Use the high-pressure setting to tackle tough jobs. Solid and surprisingly useful
Full disclosure right off:
- I work for Amazon, for the automotive team
- The unit I tested was provided by the manufacturer for review
Notwithstanding those two facts, my intent is to be as fair and straightforward as possible.
I'm not exactly the car-washing type; I wash my car a few times a year, and that's about it. Because I'm not the kind of guy to clean my wheels with a toothbrush, I was pretty skeptical that a different hose nozzle would make a difference for me - I have a cheapie gun-style nozzle at home, and it seems to do the job just fine. After all, the job is simply to transfer water from the hose to the car, right?
Well, for some reason, this nozzle seems to transfer exponentially more water than my cheapie gun - I'm not sure how that's possible, but the sheer volume of water coming out was startling. The array of different patterns is pretty cool - you can have a sharp, small, targeted jet that wreaks havoc, a variety of gentle sprays, and even a high-volume low-power spray that I found pretty useful. I didn't miss not having all of the various sprays before I tried this nozzle, but now I think it would be difficult to go back.
For example - I washed the car and began drying it, only to find that I had missed the section on the passenger's side of the car below the beltline. Curses ensued; normally it's hard to get that part wet and washed without having to get the rest of the car wet again. But in this case I just switched to the low-power, high-volume setting, got just that section wet, and subsequently washed and dried it. The power of this nozzle is nice, but it's really the control that gets you.
This product is essentially a version of Bon-Aire Original Ultimate Hose Nozzle (Aluminum) but with a handle. I haven't tried the version without the handle, but it was nice to have a handle; seems like it's more convenient that way than holding the hose or the nozzle itself (which is big). On the more powerful sprays I found myself holding the handle with one hand and the hose with the other.
Build quality seemed excellent - especially with the handle, it's tempting to use this thing as a weapon. The whole thing feels solid, and the soft rubber feels nice. It's not like you're going to display it on your coffee table when guests come over, but it feels like it's going to last.
Downsides vs. the cheapie gun - at first I was annoyed at the need to turn the nozzle to turn the flow on and off. You can turn the flow off at either end of the turning action, so that helps, but if you need a flow in the middle and just short intermittent squirts you'll be doing lots of twisting. It's not bad, and I got used to it by the time I finished washing the car, but it's not quite as quick or convenient as just squeezing a gun and regulating the flow that way. The upside to the twist is that when you have the flow you need, it's easier and more consistent - you don't need to keep the pressure on, you can concentrate on the job at hand. A best-of-both-worlds solution might be a switch on the handle that cuts water flow so you can leave the nozzle open to the desired spray pattern but just cut the water on and off.
Overall, I liked the nozzle. It's not something I felt like I needed - I don't spend a lot of time thinking about hose nozzles - but now that I've tried it it definitely is a really nice upgrade.
Bon-Aire Ultimate Hose Nozzle Review
I am a 58 year old woman with 2 acres of gardens and sometimes I just didn't have enough hose to reach until I got this nozzle. I like the design, even though it does take a little time to get use to it. I love the amount of pressure that comes through, hard or soft. I will purchase 5 more of these to put on all my hoses around the yard.
Worth the Price!
I used it this weekend to water the plants, wash the car, the driveway and the dog. Powerful enough to clean the drive way but also gentle enough for the delicate plants. Great nozzle and the handle is a really good addition to this nozzle.
The Bon-Aire Ultimate Nozzle is very strong and reliable as they claim it to be. I plan on buying this as gift for a few people.
Love it!
