Best Garden Hose: If you’re looking for the easiest and cheapest way to keep your garden lush, your car clean, and your sprinkler a-sprinkling—or you just need an elongated water source to let your kids play with on a hot summer day—then the lightweight Flexzilla Garden Hose is your best bet. It’s safe, durable, and far more flexible than any other hose we tested.

Don’t be fooled by the Flexzilla’s ectoplasmic coloring—its hose and fittings are both made from the same proprietary materials that the company uses for its other industrial-grade offerings. This slinky hose is nearly impossible to kink or break, it lies flat when you unroll it (the material has no “memory” of its coiled state), and its light weight and flexibility make it easy and comfortable to coil up at the end of the day. One drawback is its potential to show dirt or develop moldy patches, but that’s an issue you can control by storing it under shelter.

Best Garden Hose Reel

All garden hoses are not created equal. While generally referred to as garden hoses, hoses like these are designed for a multitude of uses, many of which have nothing to do with a garden. On this list you’ll find hoses for connecting an RV to a potable water source, watering hanging planters, washing a vehicle, janitorial operations, watering a lawn or garden, or even feeding/watering livestock. The hoses listed here are some of the best available for any type of use. Check out some of our top picks below, or scroll down for more in-depth reviews of these and other options, plus buying advice.

Best Expandable Garden Hose

Virtually all hoses will kink, even the kink-proof kind. The best way to prevent kinks is to use a hose reel—this allows the hose to roll-up, or unroll, 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. This can be avoided 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 NSF (National Sanitation Foundation). Ordinary, or unapproved, hoses can leach lead, BPA, or phthalates into the water as it passes through them.

The hoses on this list have been thoroughly vetted and evaluated by our test editors. We research the market, survey user reviews, speak with product managers and engineers and use our own experience with these hoses to determine the best options. We evaluated them based on dry weight, friction when dragged, kink resistance, as well as the 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. The 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. If you need a new hose, chances are very good that you’ll find one to suit your needs on this list.

Best Garden Hose Nozzle

The NeverKink Pro Farm & Ranch, from Teknor Apex’s commercial line, features a spring collar to prevent kinking at the faucet, large-diameter aluminum couplings, and patented anti-kink technology. It is not kink-proof however—it could kink when dragged from a coil on the ground while hot, and soft, from sitting in the sun. It was easier to use on hard surfaces, taking 7.8 pounds of force to drag to full extension, at 50 feet, on the concrete sidewalk—on grass it took 32 percent more force. The couplings were easy to connect tightly and proved to be crush resistant when running over with a truck. The NeverKink Pro is a heavy-duty hose that will move a lot of water quickly and stand up to rough conditions.

Gilmour’s Professional Rubber Hose is a beast. At 11 pounds for a 50-foot hose, it’s heavier than most, but it’s made from 100 percent virgin rubber. It is flexible in a wide temperature range, rated for hot water up to 180°, and it has the highest flow rate of all the hoses we tested. The force to drag it to full extension, 50 feet, on concrete was 12.3 pounds, and 13.4 pounds on the grass. This is to be expected, though, as this hose is designed to move a lot of water and hold up to commercial use—expect this rubber hose to last for years with proper care. The Professional Rubber Hose is ideal for janitorial operations, washing down equipment—especially in winter—and anyplace you need to reach with hot water.

Best Garden Hose 2018

Although it’s made of the same materials, Water Right’s 600 Series delivers more than twice as much water as its 7/16-linch 400 Series. While it doesn’t feel light like the 400, it actually is light for a 5/8-inch hose that can deliver over 540 gallons per hour. It has nicely machined and chrome-plated, brass couplings, strain-relieving collars at each end to prevent kinks, and just like the 400, this hose is safe for drinking water. In our drag test, it took 8.6 pounds of force to pull the hose out to its full 50-foot length on concrete, while it took 12.3 pounds to do the same on the grass. The 600 Series is relatively easy to handle and stays flexible through a wide range of temperatures. It is designed for any type of garden or lawn watering task, but also works well for watering pets and livestock, RV hook-ups, and just about anything else you need a hose for.