The hose reel hack that saved my back after 4 failed setups

I spent three weekends last spring wrestling a wall-mounted hose reel that kept jamming every time I pulled the line out. The thing would kink up halfway across the yard and I'd have to unspool the whole 50 feet by hand, cursing the whole way. Then my neighbor Gary came over and said 'why don't you just mount it on a swivel base?' I grabbed a $15 lazy susan bearing from the hardware store off Route 9, bolted it to the fence post, and screwed the reel onto that. Now I can pull the hose in any direction without the reel fighting me, and it spins smooth as butter when I wind it back up. Anyone else got a cheap fix that beat a $200 commercial setup? What's your weirdest backyard workaround?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer_owens581mo ago

That lazy susan trick is solid, Gary knew what he was talking about. I had the same fight with a wall mount and ended up just leaving the reel on the ground with a cinder block holding it, which worked but looked terrible. The real game changer for me was grabbing a cheap swivel fitting that goes between the spigot and the hose, stops the whole line from twisting every time you walk around the yard. Cost me like eight bucks and I haven't had a kink since, plus it takes way less effort to wind back up. Your fence post setup sounds cleaner than mine honestly, might have to copy that next time the block starts sinking into the mud.

jamie9401mo ago

Swivel fitting was the fix for me too, used to think it was a gimmick until the kinks just stopped happening.