Photo Courtesy of: Reelcraft Industries, Inc.

As a devoted swimmer throughout my high school career, I loved everything except taking out the lane lines after practice. This was the worst part of swimming, and I often wouldn’t want practice to end just so I could avoid it. The process was similar to manually reeling up a garden hose, but the lanes were much bigger and heavier and seemed to get tangled every two minutes. Reeling in hoses manually is also annoying, but not quite to the level of these which took three people per reel and lasted about a half hour.

For many appliances today, retractable hose reels can be purchased to make life a little less stressful. Retractable reels allow the hose to be wound and unwound automatically. What I would have given to have one of these in high school! Sadly, my school didn’t put a ton of money into the program, so that would have never happened anyway. They are much more productive and time efficient than the hand-turned reels. Many of them are for larger industrial purposes, but small versions are also available. Large reels are often used in fire departments and for construction. These are built with extra support so they can hold longer, heavier hoses. Smaller models can be used for items such as garden hoses as well.

Retractable hose reels can be powered in many ways. They can be spring-powered, electric, hydraulic, air or pneumatic powered. Great additions to these reels are they can come equipped with latching mechanisms that allow the user to extend and retract at any desired length. They can also come in a variety of materials depending on what they will be used for. In the medical, pharmaceutical, and food processing industries, stainless steel or other sanitary materials are needed. Meanwhile in manufacturing and construction the only requirement is that they are heavy duty and corrosion free allowing for steel, stainless steel or aluminum to be used.