Metal Garden Hose Nozzle / Hand Sprayer - Light Touch Easy Thumb Control - Superior Ball Valve - Durable Metal - 8 Pattern Adjustable

I bought and tested three 8-pattern hose nozzles: Ray Padula, Nth Power and the orange Metal Garden Nozzle (the packing reads “Arden Master”). The winner is the orange Metal Garden Nozzle!I have owned Ray Padula nozzles for 10 years. The problem with this nozzle is that the hard green plastic thumb control breaks easily if the nozzle is dropped or knocked against something hard while rewinding the hose. Ray Padula won’t sell replacement thumb controls. They have honored their lifetime guaranty but they want you to mail the heavy nozzle to them so enforcing the guaranty is expensive. One time, I sent them two broken thumb controls which I had unscrewed from the nozzles and they sent me two new nozzles. Years ago, there weren’t any competitors with thumb controls but that has changed and now I can buy a sturdier nozzle.The Nth Power nozzle is very good. The thumb control is compact (low profile) and made of a soft plastic or rubber so it won’t break easily. The “Shower” setting is narrower than the Ray Padula and the Metal Garden Nozzle which I don’t care for. Also, the shower spray seems to split in two at about 7’ out with one section going about a foot further than the other. I find this disconcerting but it’s not a major issue. The Nth Power has a “Soaker” setting which my husband thought was a good idea if you want to leave the nozzle under a big tree or plant and let the water bubble out for a soaking.My favorite nozzle was the orange Metal Garden Nozzle (Arden Master). It was the cheapest and the best! The “Shower” setting is broader like the Ray Padula and it sprays gently and evenly even at a distance. It feels good in the hand and has the soft, compact thumb control so it is unlikely to break. One tiny criticism is that when you change the nozzle settings, there is some water which drips for a few seconds from the head of the nozzle. I tightened the screw in the nozzle head and that reduced the dripping but didn’t completely eliminate it. The other two nozzles I tested don’t do this and it’s a nit-pick. As the last three of my Ray Padula nozzles fail, I will be buying more of the orange Metal Garden Nozzles!

I loved the design of this sprayer...especially the slider in place of the traditional push construction. It feels great in the hand and seems heavy/well-made. For the first 2 weeks, it rocked.However, once it began having problems, it fell apart rapidly. First, the washer fell out of the bottom when the sprayer was removed. Then it began falling out almost every single time it was used. The final nail in the coffin, however, was when the black dial separated from the rest of the sprayer. Had I dropped it roughly on concrete, I could understand...but this sprayer has never fallen farther than 3 feet onto soft grass. The first time it happened, my husband was able to reattach it. However, the clicking mechanism inside no longer worked (which is not a particularly big deal since I could still adjust it visually.) One week into the problems, though, the front dial began falling off every time it was used.Again...love the look, design, and functionality of the unit...but it's pretty worthless if it can't even make it through a single summer of light use. :(

I have had this hand sprayer for one season now. It is probably the fourth or fifth one that I have owned, and it is clearly the best. You regulate the volume of water -- from off to full pressure and everything in between with a thumb controlled "switch" on the back of the sprayer. Some reviews have reported it as hard to operate, but this has not been my experience at all, and I have broken my thumb in a way that it dislocates if I encounter too much resistance in a task. I find this switch easy to use and convenient.It has not leaked at all. and the spray patterns are generally very useful -- from a hard stream, to a gentle spray, to a mist. It seems ergonomically designed and comfortable to hold. I also find it to be attractive, but that is a totally subjective judgment. I do not hesitate to recommend this sprayer.

I've been using this for a couple of weeks. So far, no leaking at all. Love it. I've tried a few garden hose nozzles from local stores with spring switch, they all leak. I think the ball valve is a good choice. Hope it can last long long time. Will update in the future if things change.update 4/24/2017: Unfortunately, it's broken in less than one year. We used the hose around the deck. Eventual, the nozzle broke at the neck. I think it's due to the fact that we didn't always gently "put" the nozzle down onto the deck floor, but instead, mostly we dropped it down a little. But the drop shouldn't be more than 3 feet, mostly 1 or 2 feet. And I did realized I should be gentle with it. Still it broke at the neck. I tried to fixed it with self-adhesive silicone tape. It seemed working, until I turned on the water. Boy, it shot the inside header out! You'll get what I mean by looking at the pictures. The inside head is made of plastic. Actually it was broken from the inside at the neck. The outside orange colored metal is just glued to the inside plastic head. I don't know any glue can work well to bond metal to plastic yet.A bit disappointed at the quality of this product. Had high hope for it. Now I'm just using it as a switch to turn on/off water.

Hose Nozzles are quite expensive now days, but this one was priced about average. I did not realize how heavy this one is. I am used to plastic varieties, but this one is metal and so it feels a lot more durable. I like the one hand nozzle and it is really easy to use. The various settings are great, especially for washing different areas of my cars. My wife has an SUV so getting soap off the top is a lot easier with the center setting, and I use the shower for my car. The jet setting is great to shoot down the underneath and tires after going to the beach. Overall, I am very happy with this product.