Suncast Automatic Rewind Garden Hose Reel, 100 ft. 5/8 in. Vinyl Hose Holder, Light Taupe

I love my yard and I garden most of the week. I have back and neck problems which lead to sciatica so the last thing I want to do or am able to do is bend over when I am hot and tired to wind up the garden hose. I was so excited to get this and absolutely love it. I purchased this item in April, 2014. I am very rough on water hoses and wanted a rubber one with a lifetime warranty. Instead of a 100 foot standard hose, I purchased a Sears Craftsman 75 foot 5/8" premium rubber hose 71-69603 as another purchaser suggested. This is one heavy hose and the motor pulls this in like a charm. The two anchor clips are excellent and hold it in place. I have also moved it to concrete recently so I couldn't use the clips and it still remains steady when it winds up the hose.Once I received the Powerwind, I read the instructions carefully. I plugged in the battery for the initial charge according to the instructions and connected my new rubber hose. Rubber hoses are a real pain to unroll from their packaging and I had to adjust it repeatedly the first time I wound it up but the powerwind did the work from there. I manually wound up this heavy hose since my battery was charging and I wanted to test everything. The handle on the manual is sturdy and is a bit tough to pull out. It makes a loud click to lock in place and does a great job. To make the handle flush again, you need to find the clip at the end of the handle and push it to unlock. Take your time, you will get it back in. I read where other buyers have had problems in the past pulling the hose out but mine was great. Once the battery was installed, it lasted me the entire season into the fall. I charged it again but kept it out all winter and with the cold weather it drained a bit faster so I charged it again about 6 weeks ago. I also cleaned the storage slots for the battery since this remains outdoors 24/7/365.I started adding new plants to the back of my yard and needed a longer length than 75 feet, so added a standard 50 foot Aldi hose (which is a piece of junk) to the existing hose. It still pulls in great but will not comfortably hold both hoses. However, I only reel it up to the couplings of the two hoses as I don't want to risk the coupling causing damage. I am going to move this unit with the 75 foot hose to the front yard (after tossing the Aldi hose) and purchase a second unit to accommodate a longer hose for the back yard.This is a tough product and I put heavy demands on it. It is one of my favorite garden tools and I highly recommend it. Follow the instructions and read suggestions from others. I always pull it out completely and have had it pull from all angles and I do suggest that prior to winding you pull the hose away from any sharp angles/corners. The motor will pull it but dropping the hose relatively straight saves wear and tear on the motor, battery and your garden hose. My yard is my passion and this product just makes things so much easier and is worth every penny.

During the assembly process, I discovered a generous dob of silicone lubricant in the drive system, but (strangely) it was not applied to the bearing shafts as you would expect. I fixed that first thing. (That may be why some have said that there is not enough tension in the idler pulley linkage to reel-in the hose.)I charged the battery as instructed and put it out in the garden. It's been working like a champ for nearly three months (still on the first charge!).Most hose reels have disappointed us, but not this one. We're very pleased with it. We may buy another.Incidentally, we loaded it with 75' of 5/8" Flexzilla Garden Hose. That is working fine, too. But that hose is so soft that it tends to flatten a bit on the reel as it is reeling in (thus restricting the flow passage). To minimized flattening, I like to keep the hose pressurized while reeling it in. When done, I turn off the water and crack the spray nozzle to relieve the residual pressure on the hose.UPDATE 4/17/2017:•I'm still pleased with it.•Had to re-charge the battery only once to finish the 2016 season.•Though it comes with anchor spikes, we haven't bothered to anchor it.•Manual states, "Turn off the water. When winding hose, Suncast recommends that you bring end of hose back to the front of the hose reel and take the hose accessory off the [discharge] end of the hose." Dragging the discharge end back to the reel before reeling reduces the maximum drag load on the reel by half. Doing that should prolong the unit's useful life. Also, if your hose is heavy, doing that should make it easier for the reel to reel it in.• When plugged into the battery, the charger's indicator lamp glows green (fully charged), yellow (85% charged), or red (charging). I charged the battery last fall when I brought it in for the winter. I'm charging it today, before I reinstall it in the hose reel. When the charger came on, the indicator lamp glowed yellow, so the battery charge appears to have remained above 85% over the winter.•I phoned Suncast today to ask if it was OK to leave the battery on the charger all winter. They told me, "Yes." However, I doubt I'll need to do that, given that the battery lost so little charge over the winter.UPDATE 11/26/18:We bought a second one of these in June 2017, charged it once and it was good for the year. We did use the anchor spikes to keep it in-place, and they have proved satisfactory.In late fall of '17, I removed both batteries, charged them, and stored them inside for the winter. In spring of '18, I topped off the charge on both batteries before re-installing them in their respective hose reels. Neither battery needed recharging for the rest of 2018. (They can't possibly last forever, but there is no hint of reduced performance yet.)BTW, while we bring in the batteries for the winter, the hose reels have remained outside year around. Nothing has broken and all still looks and works good. (We live in a suburban subdivision in SW Ohio.)I have to say, these Suncast PW100 hose reels are a great product! I never expected them to work out so well. I tip my hat to the designer! (That's a mechanical engineer's hat, btw.)Before spring '19, we may buy a third one to replace an old manual reel that saw its best days years ago (it was never a pleasure to use).

I used a water driven rewind system before and it is hard to pull the heavy duty hose out. I think the belt make it easier than the teeth wheel system to let the hose out. Also the battery to drive the rewind is simplier than using the water.

This is worth ever penny i paid for It. Work seamlessly and it super efficient. I now have two of them. They are great as i have a shoulder issue ans can not use a manual crank unit.

This is actually the second Powerwind I have purchased, the first one was about 8 years ago from Costco, it is still running and so I wanted to buy another for the front of our house. They are easy to use and it ever you have a problem they have great customer service and all parts are available if you have to repair it.This one is $50 cheaper than my local Home Depot so to me it is well worth the wait and price.

only issue I had was the male hose bib attachment to the female coupler on the unit. The coupler should have been able to turn rather than having to turn the faucet attachment hose to make the connection

Got this for my elderly mother so that she could still enjoy watering her garden and not have to deal with a long, messy hose. Easily houses my heavey duty 100' long Gardena hose. Works great!!! Used it daily for 2 months and have not yet needed to recharge the battery.