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- Verified Buyer
works great for now anyway, time will tell. Just very slow UPS ShippingEasy to roll hose in or out without having to bend down to roll up the hose. What a back saver!This was just what I was needing. I didn't want to mount anything on wall because that is something I cannot do by myself. This was an easy assembly for me who is basically screwdriver, pliers savvy. The caddy is holding a 125' 5/8 hose with no problem.II like it because i's a decent looking hose reel and you don't have to bend over to turn the crank. I wish I found this one before i installed a different one on the wall at the side of the house.You can see from the photo that I have the patio base, not the post mount and that a 75' hose fills the reel about 75% without a particularly tidy packing.I've had this for 4 months. It doesn't leak even a drip. I noticed during assembly that he O-rings are generic rubber O-rings you can find at the hardware store, so when these get old and hard they can be easily serviced.I won't claim that this is "industrial strength", but it's not flimsy either. The reel spins easily, so if you're across the yard and pulling for more length it just easily feeds it, I've never seen it even threaten to tip over. If you yank it hard enough or with a really stiff hose it probably will tip over, and being constructed of welded steel wire, it'll could damage it with enough force, but with a quality flexible hose and reasonable use it should last quite a long time.The item is very beautiful and I do love it. It might be just me but I was unaware I needed two hoses. One to hook up the spicket and connect to the hose reel and then another one for the hose reel. Currently I am looking for about a 4 to 6 foot hose from the spicket to the hose reel because I don’t like the 25 foot hose I currently got in between the two. I’m still very pleased with this purchase though and would recommend it.This streamlined hose reel replaced one of those clunky, boxy, messy, breaky, tippy, balky, annoying hose reels made by Suncast that simply didn't rewind well or play out the hose effectively. It sits on our patio and is almost a graceful piece of sculptural art. (Well, at least it's not an eye sore.) It swivels as one pulls out the hose so it doesn't tip over. There is a little latch that engages any of a series of slits around the swivel that keeps the reel straight, if needed. I use it when winding the hose back onto the reel for added stability. The is 50' of 5/8 heavy duty hose on the reel which it accommodates easily. It could take another 25' but there's no way it could hold 100'.It seems well made and has a good powder coat paint job. I haven't experienced any rust drops over the last month since it arrived. Amazon shipped it in it's flimsy store display box and the box didn't survive well the journey. I took pictures of the box in case the reel was damaged or there were lost parts but the reel survived the abuse. Shame on Amazon for not properly packaging the shipment but it's not a reflection of the quality of the reel. Five stars, so far.The box it comes in is meant for store shelves. It has handle holes on both ends and a decorative cut out on the face. The first one arrived in a totally mangled box because there is no packing material on the inside to prevent the box form collapsing. Several parts were missing so this one was returned.I ordered a replacement one, which was also a packing failure. Box was crushed again. No packing material and the box itself is not meant for shipping. This time I was only missing a set screw, but included in the box were assorted Komatsu fasteners for who knows what. This time they used zip ties to keep everything together except for the mounting post. I was absolutely ecstatic when I pulled the the pieces out of the box and the post slammed on to my hardwood floors leaving a nice divot. Divots look awesome on hardwood floors!The pedestal square post has rounded corners so the mounting post which is supposed to slide over the pedestal doesn't fit properly, and when I did get it on, the set screw hole did not line up. You need to either widen the slot with a drill or turn it into a 2 person job: 1 person with enough hand strength can twist the mounting post while the other sets the screw. Either way don't expect to be able to pull it out of the box and use it without having to fix the manufacturer's defects or run to the hardware store to purchase missing pieces.I'm returning the replacement item as well because it leaks. I have a feeling they sent me a used item which was probably returned for the same reason. When I tried it out, there was a severe leak at the inlet. I disassembled the pedestal, thinking I would just fix whatever was the problem, but I decided to just return it, when I found severe rust on the the inside of the post, indicating this item was either used before or failed a quality check at the factory. Either way it should have never been sent out.Yard Butler is a failure and Lewis Lifetime Tools stinks.This thing is great. I bought the one with the base. It's stable, rotates easily 360 degrees, has a lock to prevent from rotating if you want, and since it has a base you can move it around to wherever you want. On a non-product note, the packaging/shipping was a joke. I'm not sure where along the supply chain it got beat up, but I happened to be home when the UPS guy showed up and he asked me if I would even accept it because the box was so beat up. But, he and I looked at the parts (there aren't many) and it looked like everything was there. Everything was there. I put it together in a couple of minutes and it was ready to roll.I would highly recommend this as you can always move it if you want (you don't need to mount it or sink it in the ground), it reels nicely, rotates smoothly, and it's exactly what I was looking for. Super product.
