Hozelock Fast Reel Installation and Review 

Love watching your videos, as a 56 yr old female DIY fanatic, I’m learning so much from you. Thank you x

Having retired, now aim to develop my DIY knowledge and put the learning into practice. Stuart, your videos are a brilliant start in strengthening my knowledge of the correct approach to home improvement jobs and entering previously unchartered territory. Thank you for your excellent, thoughtfully presented videos together with your sense of humour. 👌

Bought a hoselock hose 20 years ago. Cost a small fortune but still going strong. Quality product.

You are very relaxed and natural in front of the camera which is not easy. A brilliantly made video well done 👍 subscribed and look forward to seeing future videos

Hi Stuart, great video as always and very timely for me, thanks. I expect the reason they tell you to extend the hose fully before first use is that when tightly factory wound, the water pressure in the hose expands it and creates a compressive effect on the plastic reel inside. It's undoubtedly enough to fracture the reel. I've learned that from previous hoses. It's a surprisingly strong effect and can even be used to make cheap improvised platen presses in industry. Why that would be different on subsequent uses...who knows, unless the hand wind mechanism is looser than the oem factory wind. Keep up the great work, it's really appreciated. 👌

If you wish to do the same as Stuart and mount a Fast Reel on your wall, you will find that this model (2496R0000) is near impossible to source. One website we checked even stated that it has been discontinued. However, all is not lost. What we did was to buy its free standing equivalent (2494R0000). It differs only in that it lacks a means of mounting it on a wall and its hose is drawn from its side, instead of straight down, as seen in this video. Next, we went to the pipedreamfurniture website and bought a pair of their 28cm curved lip brackets. We then drilled holes in these to align with the small feet on the underside of the reel, before mounting them on the wall. The reel was then placed upon the brackets and held in place by short screws driven up through the drilled holes and into the reel’s small feet. Finally, we bought an inexpensive hose guide. In this video, Stuart mounts his hose guide horizontally beneath the reel, owing to the fact that his hose is drawn from its underside. However, with our set up, it is important to mount the hose guide vertical and to the right of the reel, as its hose will be drawn from the side. This one small detail prevents a lot of wear and tear on the hose and the winding mechanism. I hope these steps will be of use to someone out there.

When putting Hose Lock fittings on, try dipping the end of the hose in very hot water. This softens the hose temporarily making it easy to go fully home onto the fitting and when you tighten up the fitting "nut" the gripper gets a good bite of the hose. Never had a problem with this in over twenty years.

Auto one comes with a good guarantee. I’d favour that one for sure! Thanks for the vid.

I recently fitted the auto-winding version of this - 30m length for about £80 so not too bad, and it does have the automatic 'distribution' thing, which is excellent - even my wife enjoys using it! The hose itself is also excellent, very flexible and doesn't tie itself in knots. I envy your wall construction though, render on block-work. My walls are rough-textured facing bricks, and the first hole is dead easy. It's the other three that are a head-ache - getting the drill bit to not wander as it tries to start a hole in an exact postion! Great video!

I have the older green version of this hose reel and it is the best reel by far. The auto rewind ones break after a while.

With every product I install for clients or myself that come with fixings ( screws and rawl plugs ) , I throw the fixings away and use superior quality fixings as experience tells me supplied fixings are always of poor quality ie soft metal screws and little grip rawl plugs. I wish these companies would just charge a little more and supply good quality fixings ! Love your videos Stuart 👍

Awesome channel. Simple straight to the point for amatuer diyers like myself. Have been binge watching your videos

If you warm the hose in hot water you will get a better leak free grip on the hose lock fittings that screw together.

best diy channel

Holy moly! Just looking at this video now as I'm wanting a wall mounted hose. You say £78 when this was made. Just clicked the link & it's shot up to £153. Eye watering. Going to have to look at an alternative wall mounted one I think.

Hi Stuart, Top marks on recommending that Marxmate fluoro marker! Having bought a couple of these, they are a really simple but effective tool, especially if you fix deep items to walls. Awesome video too.

Like you, I have loads of fixings in boxes and hardly ever use what's supplied with a product. My wife always asks how less experienced DiYers manage when they don't know to customise. I remind her that's why they keep asking me to fix their mistakes! Might be better if they didn't supply fixings but provided guidance for what to get for their particular installation

I have an old version of this 12 years still going strong

Totally agree about finishing with good quality hand screwdriver for a better feel. Thanks for the video. Nearly bought it a few times but decided to stick with my many lengths of various brands of hose. Might get the flexible friend out once the next pension payment starts kicking into the bank account

Really good again, it's not always just about the big projects! Seemingly basic stuff for those who had no one to teach us is also important. As usual, thanks.

I bought one of these earlier in the summer - it works really well. It feels as though there is some sort of internal gearing mechanism that winds the hose in quicker per turn than you would get on an open, manual hose reel - perhaps that is why it is called “fast”?

Just started to watch your videos Stuart, great presentation style and information put across very well. Looking forward to more videos from you, especially the workshop build. By the way, we purchased the automatic hozelock reel (to lazy to wind a handle) and never had any issues with it.

I've got one of their fast cart hoses and it's a pain in the arse. It stopped winding back in without having to feed it in. I stripped it down last year to see if anything could be done but it looks like an interference fit that is designed to slip when so much torque is used and its gotton worn beyond its limits. After I put it back together it did work for a few months but started not winding in again. Now its a burdon trying to use it.

I like the neon paint marker idea

Hi Stuart, love your channel. Just one question: could I theoretically fix the HozeLock to a wall in my backyard despite the outside tap being in the front garden? I'm guessing a relevant sized length of hose pipe to connect the HozeLock to the tap is the only issue?

Surprised there aren't two wall mounting brackets or is it my bad experience with the auto rewind and tension against the wall - tends to go through Rawlplugs every few years and can't find small Rawlbolts. The Wickes Frames Fixings look great. Great video and sensibly arranged product to avoid stress on frame.

Nice video Stuart 👍 We have the self wind, and no probs with that. However, Hozelock do say to bring the reel inside, during frosty winter months, not doing so will negate the warranty. We nearly fell foul of that "command". Bernie SW Wales.

Sorry if I missed it but why didn’t you used the fixing bracket as templet?

Just found your channel, don't tell my wife though, good stuff. One question though, what's that little switch on bottom left, is it some sort of locking mechanism? You never mentioned it at all.

Cheers pal been looking at this for a while

I fitted a spring retractable hozelock system for my Nan 15+ years ago and still works well and it’s left out all year. So they are okay just so you know.

Collecting mine this morning

Great video. Where did you get that fluorescent pen thingy?

What is the little yellow lever on the bottom-left of the unit? Sorry, I see you;ve already answered this...

Thanks Stuart. Love your tutorials. How do you know what size drill bit to use for a rawl plug

Great video. Would 100mm concrete screws with washers have done the trick, instead of hammer fixings?

Excellent job!👌👍

Do these things leak where the hose from the tap connects with the hose on the reel? There must be some sort of swivel connector that is prone to leaking. The reason I ask is the my tap is inside my garage near the door .....

Hi Stuart, how has this held up over the last couple of years?

You should have template inside orginal packaging with manual etc if I'm not mistaking

Nice videos I’ve just subscribed. Maybe the 60 cm for the bottom bracket is taken from the bracket of the main hose not the base of the unit? Either way nice job.

Ace video Stuart. I wonder why Hozelock as a premium priced product, cannot provide a paper template to assist with installation? I have found Hozelock products to be (1) Expensive (2) Initially good (3) Sadly unreliable. I have a older open reel Hozelock wall mounted product that leaks like a sieve, but with the failed part being un serviceable. I would be interested to know if you get any problems with your installation in the future, but have to admit that my problems may be down to my less than perfect installation skills, rather than Hozelocks quality control :-)

Hi, great video. Can you please what comes in the pack with this hose that you have in the Amzn link above? Is it everything that you have including the hose guide, wall bracket, short hose and connectors? Many thanks

£108 quid now - the savages are scraping profits off your excellent reviews ;)

The machine at Hozelock that makes this wall mounted fast reel is broke, so everywhere is sold out tfn

Hi there where did u get this from thank you

What is it you use to mark the wall for the screw point?

Hosetastic!

You want to treat yourself to sort through your storage and a labeling machine

Wrong terminology used at 3.06 they don't give you anything Stuart they supply them included in the price. Just saying.

Steal? You mean 'borrow'

Love it. Will you be new best friend?