? If you have a yard that needs a lot of water, the low flow of the Hosecoil could be a problem. The way that it never really uncoils completely also makes it a bit awkward to maneuver, as the coils tend to get caught on branches statuary and snoozing dogs.
Pros
- Very tough, well constructed
- Flexible collar prevents kinking at faucet fitting
- Made in USA
- One of the lowest prices of tested hoses
Cons
- No hand grips
- Heavy to drag around
The Gilmor Flexogen has, they claim, eight layers of material in the hose and it feels like it. This is a tough, rigid hose that survived being run over with a car without problems. As well as a decent hose, there are a few nice touches, like a flexible collar that stops the faucet end from getting kinked or damaged if you pull too hard and large, comfortable to turn brass fittings. There are no extended hand grips, though, and all those layers mean the hose is heavier than some: without water, the 25-foot model I tested weighs 3.1 pounds (1.4 kilograms). That’s not as much as the Continental, but it's enough to make it harder to drag. It's very well priced, though: at the time of writing, it's the cheapest of the hoses we tested.
Why I like it: The Flexogen is a tough hose that won’t be bothered by cool temperatures or rough treatment.
Who is it for? Those on a budget will appreciate the low price, and it's made in the USA.
Who shouldn’t get it? The Flexogen is heavy, even when empty, so it can be hard to drag around the yard or to coil up for storage.
What we updated:
May 2025:This article was completely rewritten with a new author, with all-new products, tests and conclusions.
June 2025: After changing authors and testing methodology, we removed a few hose products from the best list to the “other products we tested” section. This is because newly tested hose products took their place on the best list. The following were moved: Teknor Apex Zero-G Hose (former next overall), the Eaduty Hybrid Garden Hose (former best traditional hose) and the Rosy Earth Water Hose (former best durable).
Garden hoses compared
| Product Name | Best For | Durability Score (1-5) | Kink Resistant | Drinking Water Safe | Weight (Empty) lbs/Kg | Available sizes (feet/ft) | Material | Price range | Average price per 100 feet | Warranty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flexilla SwivelGrip | Best pverall and for safe drinking water | 3 | Yes | Yes | 4.2/1.9 | 3, 5, 10, 15, 25, 75, 100 | Hybrid Polymer | $13 to $119 | $1.19 | Limited lifetime warranty |
| Stanley FatMax | Heavy duty use | 4 | Yes | No | 7.5/3.4 | 50, 75, 100 | Latex | $45 to $90 | $0.90 | Limited lifetime warranty |
| Flexihose | Lightweight, Small Spaces | 3 | Moderate | No | 2.5/1.1 | 50, 75, 100 | Polyurethane & PVC | $50 to $90 | $0.90 | Lifetime warranty |
| Dramm Colorstorm | Hot water, heavy use | 4 | Yes | No | 9.9/4.5 | 50, 100 | Rubber | $80 to $186 | $1.86 | Limited lifetime warranty |
| Continental Commercial | Cold temperatures | 4 | Yes | No | 5.2/2.7 | 25, 50, 100 | Rubber | $39 to $90 | $0.90 | Unspecified |
| Hosecoil Standard | Small Yards/Patios | 4 | Moderate | No | 1.4/0.6 | 15, 25 | PolyEther | $30 to $40 | N/A | Limited warranty (2 years) |
| Gilmor Flexogen | Budget Pick | 4 | Yes | No | 3.1/1.4 | 25, 50, 75, 100 | Plastic & Polyester | $28 to $63 | $0.63 | Lifetime warranty |
Buying tips: What to consider when choosing a hose
Kink resistance and flexibility
Hoses get dragged, pulled, twisted and caught on things, so you want one that will keep the water flowing when you do this. Most hoses use more rigid layers inside the hose, such as metal meshes or more rigid plastic to stop the hose from folding over and blocking the water flow. We tested all of these hoses to see how well they kept flowing when twisted and tangled.
Durability
A good hose can stand up to rough treatment, either from being dragged around, getting squished or pulled too hard or from the constant pressure they are under. Being constantly filled with water is also a strain, which can cause washers to fail and layers of the hose material to split. We found that all of these hoses were tough, but some were more resistant to things than others. In particular, some were more resistant to the depredations of hot water than others: the Dramm ColorStorm is the best pick if you think you might need to drain a hot water tank or a toasty hot tub.
Size and weight
The weight of these hoses varied from the feather-like Flexihose to the hefty ColorStorm and Continental. A lighter hose is easier to move and store, from dragging it to the end of the yard and coiling it up in the shed afterwards. One tip here: An empty hose is much easier to move than a full one.
Length
You might assume that the longer, the better, but longer hoses are heavier and more awkward to move and store. Instead, look at the space and think about how you will use it: if your yard is 75 feet long, but you have a sprayer head that can spray water to a bush 25 feet away, you may be fine with a 50-foot hose. Hoses are usually sold at 25, 50 and 75 feet long. However, longer hoses get heavy, especially when they're full of water and are more prone to getting tangled and twisted.
Grips and fittings
Many of the hoses that we tested include shaped and contoured grips. These are great for two reasons: They're more comfortable to hold, and they make it easier to attach them to sprayers and faucets. We’ve all struggled to attach a hose to an older faucet with a dodgy thread on the end and have used a wrench to tighten it. Hoses with a wider grip let you apply more force with your hands alone. It also means those with limited grip or strength can still use them.
Material and potability
Modern hoses are made from various materials, from the rubber of the Continental and Dramm hoses to the more flexible Polyether of the Hosecoil. Most are formed on a metal mesh that provides strength and rigidity.
Of all the hoses we tested, only the Flexzilla is labeled as safe to carry drinking water (the technical term is potable). “Potable water” is a term used by the US Environmental Protection Agency when drinking water meets federal standards for safe consumption. Materials like rubber and polyethylenes may contain lead -- making it dangerous to drink water from them. That might not sound like a problem for most uses such as watering plants or bushes. But if you want to fill your kid's pool, wash the dog or water your vegetable garden, it's best to use safe, drinkable, lead-free water.
How we test garden hoses
We ran several tests to find how well these hoses performed:
- How quickly they could dispense water
- How prone they are to kinking and folding when empty
- How prone they are to kinking and folding when full
- Ease of use
- How well they stand up to the elements and damage
Water dispense test
To test how much water they could handle, we measured how long they took to fill a 5-gallon bucket, then determined the gallons per minute of flow. Of course, this depends on the water's pressure, but the testing was done on a standard domestic water faucet with a pressure of about 45 psi, which is typical for a US home water supply.
The Flexihose before turning on the water
Flexihose after the water is turned on
Kink test
Next, we tested how prone the hose was to kinking by putting it in a tight curve to see if it kinked and blocked the water flow. We also pulled the hose tightly against the edge of a brick wall to see if it kinked or folded over.
The kink test for the Dramm Colorstorm
The kink test for the Gilmor Flexogen
The Continental Commercial really held up during the kink test.
Ease of use test
We also evaluated how easy the hose was to use, considering how easy it is to connect sprayers or other devices and how easy the other end is to attach to a standard faucet. The weight of the empty hose was also considered: a lighter hose is easier to move and store, even when it's full of water.
We loved the Flexzilla swivel feature.
Destructive testing
Finally, we did some more destructive testing: I persuaded my wife to drive over the hoses with her car to see if the pressure damaged or split them. She did this when the hose was both empty and full to see if any leaks developed. Finally, she drove over the metal end of the hoses to see if the metal end was cracked or bent out of shape. All survived these tests, although the plastic grip of the Flexzilla did crack.
We didn’t test burst pressure because it isn’t relevant to home garden hoses. All these can handle several hundred pounds per square inch of pressure, which is far more than you’ll ever encounter in a home water system. Commercial hoses must handle this kind of pressure, but they aren’t designed for commercial use.
I tested the durability and destructibility by running these hoses over with my car.
Other garden hoses we tested
The Zero-G Hose from Teknor Apex will work well for casual use around your home, but it should also be able to handle a more involved landscaping project. Unlike expandable fabric hoses, the Zero-G doesn't expand or retract, so there's no shrinking sensation that you have to accommodate for. The exterior stays damp a little longer than rubber hoses, however.
The is about as traditional a garden hose as you can get. There's very little about its design or construction that feels unique. That isn't a problem, however, because water flowed freely and its plastic twist grips on the ends made it easy to get the hose on and off a spigot with minimal effort.
With a stainless steel design, the is an unusual contender in the garden hose category. And while it might not be the right hose for everyone, its minimal footprint and ability to never kink makes it superior to a common rubber or fabric hose in a number of use cases. The Rosy Earth Water Hose never got overly tangled, so it always uncoiled quickly and was speedy to manually roll up -- that aspect was great. It isn't the tidiest pick, though. The metal exterior did cause the hose to be a bit slippery against itself and that, in turn, made it a challenge to keep the thing neat and orderly during storage.
The Briggs and Stratton Rubber Garden Hose seemed like it could be a long-term workhorse based on its performance. If you do have a more challenging environment where you need a hose to work constantly, this one is a solid option. It can perform in extreme temperatures, but most importantly, if something does happen to it, the hose has a lifetime warranty. Though it had great performance, the 10-pound hose is on the heavy side, it was bulky to manually roll up, and it didn't have the nicety of twisting handle grips for screwing the end on and off a spigot.
The Giraffe Tools Hybrid Garden Hose was similar to the Eaduty hose but didn't stand out in any way from that option. It was perfectly fine, but we didn't care for the way the plastic twist grips didn't stay attached to the ends. Plus, it has a high retail price of $55.
We will be sure to update this best list with other tested products throughout the summer season.
FAQs
What's the difference between a garden hose and a hosepipe?
A garden hose and a hosepipe are the same thing, only two different ways to refer to the product known as a “hose.” According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, “hosepipe” is common in British English and “garden hose" is the more common term in most regions throughout the US.
What are garden hoses made of?
Modern hoses use a variety of materials, including Polyurethane, polyvinyl Chloride and other combinations of polymers. Most also include a metal mesh inside the walls to add rigidity. The ends are usually made out of brass, because that doesn’t rust or change shape with temperature.
Are garden hoses safe for drinking water?
Unless they are specifically marked as being safe for drinking water, no. The technical term is potable, as in safe to put into a cooking pot. That’s because the materials they are made of can leach small amounts of lead or other unsafe chemicals into the water, especially if the hose is filled with water for some time. The exception is the Flexzilla, which can be used for potable water.
Are garden hoses safe to leave out in winter?
No. Water expands when it freezes, so a hose left out in winter with any water in it could burst. The polymer materials most people use also becomes brittle in cold temperatures. The Continental Commercial is made of rubber, which is more tolerant to the cold, but even this one isn’t guaranteed to survive winter, so don’t forget to drain the hose and bring it indoors before Winter.
Can garden hoses carry hot water?
Most of these hoses aren’t suitable for carrying hot water, as their materials become soft and prone to bursting when filled with hot water. The exception is the Dramm ColorStorm, which is rated to carry water up to a temperature of up to 165 F (about 75 C), so it can handle water from your hot faucet.
When is the best time to buy a garden hose?
Prices tend to increase during the summer months due to the weather, so it's best to buy a new hose in spring or fall, when the prices aren't at their peak.
What does a garden hose's thread size mean?
A garden hose's thread size refers to the end connection piece. A larger connection size will allow more water through. For residential use in the United States, 5/8 of an inch is the most common thread size.
How long of a garden hose do I need?
Most garden hoses come in multiple lengths, ranging from 25 feet to 100 feet or more. An appropriate length for most homes is 50 feet, but you might want something longer depending on the size and layout of your yard, garden or whatever other area you're planning to use it in. If your garden hose is too long, it could lower the water pressure you'll get out of it, so try to avoid getting a hose that's longer than necessary.
What different types of garden hoses are there?
The most common types of garden hoses are vinyl, rubber, expandable, pre-coiled polyurethane and metal. Each of these different hose types can be used for a variety of tasks, but each of these has areas it's best used for.
Expandable and pre-coiled polyurethane tend to be more fragile and better suited to light gardening, while rubber and metal hoses can withstand more abuse and prolonged exposure to natural elements.
