When I worry about gripping a hose fitting so hard I might bend it (with channel-lock pliers), I use a 2" piece of garden hose slit so that I can wrap it around the fitting.
I imagine that the rubbery interior gives a better grip on the hose, and distributes the pliers's force so it's less likely to squeeze it into an oval that will never come apart.
Also, if I didn't protect the exposed male threads with a thread cap, they were probably gritty when I first screwed them together. I figure that the spraying/leaking washes some of the grit out of the threads and off the hose end mating surfaces, so that my second tightening will be easier.
If you have enough spigots scattered around your yard, using 1/2" or 3/4" irrigation mainline tubing, you never need to move or unscrew a hose. Everything can stay right where it is until just before heavy frosts.
And my irrigation tubing even shrugs off hard frosts as long as it was drained well. Even my Tee connectors and a timer stood up to my Zone 8 winter despite some poor draining!
