Gardening, much like any other physical activity, has witnessed a great change in the way it’s practiced over the years. From manually having to cut grass, to automated machines that can do the same task much more efficiently and quickly. Where we once had water-pots, (are those even a thing now?) but now we have garden hoses to do that job for us.
Hose Reels have become increasingly popular in the market, hence there are countless different models you can buy for yourself. However, to make things easier for you, we’ll break it down into 3 different categories: budget, mid-range and high-end.
| Hose Reel | Wall Mount | Hose Capacity | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rolio Expandable Garden Hose | Yes | 50ft | View |
| Wellmax Retractable Water Hose Reel | Yes | 65ft | View |
| ORCISH Hose Reel | Yes | 66ft | View |
| REELWORKS Air-Hose-Reel | Yes | 50ft | View |
| TACKLIFE Retractable Garden Hose Reel | Yes | 82ft | View |
| Power Retractable Hose Reel | Yes | 50ft | View |
| Giraffe Metal Hose Reel Box | Yes | 130ft | View |
In this fast-paced business world, people are always on the move. But as work gets more and more difficult and demanding for individuals, the need for homes has escalated as well. Where once apartments used to be popular amongst people, it soon came to notice how separate homes offered much more privacy and comfort as compared to apartments. Construction companies are always involved in these mega projects of housing schemes all over the world, and have to get rid of trees and forests to make space for the growing need of homes.
However, as trees get cut down, the greenery is resurrected in the shape of luscious gardens in the premises of these houses. Almost everyone who owns a home has a garden inside as well, and everyone who has a garden is going to need to take care of it. That’s where gardening comes into place.
Best Reel for Garden Hose in the Market
Finding the best garden hose reel is no easy feat. There are many different types, all with their own pros and cons. Some are smaller and lighter, and others are larger and more sturdy. Some are pre-filled with water as you reel them in, while others need to be filled in advance.
The level of pre-planning necessary varies as well. You should make sure that the garden hose reel you choose is easy to store and easy to use before you buy it.
Before you decide to pick up any garden hose reel just because it has “best garden hose reel” in the title, you should consider what your real needs are so that you won’t end up buying a product that doesn’t work for you.
I’ve reviewed the five most popular garden hose reels on the market, and here is what I found:
Rolio Expandable Garden Hose with Hose Reel
Rolio’s Garden Hose Reel is probably the cheapest one you can find on the market. A simple, no-nonsense model that’s sure to get the job done effectively. The low price on here doesn’t mean that the quality is sacrificed, though. Rolio makes sure the customers get what they want, which is a durable, and operational water hose made with decent quality materials. That is exactly what’s offered here. The hose is shipped with a convenient reel on which it can be wrapped around, along with a well-sized handle that any person can comfortably use to pick it up. Many times it’s frustrating to not have a suitable place to keep away the water hose after watering your plants, and even if there is, it feels like too much of a hassle. Well here, you need not worry about that, as portability is not an issue.
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Durability is not a concern with Rolio’s Hose Reel. The company provides a dura-flex core for the hose, which increases its strength tenfold. Using carefully knitted fibres across the bottom layer, a second layer is established with gives the whole pipe added protection. This helps with the prevention of any water leakages as well. In addition to that, you need not worry about your pipe getting rusted at all, as these come with anti-rust coating as well. To top it all off, a responsive customer care team is also present, so if you have any queries or complaints, you’ll have assistance all day.
GreenFriendlyHome 50ft Expandable Garden Hose
Green Friendly Home aims to provide a well-structured, and strong-built garden hose with this model. However, there’s one important aspect missing: a hose reel.
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Even though the company promises a no-twist experience when rolling up the coil of this hose, it still falls behind plenty with the absence of a reel. You’ll have to go through the trouble of finding a plastic bag to put your hose in and finding a vacant spot to store it in.
However, the fact that GFH abstained from a reel doesn’t take anything away from the quality of what IS present. A high grade, strong latex core helps to keep it leak and rustproof, which is further protected by an outer layer of high-density fabric. Furthermore, the hard rubber on the nozzle allows you to keep a strong grip on it even when your hands are wet. The grip is strengthened even more thanks to the ergonomic build on the nozzle, so you can do your gardening with ease! The nozzle even comes with 8 different flow options, so you can switch between them and choose the one with your liking.
To sum it up, in the budget section, the expandable hose seems to be a better choice as compared to Green-Friendly Home’s version. It provides a proper reel, and a hanger to lift it and make it much more portable. 5 bucks extra with the absence of a key component just doesn’t make sense.
Wellmax Retractable Water Hose Reel with Wall Mount
Now we enter the mid-range market where some interesting options arrive at hand, one such being the Wellmax Retractable Garden Hose Reel. A short jump of approximately 30 bucks and we witness a much better overall product. Wellmax brings a lot to the table with their version of a modern hose reel. For the hosepipe itself, the material takes a switch from rubber and latex, and introduces PVC material, to ensure better quality and durability. Moving on, inside the reel itself, they use reliable stainless-steel springs to allow long-term usage with ease.
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Springs in a reel? It sounds odd, but it works flawlessly.
Wellmax makes clever use of the springs to implement a lock-on system, which essentially locks the hose in place when you pull it out for use, and when you want to pull more as per your need, it removes the lock again. The Hose Reel also comes with 4 bolts and a wall-mount bracket, which helps you to install it on your wall, be it stone or concrete, without breaking a sweat. Even if you want to lend it to a friend, you can easily dismantle the whole piece, to move it without taking up much space or effort. Also present is a safe speed rewind technology, which means you don’t have to worry about having your children around while doing your daily gardening. A warranty and a 30-day customer guarantee is a cherry on top of this great product.
ORCISH Retractable Garden Hose-Reel
A sleek, subtle design, with promising features; that’s what Orcish offers in their package of a Garden Hose Reel. Even if it’s just gardening equipment, doesn’t mean that it has to look bad. But even apart from the design, Orcish seems to have ticked almost all boxes with their version of a hose reel. A lot of the basic fundamentals have been done right here, along with a couple of extra quirks added on top. Like other decent Garden Hose Reels, this also has a PVC finish on the hose and is also retractable with a lock-on pulling system. Moreover, it also has an automatic retraction technology which takes it time, making it safer for children to be around.
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But it’s about the things Orcish does differently that count. Just on the opening to the hose reel where the hose connects, there’s a thin brush installed, which helps to clean the hose, keeping any dirt residue out of the hose and the reel. They also offer a unique 9 pattern nozzle from which you can choose different modes, ranging from mist to jet. The variety of patterns in the nozzle-head also helps you to use the hose reel for tasks other than gardening as well, like washing your pet dog to even washing your car when you need to! Overall, it’s a high-quality product with multi-purpose use, so all your water needs will be taken care of.
REELWORKS Air Hose Reel
Okay, so the first thing to love about this model is the fact that it’s green. Other than their earthy look and design, which very much goes with the aesthetic of gardening, ReelWorks succeed in bringing a solid product to the market. Safe speed retracting, strong PVC pipes, and a powerful spray nozzle, ReelWorks lays down a strong foundation when it comes to manufacturing a good Garden Hose Reel. They also include an easy-to-install wall mount bracket, which gives the user a 180-degree movement option after it’s been mounted.
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In the mid-range market, ReelWorks arguably provides the most durable product of the rest. A PVC, Hyper Flex Polymer material ensures that the hose has no kinks or leaks whatsoever. On top of that, it assures you of withstanding all extreme weather that comes your way. From sub-zero temperatures to steaming hot days, you’re fully covered. Along with being leak and rustproof, it also promises to be oil and abrasion-resistant. ReelWorks also boasts about its dedicated, top-of-the-line customer service, ultimately expressing that once you buy their product, you will never need to get rid of it.
TACKLIFE 5/8” Retractable Hose Reel
We’re treading over the upper mid-range level of pricing for garden hose reels now. TackLife, even though seems to be providing everything a decent hose reel consists of, doesn’t justify its asking price.
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It does have the same safe retraction system, 8 pattern-nozzle, auto-locking system, the standard metal connector, and the same wall mount bracket coverage as many of the other mid-tier hose reels. The only difference is that this one from TackLife is significantly pricier than its competition.
The only silver lining we can spot with this model is a higher quality hose as compared to PVC. TackLife has used a Hybrid Polymer which is more durable and flexible than the regular PVC. The Black and Orange design could be appreciated as well, but that’s about it for the good part.
All in all, we feel that spending extra on TackLife’s Hose Reel wouldn’t be wise, as several other models are just as good, if not better, and that too at a lower price. The overall best fit for a mid-range version seems to be by Orcish. They have presented a well-rounded hose reel with decent functionality at a reasonable price. Even if you search for durability, ReelWorks seems to be a better choice as compared to TackLife at their relative price points, as it’s oil and abrasion-resistant AND can handle extreme weather as well.
Giraffe Garden Hose, Water Hose Hybrid
As we take a step into the higher end hose reel models, we expect higher quality materials and increased functionality as well. With Giraffe Tool’s very own model, despite having almost the same functionality and features as the cheaper mid-range models, there is a noticeable increase in the quality of products that have been used in the system. Giraffe snubs the standard plastic coating of the reel and opts for an aluminum finish instead, which looks and feels more premium and also helps make the hose reel lighter. Moreover, the wall-mount also has a different mechanism of being attached to the wall, being a quick release mounting system, which makes it easier to lift the reel off the wall.
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This model also comes with a hose longer than standard length, at 90ft. Most hoses only offer a regular length of 65ft, so if you have a bigger garden then Giraffe is your go-to option! Apart from these improvements in quality as compared to cheaper models, you get the usual package as you’d expect from a decent hose reel, including a 9 pattern nozzle.
Power Retractable Hose Reel 50 ft
Power Hose attempts to target the top-tier market with its own hose reel product. However, as we see an upwards spike in the prices, we don’t really see corresponding improvements alongside. Power Hose provides the same facilities in their hose reel as most of the mid-range ones, and charges about 100 dollars extra for it. Their auto-rewind system with tangle-prevention is claimed to be an exclusive technology, seen only in their models. But, as we covered other models, we witnessed this implementation in the lower-priced ones as well, making their statement invalid.
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Power Hose does end up doing a few things right, though. With an increase in price, they do offer the longest hose in class, with 100 ft. Moreover, they also offer 50% more water pressure, with a maximum PSI of 500 available in the system. Lastly, they also boast about having a triple layer protection present on the hose itself, ensuring that when you buy their models, they’re going to last for a long time. And if they do not, they claim to have top-notch customer service available, and that your queries will directly be connected to the owners of the company. They also have a No-Questions asked refund policy, where if you’re not satisfied with the quality of their products, you can return them and they’ll compensate you for it.
Hoselink Retractable Hose Reel 82
Moving on to the last, and the most expensive product on this list, the HoseLink Garden Hose Reel. At this price point, you expect it to have the best functionality available, maybe even water your garden by itself. Although Hoselink doesn’t consist of all that, it does offer a premium outlook to all your gardening needs. The company makes sure to portray extravagance and elegance with the design of their model. The slick, aluminum finish serves that purpose well. HoseLink claims to have the best quality materials used in their hose reels, with springs that can withstand thousands of retractions and a hose that can bear most weather conditions.
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Apart from the product itself, HoseLink has an up-to-date, well designed website where you can find everything about the company and its business. You can find all the gardening supplies that the company offers, along with different parts and attachments that’ll go with your hose reels. With this, you can be assured of no sketchy business when making your purchase, and that what you’ll receive will be fully operational without any faults or alterations. HoseLink itself is a family business, and claims to cater to all your complaints personally and tend to them with their utmost abilities. The icing on the cake is that they’re a well-respected company that has been established for about 10 years now, so you don’t have to worry about getting ripped off.
The final verdict for the high-end models from our side, would probably be pointing towards the HoseLink Garden Hose Reel. If you choose to spend this much money on a hose reel, you should get the best one in the market, where you know you’re buying your model from a family-owned business, and from a company that has been in the business for a decade. You’ll get premium quality materials used, and it’ll surely last you a lifetime.
What hose reels are generally made of?
Traditionally, a garden hose is made from synthetic rubber, more commonly known as soft plastic. This is essential for it to remain flexible and durable at the same time, which is much needed in outdoor gardening work. Moreover, hose reels are usually made from hard plastic, or aluminium, and contain plastic spinners inside as well, which allow for the hosepipe to be pulled out or pushed in. The pipe itself can come in different sizes depending on what water pressure the consumer prefers when making a purchase.
A garden hose simply is a cylindrical pipe that helps transfer water from its main connection to a nozzle that’s usually attached to the other end, from where water is then sprayed on the plantation. Since it’s usually a long, bendable pipe, you don’t need to carry around a water pot and fill it multiple times as you’re watering your plants. You just have to connect it to a water supply, and hold the other end of the pipe in the direction of your plants that need watering, and voila! Your daily chore made much easier.
The garden hose reel was fundamentally the same equipment being used, but just with a little twist. The regular hosepipe, with this invention, was put inside a retractable machine, from which it could be pulled out of, or pushed back in. Soon, companies started offering different attachables that came along, and a 10$ pipe turned into a 100$ gardening appliance.
Final Thoughts
With how almost everyone owns a house with a garden nowadays, a proper hose reel seems to be a good purchase to suit your gardening needs. Plants need watering almost every day, and the hassle of rolling and unrolling a pipe, and finding a place to store it, and having an uncontrolled water supply seems to be an inconvenient choice. Furthermore, it also promotes water wastage as well, since if you don’t have a nozzle system on your hose, you can’t control water usage at your will. Having a hose reel, where you have the portability available, along with the ability to have high-performance hoses that won’t leak or rust, it just seems like a viable option for those who love gardening or at least need to do it.
If you are an active person and don’t mind coiling your hose about the reel, and keeping it aside as well, then we’d definitely recommend the Rolio Garden Hose Reel. It’s a cheap option, doesn’t require that much effort, and will get the job done. However, if you need even more comfort while gardening, and wouldn’t mind paying more money for it, then our favorite hose reel from this list would be the model from Orcish. They have all the features you’ll need at a price lower than most of its competitors while looking premium as well
