The Best Garden Hoses in 2026

Gardening season is officially upon us, and if your old hose is looking sad and tired after the long winter, it’s the perfect time to upgrade. The best garden hoses are lightweight and flexible, with durable designs that stand up to wear and tear for all of your outdoor needs, whether you’re caring for your plants or watering your lawn. They’re especially effective when paired with one of the best garden hose nozzles.

After testing 17 options and speaking with John Jors, a Florida master gardener and volunteer groundskeeper at the 35-acre Bonnet House Museum and Gardens in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, we picked the eight best hoses. The Dramm ColorStorm Garden Hose is our best overall pick, a perfect, mid-weight hose with impressive durability and fast flow rates. For a large yards, we recommend the Flexzilla 100-Foot Garden Hose, an extra-long hose that’s surprisingly lightweight.

You can read more about how Business Insider tests home products here.

Top picks for the best garden hoses

Best overall: Dramm ColorStorm Garden Hose – See at Amazon

Best budget: Continental Black Water Hose – See at Amazon

Best extra-long: Flexzilla 100-Foot Garden Hose – See at Amazon

Best stainless steel: Tardigrade Steel Hose – See at Amazon

Best drinking-water safe: Water Right 500 Series Polyurethane Garden Hose – See at Amazon

Best lightweight: Teknor Apex Zero-G – See at Amazon

Best expandable: Flexi-Hose Expandable Hose – See at Amazon

Best heavy-duty: Eley Polyurethane Garden Hose – See at Eley

Best overall

Dramm’s hose aced our tests. The Dramm ColorStorm Garden Hose was the clear winner in all of our tests. Although it was the heaviest of all the hoses we tried, it excelled in other areas, from ease of use to kink resistance to flow rate. 

Both the material and design make it a high-performing, reliable hose. Jors told us he personally prefers a high-quality rubber hose: “If properly stored, preferably on a reel, and drained after every use, it should last a very long time and make for happy gardening.” This hose is made from thick rubber and has angled rather than smooth sides, which prevent it from kinking and bending.

It won’t kink. The rubber bounces back easily no matter how you twist it, bend it, or step on it, so all you really have to focus on while watering is dragging the hose in the right direction. After multiple rounds of being slammed against concrete and thrown about, the nickel-plated brass fittings held up well, with no warping or dents. 

It has a fast water flow. It fit very securely and tightly on my water connection, and it had the quickest water flow of all the hose contenders: 10.91 gallons per minute. That makes it especially valuable for tasks like filling up a pool or large bucket. If you have a lot of ground to water, the Dramm hose will make the chore go by quickly. 

We think it’s worth the price. While it’s more expensive than the average hose, the investment is well worth it. Watering your garden or washing your car becomes significantly more pleasant, and you won’t have to replace it because of hose body damage or frequent kinking. On top of that, it comes in bright colors that make backyard chores a little more fun. 

Best budget

You get more than what you pay for with this hose. It’s hard to find a cheap hose that doesn’t compromise some features, be it durability, kink resistance, or weather resistance. For the most part, what you pay for is what you get in the hose department. There is one exception: the Continental Water Hose. It’s not dirt-cheap, but it is more affordable than all of our other picks, and it performs very well. 

The hose is heavy, rugged, and durable. It has a thick rubber body and strong solid brass fittings that held up to repeated attacks against concrete. Overall, it provides a smooth and relatively easy watering experience because it fits tightly over the water connection and doesn’t kink or bend. The most difficult part is dragging around the 12 pounds of weight. 

It’s nearly as good as our best overall pick. Its flow rate is pretty good — 8.57 gallons per minute — which is a little slower than our top pick, the Dramm hose. While I’d say the two hoses are pretty comparable, the Continental is slightly thicker and less efficient. That being said, these flaws aren’t insurmountable, and I was still satisfied with this budget option. 

This extra-long hose is best for large yards and gardens. If 25- or 50-foot hose options are too short for your property or gardening project, consider the Flexzilla 100-Foot Garden Hose. Flexibility is especially important when dealing with longer hoses, and the main reason we chose this ultra-flexible option as our top extra-long hose. Unlike more rigid hoses we’ve used and tested in the past, the Flexzilla is pliable enough to organize and loop together, maneuver and snake around landscaping obstacles or plants, lay flat without coiling up on its own, and connect to a sprinkler without flopping it over. It also has very little coil “memory,” which makes it really easy to coil back up in the shape or style you prefer without excessive kinking.

It’s very light. The longer your garden hose, the more of an impact its weight has on overall usability. Since any extra weight quickly adds up when coiling for storage — as well as transporting to and from your spigot if you don’t have a hose reel — the 14-pound weight of the Flexzilla is another major benefit. This light weight also requires less effort to drag behind you while watering.

It’s durable, but it’s prone to kinks. We also found the hybrid polymer construction to be durable in regard to abrasions and scuffing. Even after tossing it around the concrete ground and “accidentally” stepping on it throughout the day, we failed to notice any measurable abrasions or other wear and tear. That being said, the overall flexibility of this material does result in a hose that’s more likely to crimp and pinch around corners, unlike a heavier-duty hose with a harder, more rigid sheath around the exterior. Just make sure you’re comfortable compromising a little bit of rigidity in exchange for a lighter, easier to manipulate option.

Best stainless steel

If you’re looking for an extra-durable hose, this is it. When you need complete and utter confidence that nothing will puncture or break your hose, get one made out of steel. The Tardigrade Steel Hose is heavy-duty, with none of the weight or thickness of a rubber hose. I actively and aggressively tried to break it by dragging it across different terrains and jumping on it, but my efforts were futile. Rest assured that common concerns like pets, inclement weather, and thorny, rocky landscapes are no match.

It’s easy to use and move. It’s thinner and denser than a traditional rubber hose, but I found it relatively easy to maneuver around my backyard since it didn’t twist and tangle. The steel body had a nice cool feeling as the water ran through, which also improved my watering experience. Its flow rate, while not as fast as those of the rubber options I tested, was decent at 7.5 gallons per minute. Another pro to consider: The steel construction is UV-resistant, so you can leave the hose outside, and it won’t get damaged by the sun and crack.

But the steel rings pinched my fingers. For flexibility’s sake, the body consists of many rings of stainless steel, which may pinch your fingers as you maneuver the hose. I recommend wearing gloves as a precaution.

Best drinking-water safe

Polyurethane and rubber is the only material for drinking-water safe hoses. If you plan on drinking water out of your garden hose, the Water Right 500 Series Polyurethane Garden Hose is a great option. According to this 2016 study by the Ecology Center, polyurethane and rubber were the only hose materials found not to have elevated levels of lead, bromine, or antimony, making this polyurethane model an easy choice.

It’s easy to carry, store, and use. It’s also extremely lightweight — just 5 pounds for 50 feet of hose — which makes it comfortable to carry and store when not in use. Its sturdy construction provides a really solid, durable feel, and unlike some of the softer, more pliable hoses I tested, it barely lost any flow when stepped on. It also fared well in my abrasion tests, with only some minor cosmetic scuffs after tossing around a concrete walkway. The strain relief collars on either end are always nice to see, protecting the connection ends from harmful and frustrating kinks.

It’s not as flexible as other hoses. Keep in mind that the Water Right 500 Series Polyurethane Garden Hose was a bit less flexible than some of the other hoses we tested and kept its coil memory tighter. That said, if your priority is safe and non-toxic drinking water for you and your family, we consider that a reasonable trade-off.

Best lightweight

This hose weighs only four pounds. Many hoses are made of high-quality plastic, which can add heft and make them more difficult to manage or carry around the yard. The Teknor Apex Zero-G Hose, however, is made of vinyl and weighs a mere four pounds. Its unique vinyl design looks and feels very different from your typical rubber hose. It’s crush-proof, so it didn’t kink when I stood on it or had a heavy object placed on the body. It’s also lead-free, so it’s drinking-water safe if you’re looking for the nostalgia of drinking straight from the hose.

It’s super easy to maneuver. Even when compared to the other lightweight hoses I used, the Zero-G hose is ridiculously light. Unlike other hoses, which are annoying to pull across the yard, the Zero-G hose feels like moving nothing. This also means it’s easy to reel in. The lightweight design of the hose makes it easy to maneuver, so I could easily connect it to my spigot since I wasn’t fumbling with heavy connectors and materials. I noticed some slight leakage around the spigot during testing, but it stopped after I tightened the connection as tight as I could.

It kinks slightly, and it’s covered by a warranty. However, the hose was susceptible to kinking when twisted in a U-shape, though it bounced back into place quickly once released. Teknor offers a five-year warranty, so you can get a replacement if you notice manufacturing errors after normal use.

Best expandable

This lightweight hose expands during use and shrinks back down after. The Flexi-Hose Expandable Hose offers a creative solution for those who don’t like dealing with long and unwieldy hoses. Its unique accordion-style body on the model we tested extends to 50 feet in length during use and quickly shrinks back down to a third of that length when the water is turned off. Unlike many traditional hard-sided hoses, this fabric-covered hose is soft, lightweight, and flexible. Thanks to its unique construction of a latex interior and polyester fabric exterior, it’s also impossible to kink no matter how you twist or bend it.  

It features a built-in control valve. A convenient brass valve lets you control the flow of water without a separate nozzle (although it also includes a multi-spray nozzle with eight settings). This lets you toggle between different water flow options or stop the flow completely, so you don’t waste water as you carry your hose around. The way the hose expands and contracts in your hand when you switch flow options takes some getting used to and may cause a bit of discomfort at first. Be mindful not to drag the hose too far from the water connection when you use the valve, otherwise you’ll be pulled back if the hose contracts. 

The fittings are durable, but the hose body is less durable than other options. These brass fittings are heavy-duty. Unlike the plastic components on some other expandable hoses, they held up fine to our tossing them around on concrete. The fabric exterior isn’t as rugged as traditional hoses, though, so you’ll need to take extra care not to snag it on sharp or pointed objects or landscaping. Overall, this expandable hose is still a smart and effective way to complete all your watering tasks without compromising space.

Best heavy-duty

Heavy-duty hoses withstand the elements. When you’re looking for a hose that will last years and survive everything the elements throw at it, we recommend a heavy-duty hose. These hoses are specifically designed with durable materials to tackle any job you can throw at them. The best heavy-duty hose that I found during testing was the Eley Garden Hose. In fact, it’s the hose that I gravitate to now that I’ve finished testing.

It survived all of my stress tests. I’m doing everything I can to stress test a hose to get a sense of how it will really perform in all conditions over the years. Despite my best efforts to get it to kink or tangle, the Eley Garden Hose stayed strong and showed no signs of damage. After pulling it across the grass, gravel, dirt, and concrete, the body looked as good as new. I also left it outside for weeks, where it faced thunderstorms and a heat wave, yet it still had no damage.

I was most impressed with its kink resistance. When water was flowing, it was actually very difficult to bend the hose to get it to kink. Even when I successfully bent the hose into a U-shape, water still flowed out of the end of the hose. I also stepped on the hose with my full weight, but the water kept flowing.

It’s a bit heavy, and the fittings showed signs of wear. I only had two problems with the Eley Garden Hose during testing. It wasn’t the heaviest hose I tried, but it wasn’t especially light. At 50 feet, it weighs seven pounds, but it’s 14 pounds when filled with water, which took extra effort to drag around my yard. Scratching the fittings on concrete also caused slight damage to the fittings, but this was an issue with most hoses I tried.

It’s backed by a warranty. In the rare case that your Eley hose leaks or rusts due to manufacturing defects, it’s covered by an impressive 10-year warranty. However, there are some conditions, like the warranty doesn’t apply to corrosion or discoloration.

What to look for

Type of hose: Several types of garden hoses are available, so make sure to pick the best option for your garden’s needs.

• Light-duty: These hoses are ideal for smaller tasks, like watering the potted plants on your patio, or compact flower beds in your yard. They’re relatively short and lightweight, and are convenient to coil up and store easily.   
• Standard: Well-suited for general, all-around watering tasks, standard hoses are sturdy enough to handle the wear and tear of frequent use. They’re heavier and typically longer than light-duty options, though, and may benefit from a hose hider or reel for storage. 
• Heavy-duty: Made of thick, durable material, these hoses are rugged enough to be used effectively with pressure washers. This translates to a more expensive hose but also one with a much longer lifespan. 
• Expandable: The lightweight, accordion-style design of these hoses allow them to contract when not in use, and easily expand when water flows through. This flexibility makes them very convenient to store and transport, although the fabric exterior is vulnerable to snags and rips.
• Soaker: Instead of spraying water out of a single outlet, soaker hoses release water through thousands of tiny pores. When laid on the ground throughout your garden bed, they provide a slow, efficient supply of water directly to the base of your plants. These hoses conserve water the best but are less functional than typical garden hoses. 
• Flat: These compact hoses are made of a flexible material that lays flat when empty and expands to full diameter when filled with water. They roll and coil up easily, although they’re not as durable as rigid hoses.

Material: Make sure your hose material is best suited for you and your watering needs. If your property is rough and rocky for example, choose a material that’s durable enough to handle frequent wear and tear. If you plan on drinking out of your hose, go with a rubber or polyurethane option.

• Rubber: This tough, durable material is used in high-quality, heavy-duty hoses and is less likely to kink. It’s expensive though, and heavier than most hose types.
• Vinyl: Less durable than rubber, vinyl hoses are the cheapest and best for light-duty watering jobs. If you don’t want to compromise quality for affordability, look for a hose with both vinyl and rubber construction.
• Polyurethane: This non-toxic material doesn’t leach contaminants, making it safe for drinking out of. It’s also strong and flexible enough to last a long time. 
• Reinforced:  A mesh lining between the layers of a hose adds extra durability, making them less prone to splitting and better-suited to high-pressure applications. 
• Stainless steel: Hoses encased in flexible stainless steel coils provide maximum protection while still remaining flexible and easy to coil up.
• Drinking-water safe: 100% rubber and polyurethane hoses are safe for drinking out of, since they are free of BPA, lead, and other harmful contaminants.

Length: Hose length is important because if it’s too long, you’ll waste energy dragging around extra weight and valuable time coiling it back up. If it is too short, it won’t be long enough to function properly. Consider the size of the area being watered, as well as the distance from the spigot to your sprinkler, car, or garden bed.

Hose diameter: The larger the diameter of your hose, the more water it can provide, but the heavier it gets. If maximum water output isn’t a priority, consider going with a smaller diameter hose for convenience. Garden hoses typically range from ⅜ to ⅝-inches in diameter.

Coupling: These are the threaded components that connect the hose to the spigot on one end and the spray nozzle on the other. Metal couplings are preferred, with brass being the best option overall due to its durability. Plastic couplings are cheaper but are easily broken and are not practical for heavy-duty or frequent use. 

PSI (Pounds per square inch): This determines the amount of pressure the hose can safely handle to avoid bursting or splitting. The best PSI for you ultimately depends on the pressure of the water coming out of your spigot, which can vary, but around 350 PSI is a good all-around number for general home use. If you plan on using your hose with a pressure washer, double check that its PSI is compatible with the PSI of the machine you’re connecting it to.

How we tested garden hoses

We each hose through the same four tests: 

Ease of use: How easy was it to move the hose around, roll it up, and water plants? We rated the difficulty on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being “very easy, barely broke a sweat” and 5 being “very difficult, required significant effort.” 

Durability: We dragged each hose 50 feet across both concrete and grass and hit the fittings on the ground at different angles 50 times. Then we noted any abrasion and other durability issues with the hose body and the fitting. 

Kink resistance: We bent each hose in a tight “U” shape and stepped on each hose — repeating this sequence five times — to see how it snapped back or remained bent. 

Flow rate: We timed how long it took for the hose to fill a two-gallon bucket and recorded the flow rate in gallons per minute. 

Garden hose FAQs

What size hose should you buy? 

While it depends on the size of your lawn and proximity to your water connection, Coulter Lewis, founder of lawn care subscription startup Sunday, said you should consider at least a 50-foot hose. For this guide, we focused on 50-foot hoses, but you can also find most of our options in longer and shorter lengths.

“If your lawn is 500-2,000 square feet, look for a hose that’s 50 feet long. If your lawn is 2,000-5,000 square feet, look for a hose that’s more than 75 feet. For more flexibility, consider buying two shorter hoses or an additional short extension hose to combine when needed,” he advised. 

What’s the best material for a garden hose? 

Most hoses are made from rubber, polyurethane, or vinyl. Jors said, “Rubber tends to be more flexible, but [it’s] also the heaviest. That being said, it’s less susceptible to cuts and will stand up to rocky landscapes.” Polyurethane hoses are lightweight and kink resistant, while vinyl is cheaper but prone to kinking.

As for the fitting — the part that connects your hose to the water source or another hose — you should look for a metal construction. “Faceted brass, nickel-plated, or stainless steel is always recommended. Plastic couplings, although less expensive, do not stand up to heavy-duty use and tend to crack,” said Jors. 

How do you reduce and get rid of kinks in your hose? 

To reduce kinks, look for a strong and flexible hose. Beyond your hose’s construction, Jors recommends using a hose reel to wind the hose and prevent tangles.

Do you need a garden hose nozzle for your hose? 

We definitely recommend adding a hose nozzle to your garden hose. It lets you turn water on and off, saving you water while providing the right pressure and spray for your specific task.

Check out our guide to the best garden hose nozzles.

What’s the best way to store and extend the longevity of your hose?

“Proper storage of your garden hose will extend its life,” said Jors. “I prefer a hose hanger, or in particular a hose reel. It’s important when not in use to keep the hose off the ground, and a hose hanger or hose reel will accomplish this.” Also, empty your hose every time you use it, since standing hot or cold water in the body can harm your hose.

How long should my garden hose last?

It depends on how you use it and how it’s stored, but a garden hose should typically last you at least five years.

What kind of hose lasts the longest?

Hoses made of heavy-duty materials like polyurethane or stainless steel last the longest, provided that they’re properly cared for.