It's a very kinky hose
The kind you cant expect to water
And It will always let your garden down
Like a dead snake on the street

It'll go limp in your hand
It's definitely not my favorite
And when you try to move it you'll know its the wrong tool
It never aims to please

That hose is pretty kinky
That hose is super cheap!
I'd really like to return it
Every time I see it.

That hose is pretty mild now
That hose is super cheap!
I'd really like to return it
Every time I see it.

It's not right
It's not right
With me....yeah

Super cheap!
Super cheap!
That hose is super cheap!

Super cheap!
Super cheap!
That hose is super cheap!

I have Never had a hose that kinked to a full stop of water like this does. Not only does the water stop, but the kinks never stop. Carrying bucket of water would be easier than the continued kinked in this hose.

I purchased this in March but didn't start using it until late spring. Whenever I initially run water through it, I see this white foam/water mixture coming out of the hose for about the first minute. This garden hose is advertised as "drinking water safe" but I certainly wouldn't drink from it!!! I had children drinking from it before I realized this issue. Who knows what they ingested. I would not buy this again. I ask that the seller contact me to arrange a return.

I really need to contact customer service on this one. Bought the hose last Spring and the thing has turned from green to mottled black and its disgusting to look at. I have tried to clean it but its permanent and a terrible hose to look at.

--[ SEE UPDATES BELOW ]--

SUMMARY
( i ) contradictory manufacturer statements about maximum water pressure of the hose; ( ii ) confusing warranty descriptions not made clear by the manufacturer; ( iii ) unanswered issues about contaminants and the safety of using the hose; ( iv ) begins to develop mold within 3-4 months after installation. [Added on June 2018: None of these problems have been corrected more than a year from the original review, and so they still remain a cause of concern.]

REVIEW (May 6, 2017)
I purchased the 3-foot Flexzilla lead-in hose (model HFZG503YW), and the following observations apply to this and longer lengths of the same Flexzilla garden hose, sold by Legacy Mfg. Co. (a division of Weems Industries, Iowa) and made in Taichung City, Taiwan. The inner-most layer is described as made of a "premium hybrid polymer" claimed to be safe for water drinking; the material of the outer-most layer --although unspecified by Legacy-- is a plasticized PVC (pPVC). It has the U.S./Canada standard garden hose thread (3/4 in. diameter straight thread with 11.5 TPI).

1. PRESSURE -- According to the Legacy website and labels on the hose, the maximum working pressure is 150 psi at 70°F, but Legacy (under the name Flexzilla with the tag 'Manufacturer') posted an answer contradicting the prior value by saying : "The working pressure for the Flexzilla Garden Hose is 165psi" . Until the company gets its ducks in a row, it is safer to assume the max pressure is indeed 150 psi. Further, keep in mind that the maximum working pressure decreases rapidly as hose temperature increases, so a hose may at least swell when left on the sun under high water pressure on a very hot day.

2. FITTINGS & CORROSION -- The hose has anodized aluminum-alloy fittings, dyed green, at both ends. When done carefully, so the added oxide layer is uniformly continuous without fault, anodizing greatly increases the aluminum's resistance to galvanic corrosion (besides allowing its coloring). This reduces the risk of fusion of the hose's female fitting to a male brass spigot. Despite that, these threaded metal parts can be marred easily, and any damage penetrating through the oxide layer on the surface will expose bare aluminum underneath, allowing corrosion to take place. It is safer to turn off the water when the hose is not in use (as corrosion occurs when the metals are bridged by water) and to remove the hose from the bib as often as acceptable.

3. SAFETY -- It was difficult to find analytical evidence supporting the safety claims, particularly in terms of lead and phthalates. The Legacy website provides no such information; in this Amazon product page, however, the company claims that "the hose meets or exceeds the standards set by the National Sanitation Foundation" (see the posted answer of May 2, 2017, to a question about potable water with the hose in ).

The foundation that Legacy refers to is a testing / certifying body located in Michigan that changed its name to NSF International 27 years ago (!). A search of the NSF website database of certified companies did not find either Legacy or Weems, nor it found any certified product with the brand name Flexzilla. But that claim could just mean that a hose was analyzed by a different company against the NSF/ANSI 61 standard, so I searched the Web for such results. The only data I found were those of the _2016 Garden Hose Study_ of the Ecology Center, also located in Michigan, which included the 50-ft Flexzilla hose . Of the chemicals reported, it is noteworthy the hose was rated low for lead, medium for chlorine, and high for phthalates -- the latter rating is likely to have resulted in the overall negative ranking of "HIGH" for this hose.

Phthalates are used as softening agents (plasticizers) to make plastics flexible, as in the case of pPVC. Several of them have been PROHIBITED in the United States since 2008 [15 U.S. Code § 2057c] in products for children under 3 years of age and in toys intended for those under 12 years. Also, products sold to California residents containing any of six phtahlates (BBP, DEHP, DIDP, DBP, DnHP, and DINP) require a Proposition 65 health warning indicating "contains one or more chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm" and advising to wash hands after handling. These phthalates are likely the reason why Flexzilla hoses sold to California residents carry a Prop-65 warning (see ). There is no good reason for Legacy not to give a Prop-65 warning to shoppers in this page as well since California residents shop in Amazon. This is more egregious when considering that Amazon does have the page "About California Proposition 65" , which would allow Legacy to warn shoppers by providing a link to that page in the Product Information section just as careful, transparent sellers here do.

4. WARRANTY -- A most unattractive aspect of these hoses is the confusing and customer-unfriendly manner Legacy has handled the matter of the warranty. At the time of this writing, the Product Information section of this page appears to suffer from a dissociative disorder about the Flexzilla warranty information, depending on the hose length you have selected on top of the page:

-- 3 foot hose: no mention of a warranty.
-- 5, 10, 25, and 100 foot hoses: request a copy to Legacy.
-- 50 and 75 foot hoses: click on the link to see the copy (PDF format).

In the Legacy website the situation is even less clear -- there are just simply two brief mentions in passing that Flexzilla garden hoses have a warranty : one claims a "Limited Lifetime Warranty," the other a "lifetime warranty," neither providing a description. So, what are the terms of the warranty? Well, it is a matter of confusion. Despite the claims of a lifetime warranty for water hoses (and that is indeed what is written in a tiny-font blurb hidden on the otherwise blank, inner face of the cardboard packaging of the 3-foot hose I got), the very official looking "Legacy Product Warranty Statement" written in pidgin legalese in the PDF copy says that the hoses --which fall under the "All Other Legacy Products" category-- only have a warranty of one (1) year from the date of purchase, instead of their lifetime. Talk about life expectancy . . .

Even if Legacy gets these other ducks in a row, the warranty's unfriendly remedy also needs further clarification. To replace a hose defective "in material and workmanship, under normal use" during the (ambiguous) warranty period, it must be first shipped to an "authorized Warranty and Service Center, transportation charges prepaid, with proof of date of purchase." But to this, the lifetime warranty blurb for the hose I got adds that "the original retail label must accompany the hose." This further limitation is absent from the Product Warranty Statement. Legacy ought to hire a good communications specialist to fix these detracting issues.
_____

UPDATE 1 (August 6, 2017)
Sometime after the above review, part of the text and images of this Product page were updated. Unfortunately, little of consequence was changed in a meaningful way in relation to the points raised in my review. To wit:

<> With respect to SAFETY issues, Legacy repeats the claim that the "flexible hybrid polymer inner tube material is drinking water safe." One again, however, the composition of the polymer remains undisclosed, and there is still no link available to a currently valid, full report from an ANSI-accredited, North American certification / testing body on regulated and unregulated contaminants in the hose based on the NSF/ANSI 61 water-safety criteria. Thus, Legacy wants you to accept their safety claim solely on the basis of their sales pitch presentation. The so far continuous absence --either here, the Flexzilla site, or the Legacy site-- of a link to a test report supporting their claims is VERY STRANGE. It is hard to imagine a company making the claims this one does not obtaining and displaying in their website a valid, detailed, up to date product-safety testing report from one of the several ANSI-accredited certification bodies available in this country.

Also, the issue of phtalates, which were rated HIGH in the 2016 study cited above, remains totally unanswered. Even if the various phthalates present in high levels in the hose (which force Legacy to place a Prop-65 warning on hoses sold to California residents -- a health warning curiously absent from this Product information page) were found only on its pPVC outer-most tube, it is left to one's imagination what is the phthalate exposure RISK simply from HANDLING the hose, such as the case of the child drinking from the hose he holds in his hand in one of the images posted here by Legacy.

<> With respect to WARRANTY issues, Legacy now claims in the Garden Hose Features section of this page that Flexzilla garden hoses have a limited lifetime warranty (see the bottom text line of the models' comparison). Nevertheless, the warranty's dissociative-like attitude noted before remains in full force. The Product Information section for the 50-ft and 75-ft hoses still offers a link to the "Legacy Product Warranty Statement" in PDF format, which unambiguously states that Flexzilla garden hoses --i.e., the "All Other Legacy Products" category-- have a limited warranty of ONE YEAR instead of a lifetime. Oops. In addition, the lead-in hose HFZG503YW with no swivel grips that I bought is not even included among the hoses claimed to have a supposedly lifetime warranty. Just as before, Legacy desperately needs to get its warranty ducks in a row.

Besides this confusing information, what the warranty terms are shall remain a mystery to anyone ready to buy a garden hose who visits this page. The reason is simple : the description of the warranty is NOT readily available. The Product Information section of this page says --but for the 50-ft and 75-ft hoses and my lead-in hose-- that one has to request it from "customer service" and offers a link to do that. Now, if you think it is that easy, you will be quite disappointed. The "About Manufacturer's Warranties" page, to which this link takes you, says one needs to contact the manufacturer or visit its website, or email the request to the Warranty Questions team of Amazon. (At the time of this writing, neither the Flexzilla nor the Legacy site provide a warranty description.)

What a BYZANTINE way to provide a warranty, which over its ambiguous duration only offers, in a customer-unfriendly manner, replacing a defective garden hose IF it were first shipped to an authorized Warranty and Service Center with transportation charges prepaid, proof of date of purchase, and its original retail label. Meh.
_____

UPDATE 2 (August 27, 2017)
It is now a little less than four months since installation, and the hose has rapidly began to develop mold during the last two weeks. This is shown in the attached image taken after rubbing the hose with a wet paper towel to remove any dirt stain. For comparison purposes, the inset shows the hose when it was installed. Based on the descriptions of other top reviews at this time, I expect it to change from its so-called ZillaGreenâ„¢ Chartreuse color to a disgusting Moldy Black. I suspect Legacy will not put a trademark on that color.

pPVC is very susceptible to fungal attack since many plasticizers can serve as a carbon or nitrogen source for fungal species; at least with several plasticizers, fungal colonization can lead to degradation and deterioration of the pPVC, increasing its brittleness. This is not recent information -- such susceptibility and biodeterioration are known since WWII. The fungal problem is aggravated by migration and exudation of the plasticizer to the pPVC surface. When exposed to hand contact, a hose with a moldy outer surface represents a health-effects RISK. Molds can produce toxic agents, known as mycotoxins, beside releasing millions of spores small enough to be air- or water-borne. Further, if the hose were also moldy on its inner surface --something I have not been able to exclude yet-- this would represent a major water-safety risk.

I have reduced my rating because of the rapid development of mold and its potential risks.
_____

UPDATE 3 (August 30, 2017)
I called the Inside Sales phone number of Legacy, as requested in their initial comment to my review (see below) but, on mentioning MOLD, I was immediately transferred to Technical Support. There I was told, with a polite laconism worth of that recommended for cross-examinations, that the company does not offer any solution for getting rid of the fungus. After I kept pressing the issue, I was told that "no mold was found in the inner-most surface of a moldy Flexzilla hose" they had dissected. Curiously (given so many customers complaints), neither such procedure nor the (claimed) results are publicly available. Mold growth and its potential biodeterioration effects on the hose are not covered by the warranty, so tough luck for the customers with a Moldy Black hose.

Trying different methods, I found that --at least for mold that seems in early development-- I could remove many mold stains from the hose surface with a so-called "magic" melamine sponge; however, it is likely a temporary fix and does not solve any fungal growth that might reach the inner wall. Given that mine is not an isolated case (as shown by many customer reviews complaining of mold), it is very disappointing that Legacy's attitude imitates the three legendary Japanese monkeys albeit changing their proverb to *see no mold, hear no mold, speak no mold*. Most companies, if not all, would gladly replace a low-cost product in order to preserve their reputation, especially if the defect were rare. From this viewpoint, it would seem quite fair to conclude Legacy considers the Moldy Black hose defect TOO FREQUENT to cover it under its ambiguous warranty.

I will buy suitable brass repair fittings and a short piece of ether-based, 5/8" polyurethane tubing to build a safe lead-in hose, and throw away this junky product.