Flat Garden Hose

Flat garden hoses have been around for a long time but have never become very popular because the early ones were basically pieces of junk that leaked and ruptured easily, had poor quality fittings on the end, came with cheap reels and were close to impossible to reel back up after initial use. Many also don't work unless they are unwound completely and don't have as much water pressure as conventional round hose.

There are some decent flat garden hoses today, although many are still junk. In our experience, it's not quite "you get what you pay for" because some pricy models are still troublesome, but we have yet to find a decent cheap one.

Get recommendations from a reliable store or read online reviews first. There are some decent flat garden hoses around. Hey, fire hoses are flat and they are reliable and long-lived, so obviously it's possible to construct a quality flat hose, and some manufacturers now do!

Flat garden hoses have some advantages:

The big one is that they take up less space. This is the big advantage. Since they're flat, they roll up nicely and compactly for storage. Almost all models include a reel - without a reel they are close to impossible to roll up so don't bother.
They are allegedly more "kink resistant." We say "allegedly" because this is true only of the high quality models. Junky ones kink quite easily.

Of course flat garden hoses have some disadvantages too:

They are not as durable. For example pitchforks and spades are less likely to bounce off a flat hose than a rounded one.
They don't do corners as well as round hoses and can be hard to snake around plants etc.
They can be impossible to roll back up on the reel they came on unless they are entirely empty of water.

Note that we are discussing traditional garden hoses here. Drip irrigation hoses are normally flat and a different story as are intended to leak and in fact have holes in them.

So, if you’re looking for a space saving hose, consider a flat hose. There are several junky ones so get a recommendation from a trusted store or friend, or look at online reviews.