Apex 888VR-100 Professional Duty Garden Hose, 5/8-Inch by 100-Feet

If you are a looking for a general purpose hose for your yard, this is not the hose for you. The Professional Duty in the name tells you this a hose for serious work. You want a 5/8" hose, that's the norm for a yard.This is a big full 3/4" hose". The larger diameter will flow more water than the smaller hoses, great for jobs that needs lots of water as quick as possible. This is a hose for high flow needs, fill up a pool or use a pressure washer where the extra water flow can be a time saving/labor benefit. The extra flow is not really all that noticeable for typical yard and car cleaning watering needs.The hose is super HEAVY, it feels twice as heavy as a typical hose. This is to be expected that.as it is a large diameter hose, so there's more material to make that larger hose. Its also a tougher material than a home hose to stand up to job sites, so that adds weight.The hose is very stiff, even on the hottest day in full summer sun. It will not bend well and Kinks on itself constantly. It's not easy to un-kink with a tug either, you need to walk to the kink and fix it. Its also difficult to drag around and a real pain to coil backup as it does not bend/flex like smaller hoses. Its a difficult hose to use in a yard. This hose is meant to be left in place without much movement.This hose sites in my shed by the pressure washer and is used only for specific jobs. Otherwise for the yard and car washing chores, I use my 36 year old Sears Craftsman rubber 5/8" hose which seldom kinks. It's a bit heavier than a similar diameter vinyl hose, but works as expected and is still leak free strong after 36 years.

The first issue - the gasket/washer inside the female end needs to be replaced right away. It's a pretty heavy hose, but they use a dainty white washer suitable for a small 1/2" hose. I suggest the o-ring style, which ensures a watertight connection. Your local big box home improvement store will have these. Buy a bunch, they are handy to keep around. The thicker red rubber washers are also good.Second - these are aluminum fittings, coated to look like brass. Aluminum will corrode and is more easily bent than brass.They are light duty. They'll be fine if you're not taking the hose off and on all the time.Third - very stiff hose in temperatures below about 65. This will work best on a hose reel where you can straighten the hose out and reel it back in straight.Fourth - the strain relief coil at the supply end of the hose is pretty much eye candy. It looks nice, but is too thin to protect much. The stiffness of the hose will help prevent kinking at the supply more than the spring coil will.The good news is that the flow rate is very good, as it should be for a 3/4" hose. And it's not a bad value for the price, but it's more of a heavy duty homeowner hose than it is a professional contractor hose.

I was trying to replace the best hose ever which happens to be the APEX brand. It is black and has a yellow stripe so I thought this might be the hose. The old one is almost like a rubber hose. It is a truly amazing hose. This one is good, but not amazing. It is heavy duty, it doesn't kink, but it's almost to heavy and doesn't have the flexibility of the rubber hose that I inherited. This one is better than the average hose you will buy, but it's not the best. Still hoping to find the black wonderful APEX hose I thought this might be. That thing is amazing and has lasted for YEARS.

Update, now been 5 years and all these same hoses (I bought several) are just fine and dandy, no leaks but tiny dribbles from some of the female ends but only sometimes, fittings in great shape. I leave them out in the field in sun and snow and still little if any deterioration. Went to 5 stars as the way I treat these hoses having lasted 5 years now and looking like many more years to go.Have had no problems with this brand and model of hose, good price and larger diameter has better flow since I sometimes need 600'. Here it is 2 yrs later. Hoses themselves are great, don't kink, robust. As other reviewers have said...yes replace the gaskets and yes the female ends leak, for me just a little and it hasn't been an issue, and yes...solid brass (no). But hey, still compared to OTHER hoses out there these still rate a 4 star for my use.

Quality hose but probably best for farm, garden or other use where you can leave it stretched out. Took a long time to get the"coils" out of it during first use and I had to lay it in the sun for awhile. Still, a great price and it certainly tough enough for what I am using it for. Stiff in could weather. Heavy. Quality brass ends.Well.....Let me add a bit more. The second hose I bought had so many kinks in it that it was unbelievable!Even after heating in the sun it took probably half an hour by myself to get the hose to lay flat and for theformerly kinked sections to relax back to normal diameter. This is a hose that you really need two people touncoil when first bought. One at each end to turn the hose every which way to unkink. Yeah, these are heavyquality hoses but you'd better leave them stretched out and not try to coil them for storage. Like I wrote, farm or garden use is where they belong.

Apex 988VR-100 Contractor Work Site Tough 3/4-Inch-by-100-Foot Hose: $63.12 deliveredWhy pay $63.12 for a garden hose? Because hoses that crack, or break-off at the faucet right when they're needed aren't worth it! Bought this after my second cheap hose failed me. This is designed to do its job and let me forget about it. The spring at the faucet end keeps excess force off the swivel at the faucet. The hose is thick and strong. Don't know how well it would wind around a spool. I keep it in long, 10' loops on the ground near the faucet. Doesn't kink on me, probably because following the advice in other reviews, I laid it out flat (after rotating it many times to uncoil it) on my lawn overnight after it arrived. Assuming it winters well, will consider this hose ideal. If it doesn't, I'll update my review.