Giraffe Stainless Steel Garden Hose Reel Heavy Duty, Wall/Floor Mounted Metal Water Hose Reel Retractable with Crank, 150-Feet 5/8" Hose Capacity

I absolutely love this hose reel! It's extremely well-built, solid, looks great, and should be the last hose reel I purchase for my garage. Forget the plastic stuff, this is solid stainless steel and brass construction. It easily holds my 100' 5/8" rubber hose and is simple to operate. Love the oscillating wind-up guide to keep the hose reeled in nicely. Easy to assemble with no leaks. The only minor quibbles I would make are that 1) I wish the reel metal side hose guards were hemmed over or had a soft guard on the perimeter to provide a safer, less dull edge, as though they're certainly not razor sharp, they're edgy enough that they could expose you to a good scratch or cut if you're carelessly winding/unwinding your hose with an appendage too close (though that hasn't happened to me due to extra caution), and 2) I also wish it had a storage grate/shelf on top to place accessories -- but this is very minor. Finally, I really wanted the reel handle on the left and water inlet on the right, as my install had the spigot to the right in a confined space and not much room to right-hand wind, but I make do. I get that most people, like me, are right-handed as the reason, but I wish there were an optional model for that (maybe there is?). It cannot be switched, certainly not without great effort after examination, and would probably void the warranty -- not worth the effort. I highly recommend this hose reel!!

the water infeed was on the left side my hose connection was on the right side of the reel

This hose reel exceeds my expectations due to the quality of parts and construction! It’s made of thick gage stainless steel, is attractive, comes fully assembled, and is easy to install. It comes with heavy duty stainless mounting hardware that’s only useful for masonry, so you’ll have to supply your own for other types of mounting substrates. I used the lag bolts from my previous hose reel mount, and they worked perfectly. I’m using it for a 5/8”x75’ hose, and it fit well on the reel with plenty of room to spare, so the item description appears to be accurate on hose capacity. Keep in mind that they strongly warn against using 3/4” hose due to size limitations on the hose threading device. The pros are extensive, with very limited cons. As I read in an earlier review, there is one issue with the hose clamp position being too parallel with the reel axis, leading to a possible hose kink inside the reel. However, after playing around with the hose slack inside the reel, I was able to prevent a kink. The Manufacturer should consider opening up the angle of the clamp a little to relieve stress on the hose. Also, in the future there may be an issue with the exposed grease on the hose threading system catching grit, which could result in wear of the “follower” that drives the side-to-side motion. Although, that follower appears to be made of PTFE, which should extend its life even with some grit. In summary, the pros far outweigh any potential concerns, and while I’ve just started using the hose reel, I wouldn’t hesitate to order another of these. The cost seemed high before purchase, but the overall great quality of this reel definitely makes it well worth the price! If you’re looking for one that looks great and will last, this is the best I’ve ever seen. I’m a lifelong perfectionist and retired industrial Chemist, so I’m very hard to please, and this reel is the best I’ve ever owned!

Out of the box the hose reel seems sturdy and well made. They include 4 expansion bolts with the reel to mount it to the wall and suggest only drilling in 2.1” so the bolts are snugly in the wall. However, I’ve not yet come across a piece of drywall that is that thick…so after drilling and inserting the bolts, the anchors ended up freely moving around, rendering them useless. I ended up mounting a couple 2x4s to the studs in my wall and then mounting the reel to that with lag bolts of my own. On to the reel itself, after my install fiasco, I wound/unwound it and thought everything worked pretty smoothly. I really liked the automatic guidance “system” to keep the hose from rolling up in just one spot. Then I connected the leader hose to my faucet and turned it on. Water sprays everywhere. Turns out the connection from the leader hose to the reel itself was loose. Had to tighten it. Turned the water back on and again noticed a slow drip. The connection from the 100’ hose itself to the reel was loose and had to tighten THAT. Moral of the story - tighten connections before turning on the water. After I got the connections straightened out, I took the hose for a test run by running it to some sprinklers to water my grass. Everything was working well until I went to roll it back up. The gear that connects to the handle that in turn moves the guidance system came undone. Upon inspection, it looks like there’s just enough give on both sides of the rod that holds the guidance system in place to make this a common occurrence. I’m not sure if my unit is missing a spacer ring that would prevent the gear from falling off the rod but in any case, getting it back on was quite a hassle. I’m going to see if I can find a thick washer to fit into the gap so it doesn’t happen again. I expected more for a $230 hose reel. Edit: updating review to 5 stars based on the stellar customer support from Giraffe Tools. Seeing my review, they reached out determined to help remedy the issues I was facing. A replacement hose reel has resolved my issues.

These were very expensive. I purchased 3. It took about 2-3 weeks for them to break. Although the exterior is stainless steel, the working parts are plastic with a rubber pulley that constantly comes off its crank! I’ve given up. Unfortunately I’m past the return dates but I would never repurchase this product.