REVIEW – The garden hose is one of those essential household items that you have to have, but can also make you crazy. I swear I go through one every season. Enter the HOMEIDEAS 50 ft Rubber Garden Hose with Nozzle. It’s a little more expensive than typical bargain hoses, but it professes to be made for durability with a flexible, kinkless design. How did it do over a summer of outdoor chores? Let’s find out. To the review!
What is it?
It’s a garden hose designed for long-term durability that also includes 360 degree ball joint connectors for maximum flexibility.
What’s included?
Your package includes the hose, a spray nozzle with 10 different spray patterns, and some extra rubber washers.
Tech specs
Click to expand
3/4″ brass fittings
Supports up to 500 PSI water pressure
Abrasion resistant & crush resistant
Withstands temperatures from -40 degrees to 160 degress Fahrenheit
Approximately 8 pounds total weight
Design and features
I’d like to start by calling out the instruction guide included with the HOMEIDEAS 50 ft Rubber Garden Hose with Nozzle. You don’t need a lot here (it’s a hose, after all) but kudos to HOMEIDEAS for putting a little effort into laying out a guide that includes well-designed graphics and clear instructions.
This hose is designed for durability, and it shows in the build. The 3-layer design is made to be abrasion resistant, crush resistant, and can withstand temperature extremes from -40 dgrees to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. This does result in a much thicker and heavier hose (0.75″ diameter and about 8 pounds total weight), but it also feels much more subtantial than budget hoses I tend to replace every year around my house.
Each end features a heavy textured rubber collar and all-brass fittings, both of which are designed to promote long-term wear and corrosion resistance.
A closer look shows the build shows the thickness in the walls of the fittings, matching the overall beefy build of the hose. Your kit also includes several rubber washers in case you lose one. I’ve included a pic of the fitting with and without the washer inserted for reference below.
The other neat bit here is the ball-joint style connection between the fitting and the hose, which is identical on both the male and female end. This is designed to minimize kinks and maximize flexibility as you use the hose on a regular basis.
A beefy hose wouldn’t be the same without an equally beefy spray nozzle, which is what you’re getting here. This pistol-grip style spray nozzle is built from heavy plastics with a fixed angle that minimizes possible points of failure.
A look up the barrel shows the thick plastics used in the build. You’ll also find another heavy rubber washer at the connection point to the hose here.
As opposed to a trigger mechanism, the HOMEIDEAS 50 ft Rubber Garden Hose with Nozzle uses a thumb slider to control water flow from completely off (at the top of the dial, shown below) to full power. The water flow stays at the level you choose until you slide that lever back to closed (or wherever you want it).
The spray nozzle provides 10 different possible spray patterns marked along the ring of the hose. You dial to the setting you want by grabbing & turning that green collar, which locks in place with a click. The setting you have chosen is then displayed at the top of the nozzle facing you.
Here’s a shot of the build from the business end of the sprayer. Note that there are 8 different spray patterns shown here. The two remaining options shunt the water flow to the inner or outer ring of holes for a shower setting or a tighter spray ring.
When you connect the nozzle to the hose, you’ll find that the nozzle benefits from that 360 degree ball joint as you position and reposition the hose to do the work.
Performance
You can see in the pic below that the drywall in my garage has taken a beating from leaky hoses. My last hose was one of those cheap “collapseable” model that, while super lightweight, would leak everywhere. We ain’t doing that now. The HOMEIDEAS 50 ft Rubber Garden Hose with Nozzle keeps it tight and dry.
Here’s a shot of the hose coiled up on the hose caddy. I should note that this hose is significantly heavier than the hose it replaced, but it still fits nicely in the same spot without a whole lot of extra bulk.
While it is heavier than my old hose, it’s not significantly troublesome to haul around to me. If you’re accustomed to a lightweight hose (or have strength/mobility issues) this may not be for you, however.
The design is such that it is very forgiving if you catch a few loops and swirls while still delivering full pressure on the business end. It is not completely kink-free, but it does take work to kink it to the point where the water won’t flow.
The ball-joint design is lovely for preventing kinks as well. I particularly like that they employed that design on both ends. You can twist and manipulate the nozzle with no issues, and if you’re at the far end of your reach the swivel at the faucet prevents any crimping that reduces pressure.
The spray nozzle design is also excellent. I thought the chunky design would be less easy to work with, but that ball joint makes it flexible and adapatable to get into tight corners.
The iconography is pretty clear, and usability is good. Some of the little icons on the barrel are a might confusing (like “mist” vs. “horizontal fan pattern” vs. “vertical fan pattern”), but not annoyingly so. You also can get a 15-18 foot spray at full power on some settings that extends your effective range.
It’s got all the different settings you might need for watering, cleaning, and assorted chores. Mist, soak, water fans, narrow streams, wide streams, shower mode… it’s all there. I also like that the thumb dial allows you to adjust the flow based on your needs.
An unexpected surprise I discovered was that I could use this hose for my power washer. That ball joint design comes in handy here for connecting to the unit.
It also works really well in practice. The 500 PSI limit is fine for the power washer we have, and we’ve already used it for cleaning the deck and the cars. And by “we” I mean “my son.” He did a fine job, too.
The durability of the hose shines through here in the general design too as he was positioning and repositioning the power washer while doing work. The abrasion resistance and kink resistance came in handy.
I have seen no issues with failures in the first 5-6 weeks of testing. Seals are tight, no issues with bubbles or tears in the hose despite being dragged around the landscaping, and consistent performance overall. We’ll see how it holds up to long term tests!
What I like about the HOMEIDEAS 50 ft Rubber Garden Hose with Nozzle
- Leak proof
- Ball-joint design prevents kinking and ads flexibility
- Beastly durability
- Works for watering and pressure washing
What needs to be improved?
- Durable build makes it heavy
Final thoughts
I may be a little biased given my recent frustrating experiences with cheaper hoses, but the HOMEIDEAS 50 ft Rubber Garden Hose with Nozzle has performed like a champ so far. It may be more than you need for daily light watering work, but it’s a tough and flexible workhorse that can be applied to a variety of tasks. And it’s not too heavy that you can’t drag around the yard unless you have some specific physical limitations.
I also like the price tag on this one. It’s a bit more than a cheap 50 foot hose, but the design & durability improvements make it a worthwhile investment for just a bit more money. It’s going to be bulkier than those collapsable hose designs, but I like the durability factor as a longer-term investment if you have the room for it.
Price: $49.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by HOMEIDEAS. HOMEIDEAS did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
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Garden hose manufacturers/sellers usually mark their products as “drinking water safe” when that is the case, and I see this is not noted with this hose so I assume it does not meet that criterion. In addition to using the hose for RV use, here in earthquake country we should also have emergency water storage so need that design. I like the ball swivel at both ends though, it adds a lot of convenience.
That is a thing I have never heard of! I’ll keep an eye out for that in future reviews!