When the nozzle is opened, the pipe shrinks and the distance it can be used is shortened (made worse by low water pressure and lack of adjustable flow rate into the nozzle). This could be an issue for you if you plan on attaching different hoses to the tap (pressure washer, sprinkler etc). The dynamic design of superhoze enables it to expand up to three times its original length for easy reach and then shrink back in size after use for convenient storage.

I had issues controlling the flow rate out of the expanded pipe with the cheap nozzle/sprayer (more about that later). Integrated child lock – this convenient lock prevents the hose from being pulled out by children, ensuring the hose is only pulled out when needed. Overall, this is a great expandable hose and obviously of much much better quality than the Hozelock product.I purchased XHose and found it nearly identical to the Superhoze, except it had even more plasticky connectors and didn’t come with a nozzle or spray gun, which had to be purchased separately.

Longer versions of expandable pipes can be cumbersome when full of water and difficult to drag around. Flexi Hose came with an inline tap so I could adjust the flow rate, this stopped the pipe from shrinking. The only way for me to keep the hose pipe fully expanded was to open the nozzle slightly so the rate of water exiting the pipe was the same as it was entering from the tap.

I disliked the colour, and as it doesn’t come with a reel, I’ll have to look at it draped over the tap whenever I’m in the garden. It didn’t come with a reducer so “out of the box” it won’t fit smaller tap sizes (there are two tap sizes in the UK). I can’t imagine getting years of use if it’s frequently dragged over concrete, patios or gravel etc.