paghat wrote:

...Never buy a hose, sprinkler hose, or soaker hose that has plastic rather
than brass at both ends...




Most of the soaker hoses I've seen (I haven't looked at them in some
time now, since I use other types of drip irrigation) have cheap
fittings. The regular hoses also have them. They are basically thin
steel with a light brass coating to make them look like brass fittings.
Virtually all the ones I have had have rotted away in a few years. Not
completely, just enough to leak a little more than I consider acceptable
(on a soaker hose, a little extra water leak won't hurt). The flat
soaker hoses are basically unrepairable at that point. The round ones
can be repaired using the cheap plastic repair fittings. I have found
that these repair fittings last much longer than the steel fittings or
even the normal plastic fittings on hoses. Consequently, a lot of my
hoses (regular type) have plastic repair fittings on them. (Of course
part of that is due to mowing hoses that get buried in weeds and things
like that. I also find a need for an occasional 4' section of hose for
the irrigation lines.)