Most importantly; we have one of those Epinions glitches here.  The picture provided is showing an Ames plastic hose reel for about 150' of hose.  If you click on the Amazon link (SEE IT!) that Epinions has provided then you will see the item that is being critiqued.  This review is on a Yardworks (Suncast product) commercial metal hose reel cart that can hold at least 300' of hose comfortably.  Here's a quick note about cost.  It is advertised with a suggested price of $125-$155 but if you wait until September or October you might find it discounted heavily.  I got mine in late fall of 2008 for $79 from Menards for use starting this year.  It seemed expensive at the time but as one ages the extra expenditure, if it is an effective tool, is well worth the cost.

An overview of the basic features is always the place to start with small items like this.  So, I will say that this is a very rugged and durable hose reel cart that is made of commercial steel and has four 10" pneumatic tires that can be pumped up to 30psi.  I bought it because my wife occasionally likes to take out the hose to wash her car or use it in her garden and gets frustrated with the plastic one that is heavy for her to move, even with only 100' of hose, and it puts a strain on her back.  This one is as easy as pushing a shopping cart even though I loaded it with 300' of hose.  There is little difficulty for her to move it even over unlevel terrain or a slight incline.  

It is constructed for most part of a 1" diameter steel tube with metal axles mounted under the frame instead of through the steel tubes.   This provides good stability and as advertised the low center of gravity does not allow it to tip over unless strenuously pulled to the side.  Tipping has always been a complaint of mine for the narrow plastic hose reels that I have used especially when trying to pull out more hose from a distance as you attempt to go around the car or a corner.  Another feature that is ergonomically helpful is that the handle is about 3.5 feet off the ground.  This decreases the bending that has to be done for the shorter carts that have to be pushed or pulled to the desired location. 

The cart includes a six foot feeder hose with brass couplers and, according to the promotional material, you can hold up to 400 feet of a 5/8" garden hose.  The feeder hose is the one that will go from the connection on the cart to the outside faucet.  I like to use a 50' feeder hose because my faucet is about 35' from my driveway and I do not like to have my lawn torn up by dragging a hose across it, or sometimes twisting and tipping the cart as I pull out more hose and am too lazy to walk back to the cart and stabilize it with my hand when pulling out more hose. When I store the cart I do not have to remove the lengthy feeder hose because the handle area is big enough for me to wrap around it.

I only need to load 300 feet of hose, as mentioned, but always owned a cart that took a maximum of 200'.  The plastic hose reels with plastic tires from past reading always had the consumer comments that they were too heavy and did not roll easily when fully loaded with hose. This is what my wife experienced.

One of the deficiencies of this item is the lack of a braking mechanism so that when pulling out more hose it will not roll.  There will be movement, even with the heavy weight on it, unless you use something to chock the wheels.

There is also a convenience feature.  Just below the handle is a horizontal bar that allows the 15" x 8" x 6" basket to be mounted.  It is intended for holding gloves, garden tools, sprayers, and cleaning supplies or maybe your favorite beverage with a lid.  I found it nice to place the various items I use for car washing without having to remember where I left them on the ground and of course having to stoop to retrieve them.  Hey, any little thing that makes life a little easier!  In reference to convenience, I wish they had designed the cart with a notch to hook the end of the hose when it is in storage.  It's no biggie because you can pull it under your last loop as you complete the roll up.

I recall having a good feeling about this cart as I assembled it.  One person could do it within an hour or 90 minutes tops if they have any experience, but the novice might want to cushion it with another hour budgeted.  The two tools, a hex and a closed box wrench are provided for you.  The black and white instruction manual for assembling is very easy to understand and includes an enlarged drawing of the location on the cart that is referenced in each step.  The last page is an exploded view of the cart so you can see how all the pieces will go together.  It's difficult to make an error but if you do it will not take long to rectify it when you realize where you went astray. 

Be careful with the axles because they are a soft metal.  The front axle on mine did not slide through as easy as the other one.  I needed to get it in two more inches but instead of just going to get the can of WD-40 and squirting a little lubricant on the axel I picked up a metal hammer nearby.  I gave it a couple of whacks without thinking that the axel thread that took the lock nut could be damaged.  It was and I thought that I was up the creek because I would have to order a replacement part.  About fifteen minutes later, after taking a fine hacksaw blade and sawing of the first two threads, I got the lock nut on without a problem. 

Sometimes the problem with being experienced in a garage or workshop is that you can get cocky or careless.  Fortunately, this was not as expensive or as damaging as when I fell off a ladder to the pavement and found what three broken ribs and a head gash is like.  (Ever have an injury and it seems everyone you meet has a horror story about knowing someone who did the same thing but the outcome was worse than yours?  Gets irritating to hear them at first but eventually you start thinking "how lucky" you are.)

So, overall I am content for now with this hose reel cart purchase and find it quite effective.  In the long term, I am hoping that nothing goes wrong with the softer parts of it or that the couplings become defective.  Since it does have some metal parts you want to be careful that you have it completely emptied of water and that it is dry when put in long term storage.  It seems that when people complain about metal warping or cracking or that connectors split, they have either left in extreme temperature conditions (hot or cold) or did not ensure that all the water was out of the item.

You too can become a real reel hoser!

Recommended: Yes