I am finally getting around to plumbing my garage with different air outlets and I am looking at Retractable Air hose reels.

Anyone have a good brand to get or experience with any of these?

I have a cheep Costco reel, in it's 5th year of hard use. Only problem I ever had was I repalced the the small tail hose that feeds it.

They have a different now, been tempted to buy a second one.

I picked one up at harbor frieght for about $30 when it was on sale. It only holds 25 feet of hose, but has been working well for the last year or so.

noticed the local wally world had one for around $40 with hose. Almost thought of getting it so I did not have to keep rolling the one in the garage up.

I have a couple of the ones from grizzly.com and I haven't had a problem with them at all.

No financial interests in the above link.

Coxreels are about the best hose reel for ANY gas or liquid, be it Oxy/Ace, Comp. Air, Oil, Gas, Diesel, etc. They are extremely well-built and expensive.

I have Task Force from Lowe's. I purchased it for $80. It holds 50' of 3/8" heavy duty air hose. It is very solid and doesn't leak down too much....maybe 10lbs in a couple of hours.... I have seen the exactly same air hose reel at MSC, Autobody Toolmart, and Buzzard Gulch for $120 +.

Depending on how much use it will see, I would get a unit that is braced on both sides of the wheel and has a 4 roller fairlead. Also, be sure to use lag screws/bolts instead of the weak zinc plated pot metal attachment hardware most manufacturer's include.

I also mounted a 2' by 3' piece of 3/4" plywood for the air reel to bolt onto just to reduce side-to-side stress on the wall. It is especially useful when you are reeling it out and walking perpindicular to the hose reel.

I have an Amflo 50' model, picked it up at Lowes for $80 before the switched to the Task Force. Have had it ~2 years, love it. Just getting rid of the junk PVC hose was a huge improvement, the stuff on the reel is actually flexible.

Pete

can you mount thouse hose reels on their side?

Campbell Hausfeld makes a nice retractable hose reel, we have 3 in our shop, but the welder's sparks go right through the plastic-ish hose so we switch them with nice tundra-aire hoses (soft like butta' unitl -40).
Also nice steel constuction, and yes they can be used on their side....

DO NOT buy the Colleman's setup, I have one and it sucks as far as winding the hose back. I think I bought it at Sears or Harbor Freight do not remember. worked good for one week, but the hose kinda has a hard time going back in so I have to wind it back by hand half way. suckssss

Yes, old thread. No need to start a new one for the same information.

I am thinking about this one. There are similar units at the local Home Depot and Lowes for about the same price, but I dont have coupons for those stores. A couple of the reviews address the quality of the hose. What kind of success are you guys having with these units?
http://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools/hose-reels/50-ft-retractable-air-water-hose-reel-with-3-8-eighth-inch-hose-93897.html

My plan is to mount the reel in the attic. I will detach the fairlead from the reel and mount the farilead to the ceiling of my attic where the hose penetrates the ceiling directly below the hose reel. I only have an 8' ceiling and don't want to take up any head or storage room in the garage. How often do you have to manually adjust the hose in your reel due to uneven rewinding? My compressor will be mounted in the attic also.

What kind of success are you guys having with these units?
http://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools/hose-reels/50-ft-retractable-air-water-hose-reel-with-3-8-eighth-inch-hose-93897.html

How often do you have to manually adjust the hose in your reel due to uneven rewinding? My compressor will be mounted in the attic also.

I love mine.
Got it with the 20% off coupon just for the hell of it.
I use it every single time I'm in the shop, which is quite often, and have had 0 problems with it so far.
Don't have to manually readjust or anything.

Well worth the money, IMO.

HF has a 25% off any single item coupon out right now for New Years Day only. :evil:

I've got the H-F unit. It's been in daily use for almost ten years.

I have replaced the hose, but that is kind of a wear item.

Whatever you do, don't try to put a longer hose on it, the spring is only so long.

I've had great luck with the 25' from HF.

I have 1 or 2 50' and 2 more 25' I plan to use in the shop when it's done :shaking:

For the price w/coupon you can't go wrong.

I have had good luck with the 25' harbor reel. I removed the hose from mine, wound the spring all the way tight, and installed a 1/4" x 50' hose on it. I can get it to retract a little over 40' of it and I just roll up the rest. If I really wanted to I could shorten it to 40' and retract the entire hose.

Campbell Hausfeld makes a nice retractable hose reel, we have 3 in our shop, but the welder's sparks go right through the plastic-ish hose so we switch them with nice tundra-aire hoses (soft like butta' unitl -40).
Also nice steel constuction, and yes they can be used on their side....


:laughing: YA don't cut with plasma over them either.. lol :flipoff2:

I've got the 50' Harbor Freight reel and it has been surprisingly good. I actually got it used from a boat shop that was closing down. My only complaint is that it was missing the stop that keeps the reel from sucking up the end of the hose, but that was missing when I got it used, so I really have to hold that against the previous owner and not Harbor Freight. Does anybody know where I can find a replacement for that thing?

I've got the 50' Harbor Freight reel and it has been surprisingly good. I actually got it used from a boat shop that was closing down. My only complaint is that it was missing the stop that keeps the reel from sucking up the end of the hose, but that was missing when I got it used, so I really have to hold that against the previous owner and not Harbor Freight. Does anybody know where I can find a replacement for that thing?

Make one w/a hockey puck :laughing:

I'll have to see what kind we have at work. They are used 20hrs a day, 6 days a week and hold up just fine.

http://www.coxreels.com/safety_hose_reels/index.html

I've got one of these. Picked it up out of a dumpster :laughing:


I rewound the spring a little tighter, replaced the air hose with a really nice non-kinker one. It worked great. in my garage/shop. Now it's sitting on my floor cause I don't need it anymore. :shaking:

I picked up the 50' from HF today..used the 25% off and it was $67.99. I'll update when i get it mounted

I have a decent reel I bought from a garage sale mounted on the wall and a hf hose reel on the ceiling. the hf reel nolonger stops when pulled and the hose has twists and seems to baloon if anything over 20lbs drops on it. The hf reel is going in the trash and I thinks its more trouble than its worth to mount them on walls but I like them for painting and re fact that it hangs over my welding table for use.

I have the 50' harbor freight one and it is holding up great. if i try to wind it up at a severe angle all the hose will load up on 1 side and stop but you would have that problem with any reel.

Does anybody know where I can find a replacement for that thing?

HF has parts lists available on their website.

I bought a Reelcraft. If I had to do it again, I'd either spend a little more and get the metal version (vs the plastic spool) or go cheap and hope for the best. Judging by a lot of the comments on here about the HF version that may be a more economical way to go.

http://reelcraft.thomasnet.com/Asset/SeriesRT_Image.jpg

I bought a Reelcraft. If I had to do it again, I'd either spend a little more and get the metal version (vs the plastic spool) or go cheap and hope for the best. Judging by a lot of the comments on here about the HF version that may be a more economical way to go.

http://reelcraft.thomasnet.com/Asset/SeriesRT_Image.jpg

Those are made down the road from me. They are really nice, but spendy.

I'll stick with H-F for the $

I picked up the 25' reel from HF for $37. I have a 30' extension cord reel that I rarely need any additional length. It is physically smaller than the 50' and allowed me to easily mount it where I wanted to. From this spot I can easily reach most places in my garage and most of the driveway.

I used 4" lag bolts that tie into some blocking that I added in the attic. When pulling the hose parallel to the axis the unit has a little flex. I will tie the roller fairlead support into the wall to stiffen it up.

I'll have to see what kind we have at work. They are used 20hrs a day, 6 days a week and hold up just fine.

The ones we have are Chicago Pnuematic...