Serpent said: Other settings are just there to annoy.

Oh, THAT'S why they have those other settings!!!

LOL Sally!!

I actually use "cone" occasionally, if I've just moved something and want to soak the ground around it w/o beating up the plant too much.

The "flat" can be good for long, thin areas, but I don't have any that are too thin for "shower."

"Jet" should be called "ant." You can wreak devastation on an ant hill with jet. Especially if the hose is full of 150 feet of hot water from being in the sun.

My current one has "center" which is similar to shower but it goes farther. I have a few shrubs that get some "center" if I don't feel like dragging the hose all the way out.

"Full" is "jet" with no ambition about hitting anything in particular. Good for filling up a bucket without splashing so much.

"Jet" should have a warning though, if you forget it's on that setting and are about to blast the little pansies you just grounded right into the sidewalk. Jet can also dig a little hole straight down. Or reach the stray cat stalking birds by the birdbath.

Until my hands got arthritis, I used to be a whiz with my thumb. I could produce all of those settings. My "jet" was superior, IMVHO.

I never use "shower", the plants get very little water and it is too wide to really control without wetting my feet, or missing planters. I prefer "center", similar to shower but more focused. I also like "soaker" when getting up close. For really thirsty trees I can leave soaker on the ground and walk away for 10 minutes to do something else.
"Jet" I only use to fill up my watering can when mixing liquid fertilizer. Or to chase away squirrels.
I do not use any of the other settings.

Shower is the normal setting I use if I need to hand-water my containers. Besides all the ones Tiffany listed (I do use them all at times), I also have a soaker setting, which I use to water in-ground shrubs. I just lay it at the base of the plant and move it along every 5-10 minutes or so. It's nice because it avoids getting the foliage wet.

The 1 thing I never, ever do with the hose is let any water get on the grass.

I don't use the hose for containers except the really big ones. Most of them get watered with a little watering can. I also try to avoid getting the plants wet, nothing good can come of that unless mother nature is doing it, & water would get all over the porch. Porch wants to be concrete when it grows up. I could water quickly and not worry about runoff. But I try to not "want" myself out of appreciating what I do have. A crappy plywood porch that needs to be replaced is better than none, and the plants there like it.

I never ever water the grass either, just seems so wasteful. The only time I used a watering can for the planters is when fertilizing them once a week years ago. But with 30-40 planters, some taking as much as 2.5 gals of water, that got old fast. I've since hooked up a drip irrigation system to all the planters, and put a fertilizer unit in too, so I never have to do the endless watering cans again. I'm a lazy gardener wherever possible!

Oh and my watering nozzle is one of the long reach ones, 33", and with a movable head, so I could easily do the hanging baskets without getting water all over the place, myself included.