The Best Hose Nozzle

Anyone who owns a garden hose needs a nozzle. Even if you rarely uncoil the hose and use just one setting, simply having a nozzle to control the water flow makes gardening or cleaning less wasteful and more efficient. Once you start dialing in settings you prefer, they’re quite satisfying. Maybe we simply never outgrew squirt guns, but we think channeling beams of water right where you want them is a lot of fun.

We wanted to find the best all-purpose hose nozzle. That meant finding one that’s easy to use whether you’re hosing off a soapy car, filling up a kiddie pool, or watering some fragile little seedlings. A good hose nozzle needs to be comfortable to hold, easy to control, and versatile.

Durability is crucial. Since a hose nozzle is simply the valve standing between you and a flooded lawn, an empty well, or a massive water bill, it must be able to tolerate some bumps and bruises.

We’ve spent years testing hose nozzles. Mostly, we’ve used them how they’re meant to be used. At multiple houses, we’ve used them to water gardens, clean cars, fill livestock troughs, rinse lawn furniture, and spray down front steps. Kids have cooled off in the mist setting and blasted one another with the jet setting. We’ve dropped the nozzles on pavement, gravel, mud, and rocks, and we’ve run them over with cars (many have not survived). Since our original testing, we’ve continued to use and evaluate our picks—an essential process with hose nozzles, which may show their weaknesses just two or three years into ownership.

In addition to hose nozzles, we’ve extensively tested hoses and hose reels, which you can find in our guide to the best garden hose and hose reel.

We’ve discovered through hard experience that most cheap hose nozzles are simply not worth it. And, honestly, neither are most of the expensive ones. They produce sloppy sprays—and, worse, they can leak. Among full-featured hose nozzles, the best we’ve found is the Melnor R301 RelaxGrip Metal Thumb-Control 8-Pattern Nozzle. Given all of the leaky, poorly made nozzles we’ve tested, we were impressed by the R301’s durability and range of spray patterns, as well as by the quality of those patterns.

It has a wide range of spray patterns. A rotating, clocklike face cycles through seven settings, the most useful being the beam-like jet setting; a kiddie-pool-filling full setting; a gentle, plant-friendly shower setting; and a handy mist setting (which in testing was perfect for succulents and seedlings). The other settings—cone, flat, center, and soaker—saw less action but still came in handy during our tests.

The thumb control adds long-term durability. Where the R301 is different from most other hose nozzles is that it is controlled by a thumb lever and not a trigger grip. We had long recommended traditional trigger-style nozzles, but after years of being disappointed with their long-term durability, we’ve had enough. We now fully prefer nozzles with thumb controls. The inner mechanism of the R301 is a ball valve—a sturdy and reliable style of shutoff found all over home plumbing systems. Trigger-grip nozzles all have a plunger-style valve, a design that has more moving (read: breakable) parts. And in our experience, they just don’t last as long under similar circumstances.

It’s good for those with limited hand strength. The R301 requires less grip strength compared with using a trigger. There’s no need to keep constant pressure on the trigger while you’re spraying. This constant-on mechanism can be done with a trigger grip, but you have to fiddle with a little wire clip, and you still have to deal with the trigger in your palm. Activating the thumb control with one hand is not difficult, but if hand strength is limited, using a second hand to turn on the hose is certainly an option.

The handle is very comfortable. Beyond its durability, thumb control, and spray patterns, the R301 is also just nice to hold. The handle, part of Melnor’s RelaxGrip line, is fit to the hand more than any other hose nozzle we’ve tested. Most are just straight-up metal cylinders, but this one narrows at the top, much like the excellent handles found on the DeWalt line of cordless drills.

The Melnor R301 has held up over time. We’ve spent too many years being frustrated by trigger-grip hose nozzles that start leaking for apparently no reason at all. Some start leaking in the middle of summer (like one that completely drained out the well at one of our test locations), and others just start leaking in the spring, right after we take them out of storage. So far, after years of use, we’ve never had a leak from a thumb-controlled model, like the R301.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

You lose reaction speed. Because of the way the thumb control and ball valve work, the R301 is slower to turn on and shut off when compared with a traditional, trigger-grip nozzle. So that quick-twitch spray, which is almost unconscious in nature and baked into how many people use a garden hose, is trickier to attain. Since it stays on more readily, you might waste a little water, too.

If the Melnor R301 is not available, we also like the Husky Pro Thumb Control Multi-Pattern Nozzle. The basic design is the same, with the ball valve and the thumb control, but there are a few noteworthy differences. This one is not as comfortable to hold, and it has only five spray patterns, not eight.

What, no flat spray? The three missing spray patterns are center, cone, and flat, which are arguably not essentials. Senior editor Harry Sawyers insisted we take a moment to mention the flat spray in particular, since it is his go-to for car washes. “You get these gentle, wide sheets of water, which really nicely clears the suds from the sides and hood of the car with a controlled spray and minimal splashing.”

Given that the two nozzles typically cost about the same, we’d always choose the Melnor R301—unless we were in a pinch and only the Husky was available. It’s also sold only at Home Depot (where the R301 is also sold).

If you strongly prefer a hose nozzle with a trigger grip, we like the Melnor XT451 Heavyweight Metal 7-Pattern Nozzle. It was our previous top pick, and of the trigger-grip nozzles we’ve tested, this one is the best. But a couple of years in, all of the testing models succumbed to the nozzle-leak gnomes who apparently live in my garden shed.

The trigger grip is familiar and effective (but it doesn’t have the best long-term durability). Using the XT451 will be easy for anyone who has picked up a garden hose in the past 50 years. The spray is activated by using a large trigger behind the grip area; a knurled knob gives you a little control over the water pressure as you press the trigger; and a wire clip folds into the back of the handle, to lock the nozzle in the on position. It’s a decent setup, but over years of testing and seeing the repeated failure of this kind of nozzle, we are now firmly in the ball-valve thumb-control camp.

It’s more durable than other trigger-grip nozzles. Overall, the XT451 is a substantial chunk of metal. It’s a little heavier than we’d prefer, but after dealing with so many cheaper, leaky hose nozzles over the years, we’ve concluded that the weight is a trade-off we’re happy to make for the added robustness. But that’s not to say it’s indestructible. As we said above, we’ve had leak issues.

Over time it gets impossible to see the settings. Unfortunately, the spray-pattern labels are printed in gray around the end of the nozzle, which is black. Out of the box, the labels are hard to see, and once the nozzle gets a little scuffed up, it’s nearly impossible to read them. After a couple of seasons, the only way to dial in on a specific spray is to hold the trigger and dial the nozzle until you find it. It’s not great. The spray patterns on its thumb-controlled cousin, the Melnor R301, are much clearer and haven’t worn off over time.

After more than 10 years of being left outside (on the ground and in the mud), getting dropped on concrete, and being submerged in everything from 5-gallon buckets to kids’ plastic pools, the Gilmour Full Size Zinc Pistol Grip Nozzle still works as well as it did on the day we bought it. And, just to be sure, we bought another one in early 2020 and again in 2024. Still great. Actually, it’s better: It now comes with a rubber collar on the tip; this would have been really handy that time we dropped the old one on the hood of a car, leaving a nice scratch.

It’s simpler than the others, and that’s mostly a good thing. This Gilmour nozzle lacks the typical rotating clock face of settings. Instead, it operates on a continuously variable trigger that alters the spray pattern the harder you press: Lightly squeezed, it sprays a broad mist pattern; fully depressed, it shoots a concentrated beam that can soak trees 20 feet away. In side-by-side trials with traditional nozzles, the Gilmour nozzle’s design allowed it to do a far better job of compensating for weak or inconsistent water pressure. You can adjust the overall spray pattern by tightening or backing off a set screw, which changes how much of the spray aperture you’re opening and shutting with each squeeze. That allows you to dial in a good range of spray patterns at any water pressure or to customize it for the application. If you want to spray continuously, a wire clip can hold the trigger fully depressed.

The spray is not too precise. This Gilmour nozzle is perfect for big, broad spraying work where you don’t mind spilling a little water in the process: washing a car, watering a large area of lawn and trees, hosing down a sidewalk or patio. Where it falls flat is on targeted, short-range tasks, like watering a few container plants on a balcony. On those jobs, the Melnor R301 is better, since this Gilmour model tends to produce either a too-broad spray pattern (which wets things other than your target) or a too-strong beam (which blasts divots in the dirt around plant roots).

But, wow, it’s durable. What this nozzle lacks in versatility, it makes up for in durability. As our 10-year-old test unit proves, there’s very little on it that can break, and it truly doesn’t need delicate handling to last for years (though you may have to replace the rubber gasket after a while). Zinc can corrode after heavy exposure to saltwater, so if you live near the ocean, you might opt for the hardened-plastic marine version of this nozzle.

Just watch that edge. The Gilmour nozzle’s tip usually comes with a rubber cushion ring around the metal spraying face of the tool. This is not essential to the nozzle’s function, and it tends to get lost after some time.

The Melnor 65112-AMZ Vortex Rear-Trigger 6-Pattern Nozzle is a nice, high-quality hose nozzle centered on a new vortex spray pattern. The spray on this setting is a swirling stream of water, similar to what you get from the all-purpose cleaning tip found on many pressure washers. We found it was a fun setting to play around with. Ultimately, however, it didn’t bring much to the table, since there was nothing we could do with it that we couldn’t do with the regular settings.

The Husky PRO Rear Trigger Multi-Pattern Nozzle is a trigger-style nozzle similar in design and function to the Melnor XT451. And, like the Husky version of the thumb-control style, this model drops three of the spray patterns, so it uses five total, not eight. Flat, cone, and center are missing. This is a viable alternative to the Melnor XT451—and it may have similar durability issues long-term. Since it has a comparable price to the Melnor nozzle, there’s not a compelling reason to opt for this one instead.

The Dramm 12704 9-Pattern Spray Nozzle was also decent, but its spray patterns weren’t as consistent as what we saw from the Melnor R301, and it lacked that model’s ball valve and heavy-duty feel.

We also tested the Bon-Aire Original Ultimate Hose Nozzle, which was particularly limited in spraying options, going only from a stream to a messy shower. The same can be said for the FireHoseDirect Aluminum Adjustable Fan Stream Nozzle and the Gilmour 855032 Professional Classic Fireman’s Nozzle, both of which are good for hosing off a car or a wheelbarrow but aren’t as easy to use on garden beds and delicate seedlings.

The über-simple Dramm 12380 Brass Adjustable Hose Nozzle is a popular, classic design. Similar to the Bon-Aire nozzle we tested, this Dramm model has a twisting system that turns it on or off. The solid-brass construction is bombproof and pretty much impossible to break. We were underwhelmed, though, with its ability to generate different spray patterns. Note that because this Dramm nozzle is made of solid brass, it contains enough lead that the company recommends washing your hands after use.

The Melnor 301-416 5-Pattern Watering Nozzle leaked from within its body, draining my well completely dry during long-term testing. Dismissed!

This article was edited by Harry Sawyers.