Best garden hose 2024: The top tested hosepipes, kits and reels

A good garden hose is an essential accessory for the garden. They’re helpful for keeping your plants healthy and your grass a luscious green during the summer, and they’re also an absolute must-have if you use a pressure washer to clean your patio, garden furniture or your car.

Garden hoses can even become a necessity when you’re filling a paddling pool, or need water to mix concrete for those bigger DIY projects.

You might think that hoses are all the same – and fundamentally they are – because, at their core, they’re simply conduits for water to flow. But it’s not hard to understand how frustrating it can be for your pressure washer to run dry, or if it takes longer than it should to water your flower beds, when a cheap hose kinks or splits. The best hoses will resist kinking, are durable and are easy to hold, even with wet hands.

There’s a wide range of hoses on the market: from the most simple pipe, to ones that can be stowed in a wheeled cart, or on a reel which can be mounted to the wall of your house or garage. In this buyers guide, we cover the best garden hoses.

Best garden hose kit: At a glance

• Most versatile hose and reel set: Gardena Classic Wall-Fixed Hose Reel 50 Set | £64
• Top-value hose cart for larger gardens: Hozelock Assembled Hose Cart | £69 
• Best super-sturdy hose and reel set: Gardena CleverRoll M Easy Metal Set | £122

Jump to: Best garden hose kit

Best garden hose: At a glance

• Best everyday hose: Gardena Comfort Flex Hose | £43
• Best sprinkler hose: Draper 15m Soaker Hose | £15
• Sturdiest hose: Hozelock Tuffhoze 25m | £54
  

Jump to: Best garden hose

How to choose the best garden hose for you

There are three main options when you’re choosing a garden hose.

You can buy a traditional O-shaped hosepipe on its own. These often represent the cheapest option, but you’ll need somewhere to store it or hang it out of the way to avoid it getting trampled and damaged.

Because of this, many buyers choose the second option: a reel or kit. These aren’t necessarily much more expensive than a bare hose, but they’ll ensure you can store your hose neatly away. Some are supplied in a reel, others in a cart (a reel with wheels and a handle), or with a bracket to be wall-mounted out of the way. Whichever version of these you choose, you’ll need an extra length of hose to connect the reel to your garden tap.

Finally, there’s the fabric-covered hose, which might be the best option for smaller gardens. These are designed to be used without a reel, and expand when water flows through them and contract when you turn off the tap.

What types of hosepipes are there?

For the most part, you get what you pay for with hosepipes. Usually, the more a hose costs, the more layers it’ll have, and that makes for a tougher hose that’ll last much longer. Cheaper hoses tend to use fewer layers and a higher vinyl content, while more expensive hoses tend to have a composite construction, blending vinyl with polyurethane and rubber, and often reinforced by a nylon or metal mesh. Despite their toughness, they’re generally more flexible, yet still resistant to kinking.

Unless you’re a commercial grower, you don’t need to go too high-end, but investing in a better-quality hose will get you something that lasts longer, and won’t leave you swearing every time you have to walk back from a distant border to find out why there’s no water coming through – while we’ve yet to see a fully kink-proof hose, we’ve seen plenty that will kink at the slightest opportunity.

There are a few other hose types worth looking out for. Rubber hoses tend to be kink-resistant and durable but are expensive and can perish and crack if left in heat and sunlight. Rubber is also used in some expandable hoses, which are designed to fit into a compact reel for storage, but stretch to allow you to move around the garden. We’re also seeing a new generation of fabric hoses, which usually combine rubber, vinyl and nylon with a tough, resilient fabric for extra strength and anti-kink protection.

Then there are fully steel hoses that are perhaps the strongest of them all. Durable and kink-resistant, these hoses make for a hardy investment, especially since they are generally weatherproof. They won’t freeze, nor will they heat up the water in the hose and damage its internals, like rubber hoses can do; however, this is mainly an issue for people living in more extreme climates.

Finally, there are soaker hoses, which work in a different way to a normal hose. These are meant to be laid permanently in a bed or border and have holes in them by design, allowing water to dribble out or sprinkle across the area. This is great for watering a thirsty rose bed, vegetable plot, or herbaceous border, as you only need to turn on the tap, but it does mean having multiple pipes ready for action, rather than just the one.

Pipes will usually have specs detailing their maximum, or “burst”, water pressure and boasting of their protection against weather, kinking and frost, but the one most worth paying attention to is the guarantee. If a pipe’s guaranteed for 15, 20, or 30 years, then that’s a good sign it’s built to last – as long as you take care of it, of course.

What length of hose should I buy?

Basically, buy enough to get the sprinkler in range of your furthest bed or border. Any less and you’ll need to get busy with the watering can. Any more and you’ll have excess hose to store, and you’ll also see a reduction in water pressure – the farther the water has to travel, the lower this will be.

Is there anything else worth looking out for?

We’re also seeing more manufacturers throwing in brass connectors, which are great if they’re well-engineered – they’re strong and last forever – but the cheap and nasty ones are a pain, and you’ll end up wasting your precious time trying to get a badly threaded brass connector onto your garden tap, or wondering why the click-in connector doesn’t fit the socket.

When you’re buying a hosepipe, remember to budget for any extras you’re going to need. Most kits come with a spray nozzle, which will be fine for watering most things, but you might also want a spray gun for watering the greenhouse, and one-way, two-way or threaded Hozelock connectors for joining two pipes together, or for attaching your hosepipe to the tap.

READ NEXT: The best garden sprinklers to buy

Editor’s picks

The best garden hose reels or kits you can buy in 2024

1. Gardena Classic Wall-Fixed Hose Reel 50 Set: The most versatile hose and reel set

Price when reviewed: £64 | Check price at AmazonThis Gardena hose and reel set is designed to be used in two ways: you can attach it to the wall using the bracket supplied, or you can remove the reel from the wall and carry it for use around the garden. It’s reasonably light, even with 20m of Gardena Classic hose attached, but also solidly built – the reel feels nice and stable on the ground or wall-mounted, and features a handle you can hold while you’re reeling in the hosepipe. What’s more, the hose provided is more robust than many cheaper ones, combining plastics with a textile reinforcement and backed up by a 12-year warranty. If you’ve got a small-ish garden, you couldn’t ask for a better reel set.

Key specs – Length: 20m; Weight: 4.58kg; Wall mount: Yes

2. Hozelock Assembled Hose Cart with 50m Hose: Top-value hose cart for larger gardens

Price when reviewed: £69 | Check price at AmazonWatering can be a drag when you’ve got a long garden, especially if all your taps are at the house end. A hose cart makes things a whole lot easier – you can wheel it out, unspool your hose, give everything a water, then reel the hosepipe in again for easy storage. The only downside is that you need to wind it back in using your own muscle power.

This Hozelock reel is a solid, inexpensive option. It will take up to 60m of hosepipe, and you can buy it with 20m or 30m or, as in our test kit, 50m. The plastic cart isn’t as rugged as the Gardena CleverRoll M, and the multi-purpose hose provided isn’t as tough or kink-resistant as Hozelock’s superior Tricoflex Ultramax, but so long as you take a little care and wind it all up after watering, you’ll be fine and there’s a lot of cart and hosepipe for the money.

Key specs – Length: 50m; Weight: 4.58kg; Wall mount: Yes

3. Hozelock Compact 2-in-1 Reel with 25m Hose: The best-value hose reel kit

Price when reviewed: £50 | Check price at AmazonHozelock makes several appearances on our list, and with good reason: they are a top-quality brand. This particular 2-in-1 is a good alternative to the cart model above, offering an affordable hose and reel combo that won’t take up more room than necessary. The reel’s handle is large and easy to turn, and the closed-in casing design offers an extra level of protection against everyday wear and tear. The carry handle is a nice touch and, although getting the hose and reel set up is a bit fiddly the first time around, this Hozelock is one of the simplest kits to use in a small to medium-sized garden. For under £50, the Compact 2-in-1 is a great choice.

Key specs – Length: 25m; Weight: 5.2kg; Wall mount: Yes

4. Gardena CleverRoll M Easy Metal: The best super-sturdy hose and reel set

Price when reviewed: £122 | Check price at AmazonGardena’s hosepipes have a reputation for being particularly sturdy, with its Comfort Flex and SuperFlex hosepipes being frost-proof, UV-proof, and good for pressures up to 25 or 35 bar. Gardena even guarantees them for 20 and 30 years, respectively. Grab the AquaRoll M EasyMetal reel set and you get 25m of Flex pipe along with a reel that’s every bit as tough. It comes with all the connectors you need and a Gardena spray nozzle.

The reel disks are formed from pressed metal, and it’s held up on two beefy wheels and a sturdy metal kickstand. With the kickstand down, the reel won’t move while you’re unspooling the hosepipe and the fold-out crank makes it easy to roll it back in again. Once it’s out, the tough, kink-resistant hose manages to stay flexible without twisting all over the shop. It’s expensive, but if you find your hosepipe keeps kinking, or never lasts more than a year, this beefy set should sort out your problems.

Key specs – Length: 25m; Weight: 10kg; Wall mount: No

5. Hozelock Superhoze 15m Kit: The best hose kit for smaller gardens

Price when reviewed: £33 | Check price at AmazonLooking for a quick and easy way to water a terrace or small garden? Preferably one that stores neatly away when not in use? Look no further than the Hozelock Superhoze, the firm’s own take on the expandable fabric hose, supplied here in a compact plastic box with everything you need to get watering. It’s hard to believe that what looks like a pile of wrinkled yellow cloth can transform into a 15m hosepipe, but it does. And it’s surprisingly tough and resistant to kinking and pinching, as long as you don’t let it get into any knots. What’s more, it’s supplied with good-quality Hozelock connectors and a nozzle to keep the water flow nice and steady. Once you’re done, just leave it to empty and it will return to its normal shrunken state. Lightweight and convenient, this is the perfect starter hose. And you can always buy it in the larger 30m or 40m sizes if you need more reach.

Key specs – Length: 15m; Weight: 0.98kg; Wall mount: No

6. Hozelock Auto Reel with Hose: The best wall-mounted hose kit

Price when reviewed: £108 | Check price at WickesWall mounted hoses are ideal if you value convenience and don’t fancy a hose cart laying around, cluttering up your garden. Simply bolt it to the wall using the supplied screws and plugs, and away you go. Hozelock’s Auto Rewind Reel boasts more usability than most. At 30 metres, it’s long enough for most gardens, and its auto-rewind function makes packing it away really easy – simply give the hose a tug and it’ll wind itself in. A slider inside the reel ensures the hose is coiled neatly, with no tangling, although we discovered it retracts far more smoothly if the water supply is turned off.

The reel pivots 180-degrees, so you can angle the hose to where you need it, and is supplied with a feeder hose which can also be coiled around a hidden panel to keep things tidy. The included nozzle and fittings can also be stowed in hidden cubbies or on mounts so they don’t get lost. Plus there’s a child lock and, while the reel can be removed and sat on the ground as required, it has a padlock slot to keep light-fingered waterers at bay. The hose itself resists kinking well and we found it resilient to being stood on.

Key specs – Length: 30m; Weight: 11.1kg; Wall mount: Yes

Check price at Wickes

The best garden hosepipes you can buy in 2024

1. Fitt 30m Heavy Braided NTS WinTech Hose: The best budget hosepipe

Price when reviewed: £40 | Check price at ScrewfixIf you’re after something cheap, robust and functional, then this budget hosepipe from Screwfix is the best we’ve come across. It’s as tough as old boots, combining polyester and PVC with a knitted reinforcement that works to halt twisting and knotting, while anti-algae protection and an anti-UV treatment mean you don’t have to treat it with kid gloves. While the one-year warranty doesn’t inspire much confidence, don’t let that put you off – with some decent fittings or a reel to store it on, this hose could last you years.

Key specs – Length: 50m; Accessories supplied: None; Warranty: 1 year

Check price at Screwfix

2. Gardena Comfort Flex Hose: The best everyday hosepipe

Price when reviewed: £43 (30m), £70 (50m) | Check price at AmazonIt’s not as cheap as Gardena and Hozelock’s entry-level hosepipes, but Comfort Flex is definitely worth paying the extra for. The construction balances flexibility with a pressure- and kink-resistant spiral mesh that keeps the hose in shape. Meanwhile, the orange strips running along the surface have a special ‘powergrip’ texture that makes connectors a little tricky to get on, but a whole lot more difficult to get off, meaning your pipe won’t slip off the tap or two-way connector, even under strain. With a 20-year warranty behind it, this is a superior hosepipe for everyday use.

Key specs – Length: 15m, 30m or 50m; Accessories supplied: None; Warranty: 20 years

3. Draper 15m Soaker Hose: The best sprinkler hose

Price when reviewed: £15 | Check price at AmazonDraper Tools’ Soaker hose is little more than a simple, plain black tube, but that hardly matters as it’s a reliable garden sprinkler hose that does a great job of distributing water evenly and across a large area, making it ideal for allotments or large patches of garden. However, although the hose has a good number of holes and can cover large sections of lawn, the size of the holes isn’t always consistent. It’s a minor flaw for the price, but if you want a sprinkler hose that distributes water perfectly, you’ll have to cough up a lot more for a premium model.

Key specs – Length: 15m; Accessories supplied: Two 1/2″ hose connectors, one with water stop; Warranty: 12 months

4. Hozelock Tricoflex Ultramax: The best high-tech hosepipe

Price when reviewed: £47 (30m), £72 (50m) | Check price at AmazonThis hosepipe is a slight step up in terms of outlay compared to others on this list, but you can really feel the difference in quality. The five-layer construction feels light and flexible yet incredibly robust, with TNT anti-twist technology that stops it twisting under pressure. It has impressive resistance to kinking, crushing and knotting, even when it’s being dragged around the garden or dropped in a heap. What’s more, the ribbing on the surface makes it easy to grip and more effective at holding connectors securely in place. Throw in anti-UV and anti-frost protection, plus a 25-year guarantee, and you’ve got a hosepipe that’s ideal for larger gardens, especially if you team it with a decent reel.

Key specs – Length: 30m or 50m; Accessories supplied: None; Warranty: 25 years

5. Hozelock Tuffhoze 25m: The roughest, toughest hose in town

Price when reviewed: £54 | Check price at AmazonTuff by name and tough by nature, this is effectively a rugged version of Hozelock’s expanding Superhoze. It’s a hybrid effort, combining a woven textile jacket with a more traditional PVC dura-tech core, and the result is a hosepipe that stays free of kinks as it’s pulled around the garden and that’s also incredibly strong – burst-resistant even with over 40 bar of pressure. As a bonus, it packs away neatly in a box, on a reel, or over a hook. The one downside is that you can’t cut into it, so you’re limited to the ready-made lengths, but Hozelock provides it with rock-solid Aqua Stop metal connectors which are also built to last. Needless to say, it’s pricey stuff, but if you’re in need of some super-powered hosepipe, this is the one to buy.

Key specs – Length: 25m; Accessories supplied: 2 x Metal Aqua Stop connectors; Warranty: 30 years

6. Wickes Garden Hosepipe – 30m: The best value garden hose

Price when reviewed: £15 | Check price at WickesWorking out at just 50p per metre, this dark blue hose from Wickes is by some distance the cheapest on our list. Okay, it doesn’t come with fittings (Wickes supplies its own-brand fittings in a matching blue hue for £5), but it does come guaranteed for ten years against faulty workmanship and materials. This PVC pipe resisted kinking surprisingly well, given the appealing price tag, and 1.6mm wall thickness and polyester reinforcement meant the water flow was unaffected when stood on. We’ve little doubt it’ll stand up to plenty of abuse, but, even if it doesn’t, £15 is a tiny price to pay for a replacement.

Key specs – Length: 30m; Accessories supplied: None; Warranty: 10 years

Check price at Wickes