Monday, July 26, 2021

Hozelock reel frustration and resolution

 

This is a Hozelock retracting reel. It's a nice, neat way to have a hosepipe, and gave me a whole heap of pain on a very hot Saturday, trying to fit to the wall. Definitely one of those jobs that looks simple and descends into a nightmare. 

In theory, all you do is drill four holes, pop the rawplugs in, screw the support to the wall and it's job done. 

Of course, you have to get all the holes in the right place, and that's tricky as the plastic bracket gets in the way of marking things. 

The solution - make a cardboard jig. 

Ideally, do this before drilling a series of wrong holes and using up all the plugs supplied. 

This reel is heavy. 17kg as supplied, but it will get heavier when full of water and then even worse - it's the ideal perch for next-doors cat, and he's not small. 

So, you need really strong plugs. The ones in the kit have little barbs. 

None of the plugs in our garage had these, so when we hung the support on the wall and fitted the reel, they started to pull out again. I'd put all the supplied ones in the wall, so couldn't take one to the local DIY shed to try to find a replacement. I went anyway, and nothing they had in the very limited stock, was any better. 

Fortunately, Hozelock sell spare packs, and I don't care they are six quid for four screws and four plugs, I bought two. Delivery was quick, and the reel was soon fitted to the wall. So far, it hasn't fallen off, although one of the very long screws supplied has bottomed out in the hole, but it's at the bottom so doesn't seem to be effecting things at the moment. 

Fingers crossed, and let's hope the cat doesn't put on any weight...

4 comments:

James Finister said...

The "reel" test comes when the hose has been put away wet and muddy and you then pull it out dry and dusty. It can take a lot of force. Spraying the hose and the innards with a teflon spray helps.

Phil Parker said...

Mud? In a Royal Leamington Spa garden? Heavens no :-)

Anonymous said...

If you have problems search "rawbolts" or use studding and construction epoxy.

https://www.screwfix.com/c/screws-nails-fixings/shield-anchor-bolts/cat840436?producttype=rawlbolts&cm_sp=managedredirect-_-screwsfixings-_-rawlbolts

Mark said...

I know it's a bit late know you've bought a new hosepipe but.... I recently replaced ours as it had cracked and sprung a leak. As I hate drilling in walls (once went through a water pipe behind some plaster board) I opted for an entirely different style of hosepipe that's a lot lighter and packs away really easily.

The one I bought (this one to be precises https://amzn.to/3kVZGDB) weighs almost nothing yet expands to 100ft when filled with water. Even when fully expanded it's a lot lighter and easier to manage than a traditional one. Fingers crossed you don't need to replace yours again anytime soon but when you do....