Stainless Steel Garden Hose 3/4" Shut Off Valve GHT Thread Heavy Duty Ball Valve Connector...

This stainless steel hose shutoff is the creme de la creme of shutoffs. It will make any garden hose proud. It has excellent rust resistance and will resist corrosion far longer than the zinc jobs. It can't be crushed as can the plastic valves. It has a long handle which makes the one quarter turn easier. Recommended.

This could be a very good product - the quality of the stainless parts seems very good. However...first problem: it comes without a gasket - you have to supply one for the female side yourself. Maybe not a big deal but for $18 you'd expect a ready-to-use valve. More importantly, the valve comes in the open position. My valve was absolutely frozen in that position. No amount of force by hand would move the handle (and I am a pretty strong guy). Figuring I have nothing to lose at this point, I put the valve in a vice and banged the handle with a hammer. Since there is no indication in which direction the handle should move to close the valve, I was aware that potentially banging the heck out of the thing in the wrong direction will likely cause permanent damage. So I banged gently at first in both directions, increasing force with time. Finally, the handle got unstuck and moved (it moves in a clock-wise direction when pointing the male end away from you). Once unstuck, the valve works, but now the handle wiggles a bit, likely from the required multi-direction banging. A little bit of lubricant on the ball valve before packaging for sale would have solved this major problem. I imagine, most people that actually paid money for this would just give-up and return the product for refund before resorting to the brutal hammer treatment.