Tool Force BLAHR50 50 Air Hose With Reel

I bought this from Amazon and have used it for only a short time.In my opinion, it's durability is assured if it will be used by the person that owns it. I doubt that it would last long in a tire shop full of heavy handed tire changers, but that is not its price point.I'm VERY picky about my stuff, and I am happy with this purchase. Its sturdy, doesn't look at all like a cheap piece of crap visually, and does what they say it will. The fit and finish is very good and the metal is thick enough not to bend if its not abused. In my shopping for this I found that this reel hits a perfect price point; any lower is likely cheap junk and any others of name brand are about double the price at least.Mine has no leaks, and the recoil mechanism works perfectly.Like another reviewer said, mine also had some minor damage. The hose reel was bent a bit on one side, and the seat for the hose through which it retracts was also bent to less than a 90 degree angle. I had to bend those two things back, but it took just a few minutes and the appearance is almost the same as new.One key point: the whip hose in my kit had a 1/4" MNPT on one side, and a 1/4" FNPT on the other, but the female side is some sort of compression fitting. You may need a different coupling for that side to connect to your air source ( I did ) You can just cut it off, and attach a barb with 1/4" NPT as needed.

At first I was pretty excited, packaging was robust, unit was constructed of heavy gauge steel supports, hose was thick.However, after hooking it up to my compressor, ( at 60 psi ) after about 20 minutes under pressure, the hose ruptured about a foot back from the output coupling. I sectioned off the rupture and used a barbed-fitting coupler for a new end. 2 hours later, another hose rupture, again about a foot behind the end couple. Sectioned and re-fitted. 3rd rupture occurred an hour later. I gave up, removed/discarded the original hose and replaced it with 50 feet of new hose from a local hardware store, after which I had no more problems.

I dislike surprises when I order products, so I was pleased that this reel was exactly what I expected to receive based on the listing. I use in my home garage where I do DYI car work and am restoring a '72 Datsun 240Z. This unit allows me to access my air supply quickly without having to wind air hoses back up by hand.The unit is heavy duty and just plain heavy...I installed it by myself but it is a chore. I am 6'3" and 275# and it was all I wanted to hang this puppy. I traced the hole pattern on a 2x8, predrilled the holes,then mounted the board to my wall studs using 1/2" lag screws. I then installed the botton lag screws and hung the unit on them while I installed the top lag screws. One word of caution, the mounting plate slots give no room for error, measure carefully.The unit came with a jump hose to my air line, but the fitting broke as I tightened it and I had to install a new fitting...not a problem and most likely my fault for using too much torque on the wrench. I like that the installed air hose is rubber and pretty flexible, not the stiff plastic type. The racheting stops hold well, but you have to remove the hose very slowly to get them to set.Overall, I am very pleased with the unit and would recommend to any home garage or light commercial user.

This is just right for my shop. I've been looking for the more practical reel for a while and this one really fills that bill. Quality is built in and well worth the price. I agree with other reviews that it's heavier than I thought it would be and mounting has to be very sturdy......very, very sturdy. The rubber hose is of much better quality that the average reel, which I welcome since I don't like cutting corners and shopping for bargin basement NON BRANDS. Actually, I don't like making repairs on "Tools". A tool, (good ones, that is) should be made to work "WITH", NOT "ON". This one seems to be of that quality.

This model looks like it is sold under several names priced all the way up to $119. It is heavier than I expected, the hose is high quality. There were no air leaks within the mechanism. The hose retracts well, easy to use. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 star rating is that mine came with some freight damage. The sides were slightly deformed from a probable shipping accident, but it was only slight damage and did not affect the performance of the reel. I'm very satisfied with it and for the price you couldn't ask for more. Have a very sturdy wall stud ready to mount it. A 2x6 would be minimum or you'll need to use a 3/4 inch plywood plate mounted across 2 studs. It will drop down from the ceiling almost 2 feet so for an overhead mount a 9 foot ceiling would be the minimum for good overhead clearance.

The hose itself is pretty bad. I've had mine about a year and most of the hose has small cracks all over, and I've had to cut the hose back a foot (twice now) and replace the fitting at the end with a hosebarb fitting due to it cracking clear through, huge blowing leak, thought the end was going to fly off and kill me. But it retracts all right and functions as advertised. The mount is a little thin so it gets wobbly when retracting at a decent speed, but it's certainly better than winding hoses up by hand, makes it easier to keep the place clean.

This is a great product and we are very happy with it. The installation went smoothly and the unit is everything we hoped it would be! As the others have said, this unit is VERY heavy but was installed by one person for the most part. A helper was only needed to hold it in place while the final screws were tightened. It did wobble a little but one small piece of wood to support brace under the vertical section fixed that problem. The hose is a good quality hose. I would recommend this product to anyone looking for a unit such as this. Delivery was faster then expected too.