Last Updated on April 3, 2024
EDITORS NOTE 1: Update from May 2018 below.
EDITOR’S NOTE 2: Aldi sold this nozzle again in April of 2024 for $8.99.
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If it’s spring, it’s Aldi’s time to serve up gardening tools. That means hoses, garden beds, and a whole lot of other things. We’ve tried out our share of Aldi gardening products, and on the whole we’ve found them to be solid additions to our backyard garden.
A water nozzle is not the most exciting of gardening tools, but we were intrigued by Aldi’s take on one, and for a simple reason. Our experience with the nozzles we’ve gotten at hardware stores over the years have been underwhelming, whether they are brass hand nozzles or the plastic trigger variety. They can be finicky to operate, leak easily, and don’t last as long as we’d like. So how does the Gardenline nozzle stack up?
The Gardenline PRO Series Nozzles, which retailed for $6.99 in 2018, come in a few varieties, including a 10-pattern thumb-control nozzle, an adjustable thumb-control nozzle, and a fireman-style high flow nozzle. We opted to try the adjustable thumb-control nozzle, as it is closer to what we’re familiar with and we figured it would work best for our needs.
The Gardenline nozzles are made by Ray Padula, which manufactures a range of lawn equipment for various retailers, including Home Depot, ACE Hardware, Target, and Amazon. The nozzle we are reviewing appears to be a rebranded Ray Padula PRO Series Adjustable Hose Nozzle.
As far as I can tell, these retailers sell Ray Padula nozzles for $10-$12, so price-wise the Gardenline is definitely at an advantage. On the flip side, Ray Padula products purchased from other outlets come with a lifetime warranty, while the Gardenline has no warranty at all, so that price advantage comes at a cost. Given that reviews of some Ray Padula products are mixed, this might be an issue long-term.
That said, the Gardenline PRO Series Nozzle certainly makes a good first impression. It feels heavy and sturdy, more so than maybe any other nozzle I’ve ever used. It has a metal body with some plastic parts around it, and all of it feels well-built. It screws on easily to a hose, and in our early testing it was leak-free.
This nozzle’s selling point is the fact that it doesn’t require pulling a trigger, and it’s a nice selling point. To use the nozzle, you simply push the thumb control up, and it stays on until you pull it back down. No squeezing it to keep things going. Adjusting the stream’s force and width, meanwhile, is as simple as twisting the nose in or out.
UPDATE (5/29/18): The nozzle has stopped working. We noticed a problem a few weeks ago when the nozzle would lose pressure when the thumb control was pushed beyond a certain point. Now it happens when the thumb control is pushed any distance at all. Unfortunately, the Aldi version of this product — unlike nozzles produced by the same manufacturer for other outlets — does not come with a warranty, so we’re out of luck.
The Verdict:
Early returns on the Gardenline PRO Series Nozzle were good. It was easy to use and appears to be sturdily built. Unfortunately, although the Gardenline is cheaper than nozzles the manufacturer sells elsewhere, it doesn’t include a lifetime warranty like the same nozzle has at other outlets. That difference cost us when the nozzle died after just a month or so of occasional use. We can’t recommend the product under those circumstances.
