A watering can still earns its hook next to a hose
On a small UK plot I have wasted more time dragging a hose than I have filling a can. I once ran a cheap hose to a cluster of pots, kinked it at the first corner, and then stood there while a thin jet hit the path. The pots were still dry. A can would have done the job in two trips.
A hose is for a long run of beds or a newly planted hedge. A can is for pots, a tray, and anything you would rather not blast. A water butt sits between them. It stores rain so you are not filling the can from the kitchen tap every dry week. That is the kit. Three jobs, three bits of hardware. People buy the hose first and then wonder why they still have a watering problem.
The can fails in small, annoying ways. The rose unscrews in the butt and sinks. The handle cuts your hand when the can is full. The can is so large you will not lift it, so you half-fill it and make twice the trips anyway. I would look for a rose that clicks or threads firmly, and a can I can carry full without the handle folding into a wire. Two cans of about 5 to 10 litres beat one giant one I cannot lift. A long spout helps me reach the back of a pot without wetting the leaves I am trying to keep dry.
A butt is only useful if you can get water out of it. I would not buy one until I have a firm, level base. A full butt is heavy. On soft soil it leans, the tap weeps, and the stand ends up in the mud. A purpose-made stand or a few slabs on compacted ground is the bit people skip. Check the tap actually shuts and that you can get a can under it. A tap set too low is useless. A tap that only dribbles means you will cheat and use the mains. I have cheated. Then I have a wet path and an empty butt.
The lid matters more than the colour. A lid that blows off lets in leaves, mosquitoes, and the odd drowned mouse. A lid that does not fit will still do that, only slower. I would also look at how the downpipe enters. A loose diverter that drips down the wall is not collecting rain. It is staining the brick.
A hose still earns a place if the plot is more than a few metres from the tap. I would check the length against the actual path, not the diagonal across the lawn. Cheap hose kinks at the first corner. A reel that will not wind with water in the pipe is a reel I would leave in the shop. The fittings are a separate problem, and they fail first. That is Hose fittings leak at the washer, not the hose. Do not assume the bag in the hose box will match your outdoor tap.
Skip a butt sold with no capacity and no tap size. Skip a can with no stated volume. If I cannot fit the rose back on after one rinse, the kit is not worth the space. Skip a "complete watering set" that is a thin hose, a spray head that weeps, and a can with a rose already loose in the box.
This kit earns its keep from late spring through the dry weeks of summer, and again whenever something newly moved still needs a drink. September is still a watering month on a small plot. I would rather fill a can from the butt than unroll a hose for six pots. In winter the hose comes off the tap and the fittings go indoors. The can stays on its hook. The butt, if it is not a type you drain, still needs a tap that shuts. A slow leak in January is a sheet of ice on the slabs.
I do not want three hoses. I want one length that reaches, a can I will actually carry, and a butt I can get a can under. That is worth the space. The rest is plastic I walk around.
If I later add a buy link here, it will be a paid promo.