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Compared two garden hoses and the cheap one actually won
Honestly, I always thought you had to spend big on a garden hose to get one that wouldn't kink or leak. Last month, I bought a $12 hose from the hardware store on Main Street just as a backup for my fancy $60 rubber one. Tbh, the cheap one is lighter, coils up easier, and doesn't leave rust marks on my patio. My expensive one started splitting at the nozzle after just 2 months. I figured paying more meant better quality, but that cheap hose has held up through 4 weekends of heavy use now. Has anyone else found a random bargain item that outlasted the pricey version?
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gavin69211d ago
Wait @davis.ruby, are you saying the brass ends on cheap hoses are thinner? Actually most of the cheap ones I've seen are plastic fittings, not brass. You gotta check before you buy but the plastic ones actually don't oval out because they don't have that problem, they just crack if you crank them too hard.
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davis.ruby23d ago
I wonder if part of it is that cheap hoses are simpler and have less to go wrong since they don't try to be fancy with extra layers or special coatings. My buddy has the same $60 hose you mentioned and his split right at the brass fitting, whereas my $8 one from a discount bin is still going strong after three years of being left out in the sun. Sometimes the expensive ones get overengineered to justify the price and end up failing in weird ways instead of just being a simple tube that moves water. The real test might be how well it drains in winter since that's usually what kills hoses around here, not just regular use.
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Gotta push back on that a bit lol. My neighbor swears by those cheap discount bin hoses too and he's on his third one in two years while my $60 Flexzilla has been bulletproof through four Wisconsin winters. The cheap ones get stiff as a board in cold weather and crack right at the kink points, not just the fittings. Plus the brass ends on the cheap ones are usually thinner and will oval out after a few seasons of cranking them onto a spigot. I think the real issue is people don't drain their hoses properly regardless of price, and that's what kills the expensive ones faster since they hold water in the extra layers.
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