I have been the proud owner of not just one, but two Xhose hose pipes.
When these were first out and sold, there wasn’t really much else you could buy like it – but since then plenty of alternative “magic” hosepipes have appeared on the market. (Like these ones on Amazon)
I was excited getting this home and wanting so desperately to try it out, little did I know my garden would be getting no water on that fateful night…
First Xhose Bought:
When I took the Xhose home and unboxed it, I was immediately not that overly impressed with the quality. It felt kind of cheap and a bit plasticy – the connectors on either end of the hose as well as the spray gun attachment seemed poor quality. (It seems Xhose have since remedied this by introducing metal connectors with their Xhose Pro)
Anyway, I attached the hose to my tap connection and turned it on.
The water immediately started pouring out of the section between where the hose pipe joins the connector that is then attached to your tap, so much so that the pressure of water was not enough to fill the hose let alone get water to the spray gun head.
I took it back to the retailer that I had purchased it from the next day, and opted to swap it for another one (why not!)
Second Xhose Attempt:
Same story, got it home, unboxed it and went eagerly to water the garden (things were wilting by this point from yesterdays efforts).
This time the hose decided to do something different, the connector worked and water started flowing through (yes!) but after a few seconds, the hose started expanding strangely.
Next thing you know, theres this bulge appearing from the hose length about two thirds of the way down and it pops and water starts shooting out.
Turns out there was a tear or some sort of mis-manufacture in the blue material along the length of the hose leaving a gap. Whatever is inside (rubber I think) tried to escape via the hole with water in it and simply exploded.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice… shame on me and congratulations to Xhose. I got a refund after the second go.
(oh, and if you were wondering about my poor plants wilting and dying off, don’t worry I threw plenty of water on them via watering cans!)
A great video showing a fault after 3 uses:
Plenty of reasons not to buy an Xhose:
I don’t think I have ever felt so annoyed or wound up when continuing to see a product on the shelves, that is a best seller on multiple retailer websites, that is this poor. It isn’t only myself that thinks so.
- Reviews of the Xhose online on places like here on Amazon or B&Q’s own website are pretty poor. Yet people continue to buy them! The current Amazon rating as I write this is a measly 2.8/5, yet people continue to add it to cart and buy it! It continues to stay on the top sellers lists within its category…
My only thoughts are that people want one because they just do, its a fad, the next door neighbour has one, they’ve seen it on TV repeatedly and just buy it – even if its badly made. - The product has been out for a few years now and has sold plenty! Yet more recent reviews echo my experience as well as the experiences of others a few years ago – why have the manufacturers not ironed out the kinks in their product after all this time? I guess they are probably happy and content with high rates of returns if they still make some £££ rather than looking at customer satisfaction.
- It uses “High Street TV” to sell itself. I think any product that includes the label “As seen on High Street TV” should actually be a turn off for the purchaser.
I believe if you have any product in the world, present it well and rabbit on about it enough for 30 minutes and show off all the pros and how it works then unfortunately some gullible people will buy it.
Its a shame that when you look at any High Street TV Product that they are normally things by brands you have never heard of. A quick search will find alternative similar performing products at lower price or alternatives by big reliable brand names that are even better. - You can’t use it with a pressure washer.
- Plenty of reports and chatter on the Internet about Xhoses exploding (like mine did) or leaking (like mine did) or not lasting very long.
What hose pipe shall I get instead?
There are plenty of great ones out there, we recommend the Hozelock Auto Reel or Gardena hose pipes available on Amazon.
If you go to our home page, you will also find our in-depth guide to finding a great hose pipe.