How to Choose a Garden Hose Holder

A lush lawn and flourishing garden look great — until you remember you have to deal with a tangled, wet mess of garden hoses. The solution is a hose holder (also known as a hose stand).

These are hangers that you install outdoors to neatly store and keep the hose away from the ground. They can either be wall-mounted or freestanding. Wall-mounted hose holders are generally more secure than freestanding stakes, but both types can have problems. For example, they may not be able to handle the weight of a full hose or they could fall during heavy rain or a spring thaw. Freestanding models are better for small yards and don’t require a permanent mount. They’re also lighter than some other models and can be moved around as needed, but they aren’t designed to transport a hose with it attached.

Some garden hose holders come with built-in winding guides to help you get the hose coiled up in an even way. These are a good choice if you have a lot of hose to store or if you don’t want to bother with hand-winding the hose after each use. Other hose holders have handles to pull out as much hose as you need and then lock it in place, which can be helpful for those times when you don’t need quite as long of a hose.

A swivel garden hose holder can be especially useful in areas of the yard where you need to reach different spots and can’t easily turn the nozzle on your water spigot. These can make it easier to water your plants and even do some light cleaning around the house.

Another handy feature to consider is the ability to attach a leader hose, which can allow you to connect your hose to the water source while keeping it out of the way. This can be especially helpful if you’re working in an area that’s hard to reach or if your yard has obstacles like trees and shrubs between the faucet and your hose.

The best hose holder we’ve found is this sturdily constructed option from Liberty. It offers a lot of hose capacity, moves smoothly, and has a clever design that lets you set it up on either a flat surface or a wall. It didn’t leak during testing, but it did leave a few marks on the drywall. We were able to clean this up by cutting off the strain-relief sleeve and adding some thread-sealing tape, which is something you might want to do for any hose holder you choose.

This freestanding hose holder is a solid pick if you don’t want to drill into the side of your house or take up valuable patio space. It’s made from rustproof metal and features three sharp stakes to hold it up on the ground, plus it detaches from the base to be stowed in a shed or garage. It doesn’t hold as much hose as our other wall-mount and freestanding picks, but it still does a decent job of holding your hose and preventing it from falling over or tripping you while you’re using it.