Gardena Wall-Mounted Hose Box RollUp XL (turquoise) 35 m: Versatile watering system for large gardens, swivel hose box, including 35 m Gardena hose and mounting kit (18630-20)

Product Information

Many manual garden hoses are just left in a tangled heap near the outside water tap for their next use, exposed to the weather. If you do roll them up on the manual reel, you need to do it slowly and carefully and ensure that the hose doesn’t tangle. How easy is it to install an automatic hose reel, and what tools are required?

Most automatic hose reels came with a basic sprayer. In these, you twist the nozzle to work through the installed spray patterns. You usually find a number of patterns from light spray through to a high pressure flow. You may want to buy a sprayer with a more extensive variety of water flow pressures and spray patterns. While it has the word ‘basic’ in its name, this product is certainly not substandard by any stretch of the imagination. The reel’s casing and winding mechanism’s build quality is only second to the far more expensive Gardena model and it’s a close second at that. Many manufacturers have their own patented hose retraction system. Your part in the rewind process is to give the hose a gentle tug and watch as it winds into the reel box. It’s a controlled rewind with a braking mechanism that avoids speedy travel by the hose and helps to stop the hose from kinking and tangling. It’s also a good budget option, possessing many of the same features as some of the best garden hose reels on this list, without the eyewatering price tag. With an automatic hose, you pull out just the length of hose that you need. You’re just carrying that length to water your garden. With a manual hose, you need to drag the entire weight of the hose as you take it into your garden. You can stop some models unrolling every 30cm and other models let you stop whenever you want to.The colour scheme might not be to everyone’s liking, and the housing itself is a little bulky, but no more than many of its competitors. The connectors that come with the product aren’t bad, however the one that connected to the tap on the model we tested did leak a little bit. It was an easy fix with a change of rubber washer though.

If the space where you choose to mount your reel is some way from the outdoor tap, you may need to acquire an extra ‘leader hose’ to connect the reel to the water supply. Also referred to as a ‘feeder hose’, sometimes you will have to create this yourself by cutting a piece of the hose pipe. The bottom line is: if you’ve got a garden, you need a garden hose, and that used to mean spending a fair bit of time taking it out of the shed or garage, untying it, reeling it out, and trying to get rid of all the kinks and twists before even starting. Then after you’ve finished, you have to go through it all again in reverse! Certainly not ideal.
With modern innovations, there are some solutions available to the modern consumer, such as expanding hoses that can work pretty well if you pay for a good one and also have good water pressure at home.The sprayer that it comes with is pretty basic although well made. You simply twist the nozzle from totally off to mist, to shower all the way through to a high-pressure stream of water. I have shown some examples below to give you an idea of what the spray is like. One of the most important things is the quality of the housing of your hose reel like the GARDENA Wall-Mounted Hose Box 35 roll-up automatic: Swiveling hose reel which is really well built and designed to put up with a real beating from both weather and rough use alike. You want one to be able to protect the contents from weather conditions, particularly UV, which can damage your hose as well as the case itself not fading – from many years of personal testing and ownership I can tell you the Garden is good quality plastic. Here’s a look at the more budget HAUSHOF casing which looks right up to the job from the time I’ve had it: HAUSHOF Hose Reel, Wall Mounted Retractable Garden Hose Reel – casing works great – rigid and strong Hose length and your garden setup Automatic hose reels rewind the hose neatly into a reel box. You can install it on a wall out of the way. The box provides protection from UV-rays and from rain and windy weather for the hose. All these elements can cause your hose to degrade. You want a hose that will reach the end of your garden without stretching. However, you also don’t want to spend extra money on a hose which is much longer than you need. Measure your garden to find out what length of hose will best suit your needs.

We’ve covered the best expandable garden hoses extensively on DIY Garden, and there are some great options on the market. One of the main advantages of expandable hoses is that they can be longer than hoses in reels, whilst taking up less storage space. The housing itself is nicely designed, with a modern, round aesthetic, coloured grey with the odd yellow part such as the front where the hose reels in and out of. It’s not the most striking thing I’ve ever seen, but personally, I liked the understated look. Automatic hose reels prevent your hose from kinking and tangling. You pull them straight out from the reel box and they go away in the same manner. Unrolling your manual hose requires you to pull the entire length of the heavy hose as you untangle it. Using just enough hoseLet’s talk about the plastic mount itself. I was a little concerned it felt flimsy – I was doing up the bolt with my impact driver and I was being careful not to go too hard and smash the plastic – I was completely wrong. The plastic mount could be pushed hard, I even dented the timber with the edge of the plastic mount frame so it’s very solid – this is probably the most important component when you compare these against other models – this is the easiest thing to fail, be it fall off the wall or break. I can tell you with 100% honesty from testing I am super happy with this unit: A pre-installed hose stopper will allow you to control the length of your hose as it retracts. You can also use the stopper to find the ideal length for watering. The stopper will maintain your set hose length until you are done or you decide to change it. Plastic vs Metal reels I’ve just moved to my new house last year and what an opportunity for me to test and bring you the new best automatic garden hose reel. I’m sorting a lawn from scratch – nothing fancy as I plan to do something with a structure on the area later this year or next, but an automatic garden hose reel is an absolute must if you want to keep the garden tidy whilst watering your grass seed every day. Naturally I am using it in conjunction with my favourite water sprinkler. I have to say it was extremely easy to setup and install – the components are so straight forward you don’t even need the instructions but there were a few pitfalls on testing and I came up with a much better idea than joining two GARDENA reels to save money this time. Here’s a look at my favourite automatic garden hose reel in action: My personally tested HAUSHOF Hose Reel, Wall Mounted Retractable Garden Hose Reel Not sure what to look for in a good automatic garden hose reel?
Well, we are here to help with this short guide that’ll highlight a few things to keep an eye out for. From housing and casing issues, to broken winding mechanisms, to length, to hose quality, and even the connectors that are included I run through what you need to make this happen from start to finish. I even show you an install and what components are needed in my HAUSHOF review. Housing / casing compared The included Gardena hose features a spray nozzle and an on/off valve. This makes it infinitely easier to connect the hose to a sprinkler system, as well as adjust the water pressure from the hose itself rather than just the garden tap.