Garden Hose: Gilmour Flexogen

One thing that most gardeners don't enjoy talking about is watering. Many have irrigation systems, and drip systems are essential where water conservation is a top priority or where the air is extra dry, but for me watering means hoses.

I don't use sprinklers; watering by hand is my hydration method of choice, so that means hoses that get dragged around the garden. At the beginning of the season I had four or five 50 and 75-foot hoses, three of which I use regularly, with the others being kept in the garage as backup. This spring I received a new 50-foot hose from Gilmour for review.

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The first thing I noticed was that this Gilmour Flexogen (that sounds like a classic sci-fi hero name -- Commander Gilmour Flexogen of the Galactic Space Navy!) was a thick hose -- but I'll get to that in a minute. First, the specs on this hose:

It has all of the features that you should look for in a garden hose: kink-proof, durable, flexible even in cold weather.

I started using it as my "regular" hose to water the driveway and patio-area plants in June. Well, I put it out there in June but since it rained almost every day during that month I didn't really start using it until July.

This hose took several days to "relax" from its coiled position, but once it did it was certainly flexible.

Let's compare it to my previous daily-use hose, one that was made by Apex and that I thought was quite good -- having the same claims as the Flexogen:

(I think this is the model that I have from Apex, although mine is several years old. I could be wrong though -- Apex has so many models!)

You can see that the Flexogen (grey one) is much thicker. Surprisingly though it's not much heavier. I've never really worried about the weight of garden hoses, since I drag them around while they're filled with water -- the weight of the hose itself is nothing compared to the water's heft. This one is a reasonable weight.

This hose has not kinked or tangled for me yet, and I routinely test this by coiling it "wrong" and pulling it from the bottom:

One feature that I prefer on the old Apex hose is the beefy brass coupling:

The large size of the old hose's coupling makes it so easy to attach and detach, but the Flexogen (on the left) has a decent coupling -- it's just not as good as the old hose's. I've been using a quick-release coupling anyway (not shown here) so I don't have to worry about screwing or unscrewing very often.

Gilmour also sent me a spray nozzle...

...which I found to be extremely sturdy...

...but also nearly worthless to me since it's intended for cleaning:

I did use it to wash my truck this summer and it worked fine, but for my plant watering tasks it is not appropriate.

Nice that Gilmour is a Peoria, Illinois company (Peoria is sort of regional, located between St. Louis and Chicago)...

... and that the hose is manufactured in this country. (So many warnings though!)


I'll have to use this hose for another few years before I know if it lives up to its claims -- will it start kinking next year? In two years, or three?  For now though this Gilmour Flexogen is a great hose that I'll be using for another few weeks at least, and it will be the first one I'll pull out next summer.


Note that I received the hose and nozzle at no cost, but I was not compensated in any other way for this review. That's standard for all of my reviews.

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