Indestructible, adjustable, serviceable metal garden hose nozzle?

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pasadena_commut

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Anybody know of a metal garden hose nozzle which is indestructible, adjustable, and serviceable? Also it should not put any lead into the water.

The most reliable I have found so far in a pistol grip is the Gilmour Full size zinc pistol grip. This one (but not a 3 pack):

https://www.amazon.com/Gilmour-Solid-Metal-Nozzle-Threaded/dp/B077GK1684/
These last a really long time, but eventually they get wonky at the spray end. Sometimes they spray backwards past the adjusting screw. I have never been able to fix one. For all I know it is just dirty inside the tube, or needs a new washer inside, but the plastic front plate seems to be pressed in, and the back adjusting nut is part of the handle and will not screw all the way off the threaded rod that runs through it. So no way to look.

What I would really like is a nozzle I can take apart and fix when it gets dirty. It doesn't have to be pistol grip, but that would be nice. The Gilmour's are cheap, but the local big box stores stopped carrying them (at least most of them did), probably because people were not coming back often enough to purchase replacements. This isn't a price issue, I would just like to stop throwing these nozzles away, and/or having them break at the worst possible moment.

Suggestions?

Thanks.
 
No replies. Never found what I was looking for, but went with one each of these:

https://www.acehardware.com/departm...ring-and-irrigation/nozzles-and-wands/7679095
https://www.acehardware.com/departm...ring-and-irrigation/nozzles-and-wands/7803133
While these are listed on all hardware stores' web sites, only a couple of ACE hardware stores actually had them in stock, the nearest was just under 12 miles away.

The Gilmour is mostly metal but there is some plastic in the tip (the gold part). At least I think it is plastic, it doesn't feel like metal. I think the plastic tip insert screws out, as it has a hexagonal shape to fit a large Allen wrench or similar tool, and there look to be fine threads behind the insert. It is cheap, light, and should last a long time, but this design isn't wonderful. The spray is always a cone shape and the harder the handle is squeezed, the narrower the cone. It is possible to get it to stay on continuously by flipping down a little latch, but there is no way to set it to "spray at this angle" without passing through a wider spray pattern. Mostly we use this one (well, the previous pretty similar nozzle) for washing the dog: light squeeze to rinse off the beast, harder squeeze to fill a bucket.

The Melnor has a metal body and handle, with plastic/rubber stuck into it for a more comfortable grip. It is pretty heavy. The rivet that holds the handle on seems to be plastic, if it is going to break, my guess is that will be the spot. But it could be drilled out and replaced with a bolt, so not a deal breaker. The tip is metal (brass from the color) but most of the rest of that adjusting mechanism seems to be plastic. (Screw it all the way forward and it exposes square cross section plastic core.) This one is easier to use - adjust the tip to change the angle of the cone, and the handle will start the spray at that width with varying amounts of water depending on handle squeeze. It also has a latch for the handle to keep it on continuously. This is the Melnor XT450. The XT451, has a different tip mechanism (looks like all plastic) but everything else the same. It is like one of those shower heads where a plate is rotated to give varying patterns. We have very hard water, that "series of holes" design would end up with blocked holes in no time.

As always when buying a nozzle of any type, I checked for a washer on the bottom. The washers tend to fall out, or people pull them out and steal them, and of course the nozzle will leak like crazy without one. In the ACE I visited none of the nozzles I looked at was missing its washer. Both of these nozzles sealed perfectly to a garden hose with no drips or leaks. That ACE store (Mission Hardware, in Glendora) had a very large selection of nozzles available, which was nice, but apparently unusual even for this chain.
 
Hose nozzles with internal stop valves and multiple spray patterns are designed to be replaced and, because of that, I've moved away from any garden nozzle with a trigger or pistol grip and spray heads. I use either a simple gardening watering wand without internal stop valve, if watering, or a simple six inch brass nozzle with a 1/4" outlet for washing things down. I swap them out at the outlet of the hose where I have attached a 1/4-turn stop valve.

Or something simply like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Dramm-12380-...hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583726553936909&psc=1
 
I dunno, $25 is a lot of money for that nozzle. Back in the day they used to cost a cuppla bucks.

Or am I just showing my age...
 
Similar nozzles are available for less:

https://www.acehardware.com/departm...ring-and-irrigation/nozzles-and-wands/7683360
and much less

https://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-brass-garden-hose-nozzle-31811.html
One must wonder though about the amount of lead that is going to leech out of a Chinese made lowest bidder chunk of brass. I do like the idea of using one of these simple nozzles with a shutoff valve. Put an adjustable flow limiter of some sort in series (gate valve maybe) and it would be functionally equivalent to the XT450. Probably not as comfortable to hold though.
 
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