If you have had the opportunity to read my previous review on the Argos 25m value hose and reel you will know that our experience was a complete disaster with our one and only use ending up with a very kinked hose, almost snapping in several places where the thin green plastic had gone white and the leaks that had happened in our hallway (on laminate flooring) while we were out using it on our pressure washer in our reasonably small back and front gardens, or in deed the fact that none of the fixings could be used on our taps or directly on the pressure washer for which we bought it!

After taking the defective product back to Argos we considered carefully whether to buy a Hozelock product from the store but were less than impressed by the range in their catalogue which seemed excessively priced and as I'd walked over to B&Q from work one lunchtime and looked at their range of hoses I already had an idea of which to buy. With the refund put back on my card my wife and I travelled over to our B&Q warehouse and spent less than 5 minutes looking at their range of hoses before deciding to buy the Hozelock 2 in 1 reel which was on sale at £34.98, or as I was to find £29.99 + shipping at Amazon. In fact, my wife (Sue) had sussed out B&Q and had only a week or so before joined the B&Q club and with her barcode to hand had a 20% discount that day making it only £27.98.

We bought a 25m yellow hose that is mounted on a sturdy green plastic reel with metal handle and base supports. The reel can be left on the ground or can be wall mounted using the fixing brackets that are in a small plastic bag that is located underneath the hose. This product also comes with 3 fixings allowing you to connect your hose to your taps (indoor or outdoor) and to additional items such as pressure washers. It also comes with a 4th spray fixing. To date, we have not used any of the new fixings because we are still using 3 Hozelock fixings that we used for the Argos value hose, one of which has to be used to allow the other fixing to connect to our narrow mixer taps.

The reel comes with a connector that allows you to leave the hose on the reel but in order to do so it would mean cutting the hose or buying an additional length that is not needed for the size of our garden.

As we have only recently joined the ranks of homeowner and with our front and back gardens being paving slabs our use of hoses is relatively low but certainly this product does exactly what we want. The hose itself is made of what appears to be thick rubber and although it does bend slightly doesn't bend to the extent that it would crack and compared to our previous hose is free from holes! It will certainly be used more regularly in the future but as Winter is approaching I doubt we will use again until Spring even though it now offers us the ability to clean our car rather than use the local car wash. We also plan on buying a modest greenhouse next year and as long as no hosepipe bans are in force will be in frequent use.

I would definitely recommend the Hozelock 2 in 1 hose for anyone that is looking for their first hose. The only question really is what size you need and what additional attachments you might need.

Our only concern is the cost of the extra fixings that range from around £5.