Suncast 125ft Hydro Power Auto Rewind Hose Reel

Comments about Suncast 125ft Hydro Power Auto Rewind Hose Reel:

The orange lever on this broke after only a few uses. I have a competitor's product in the backyard that has been going strong for several years. Guess what I'll replace this one with!

Comments about Suncast 125ft Hydro Power Auto Rewind Hose Reel:

My wife and I recently purchased a self-rewinding garden hose storage reel to make watering our plants an easier task. This has become especially important to us these days, as we are two super-seniors with super senior aches and pains. I researched the few units that are sold in our local stores and ultimately purchased two different models, both manufactured by Suncast. In the hopes of helping future buyers I will share the good and the bad I have learned. In short, the first unit is model number RSH125 purchased at one local store and is a model that has been sold by various retailers for the past several years. It is remarkably prone to breaking and is poorly built, as many users have already reported online. Our unit lost a gear during initially setting it up, and I returned it immediately after witnessing first hand just how poor its mechanical structure really was. The second unit is model RSW125 purchased at a different local store and is an improved newer version of its almost look-alike cousin. No reviews of this newer model have been written to my knowledge. It appears solid enough that I have now purchased and installed three units for our home. These units are an absolute pleasure to useHowever, if you want the hose reel to keep working for more than just a few weeks, you ABSOLUTELY MUST be certain to do one thing that is barely hinted at in the owner's manual: You must draw the hose out and rewind it while keeping the hose straight in front of the unit so that the hose guide may properly feed the hose on or off the reel. If you create a significant angle to the hose reel, I guarantee that the whole mechanism will fail within a few weeks. This is because, although the new model has a stouter hose guide and mechanical casing, the mechanism is still too weak to survive the added forces placed on it when a hose is not straight in front of it when the hose is drawn in or out. The owner's manual properly warns that you must help the hose avoid snags by obstacles like bushes or lawn furniture as the hose is reeled in. Also, you must stake the rear of the frame to the ground with the stakes and mounting brackets provided. I installed my own clamps to the front of the frame as well, to provide additional stability over that provided by the somewhat weak rear brackets. In online reviews, some purchasers of the older Suncast RSH125 and still earlier models express high satisfaction. Others express extreme disappointment. I totally side with the latter. To give some belief in my review I will only say that I am a retired scientist and engineer, and have earned an international reputation for designing and building robust quality scientific instrumentation. I am trained to sort out the good from the ugly.The Suncast website and various retailers offer models that are virtually identical to the older RSH125 but come in subtly different model numbers and are identified as models RSH125 alone or the same ID appended by the letters D, J, or U. It is VERY UNCLEAR in the scant descriptions at the Suncast website if one unit is different from another except for color. This lack of clarity is perhaps understandable, as all models are still actively sold by different retailers. Other units have been sold since 2003 and have been marketed under various model and manufacturer names: No-Crank, ReelSmart, and now most recently Touch & Go. All are water-powered hose rewinding units and have been developed by the same original company, Hydro Industries. Today the dominant manufacturer name is SuncastOur first Suncast model RSH125 was amazingly under-engineered and made of thin, fragile plastic that felt so flimsy I doubted it would last even one season. After initial setup, I manually spooled out the hose easily and was highly impressed with how easily the unit then automatically rewound the 100 ft 5/8 inch hose. A second trial of spooling the hose out and rewinding it resulted in one gear falling out of the unit. I was finally able to reinstall the gear, but doing so was ridiculously difficult (poor human engineering). I returned it for my money back.Although at first glance the second unit, the newer Suncast RSW125, appears nearly identical to the older RSH125, a closer inspection reveals that it is a significantly improved model. The Suncast website is virtually mute about what differences exist between the newer and older models, and hardly identifies the newer RSW125 as "new." I find that the RSW125 incorporates thicker, curved, stiffer outer walls (the curved design alone aids considerably in stiffening the original design of the flimsy rectangular box of the RSH125 model). It also utilizes a relocated gear train that is more accessible if repair is needed, superior stiff mounting brackets, a tougher hose guide, and a thicker, superior, drain hose. While some users of the older RSH125 series of models report successful experience over more than one season, this amazes me. My own experience is consistent with the negative reports of many other users. I would frankly advise anyone to avoid purchase of these models. The superior improved model RSW125 is available at the same, or slightly lower, price. Whether its exterior walls will withstand the Arizona sun, and whether its interior gears will continue to work for several seasons is currently pure conjecture. However, I am at least hopeful that this clearly superior model will prove worthy of our purchase. My wife is delighted with the ease of auto-rewinding a hose with this new unit, but she complains a bit about how careful she must be in aligning the hose with its front. Such is the price we pay for this wonderful labor-saving device, at least if we want it to stay around for a while.