Avoid this poor-quality unit and customer service

I’ve now been through 2 of these units in under a year. The first one snapped under the weight of the hose. On the second one, the clip that secures the wheel to the mount snapped and will no longer engage. The unit is made entirely of plastic and isn’t strong enough to handle the weight of a 100’ hose with water in it. Suncast refused to honour the warranty which is valid only on “standard duty” hoses (not my normal green garden hose from Costco which is “standard” in every sense of the word…)

Leaks and missing parts

This is typically our go to hose reel. We had to replace our prior one due to it starting to leak after many years of use. However this new unit leaks and we have tried to ensure everything is tightened down but the leak seems to originate from where the wall unit connects to the reel. Additionally the reel was missing the handle so we had to reuse the one from our old reel.

Trash

Absolute garbage. It kept breaking apart because the lock would become unlocked when gently pulling the hose out. It is the worst design the reel pulls off the wall and water sprays everywhere. So you have to get soaked and turn it off and reassemble it. Some kindergartener designed this garbage.

Lightweight and poorly designed

Junk. We got this to replace an older reel with similar mounting points but that is where the similarities end. This current model uses cheaper, thinner materials and bends if you try and mount a longer or heavy-duty gander hose to it.

Very Poor Design with Connector Hose

Same problem with the connector hose kinking at a 90 degree angle as others have noted. No way to get around this unless you install the flexi hose adapter as one reviewer wrote. Shouldn't need to do this with a new product. Such a poor design. Will be taking back due to this and the other poor reviews on this product. I did use a similar hose reel for years with no issues. Unsure if it was same brand but definitely same style. Very unhappy that Home Depot would even still be carrying this after basically 99% very poor reviews.

Waste of Money & Time

I was planning on buying a more expensive (about $160) hose reel from another brand when I spotted this Suncast at Home Depot, so I decided to give it a try and see if I could save some money. The reel is flimsy and it was a constant fight to try to reel in my hose while stopping the reel from wanting to go backwards and unwind the hose. Wasted $40

They're Great!

They're great! These Suncast hose reels are fantastic! This is the third one I've purchased, I have two mounted side by side above my spigot, one for my regular hose and one with my 200 Ft. Flexhose next to it and the third one on another spigot on the far side of my house. Good quality, they're thick, sturdy plastic, very easy to mount and the water flows through them nice and smoothly. They've all been working out perfectly just like a charm!

These units are defective.

This is the second Suncast hose reel I've had to purchase in the past 8 months. The first unit was a slightly more expensive model. It simply would NOT stay assembled. The whole face kept popping off no matter what I did to try to secure it. I returned it and bought this model off the shelf. After about 6 months, the exact same problem started happening. The face plate that attaches the hose pops right off, making the hose useless.. DO NOT BUY!!!

A current Suncast Sidewinder is a cheaper but more expensive version of the same model made years ago. A hose reel sides are thin and elastic and look like ready to break. I have doubts they will hold winding up even 100ft hose for longer times. Having problems with winding up 100 ft hose I decided to return it. Will look for something stronger and lasting longer.

Works fine with some installation precautions

After reading other reviews, I took two precautions with this reel and it seems to be working fine so far after 3 months:

Glad this model is still available

I'm on my third hose reel over the past 10 years or so. I have bought the same model because of the easy installation; the holes for the screws holding it to the wall are always in the same place. The first one leaked excessively after years of use. The second one expanded over the winter and broke the reel attachment (probably my fault). The most recent one went on easily and works well. The reel and hose needs to be detached from the frame for winter storage, or all the water in the wound-up hose has to be removed to prevent freezing while it remains outside over the winter.

Too flimsy for light weight hose. Plastic connector van strip...

Too flimsy for light weight hose. Plastic connector van strip screwing on metal connection, but worked. I hope I don't. have to remove it and and reconnect it. There were no screws or lubricant for "O" ring, but used it with my old already installed suncast base and it worked fine. Went back to store for the lube. And I feel it was overpriced for the quality

leaky leaky leaky

simply one leak after another... get it sorta fixed and half a day later dripping again. If you must buy this fairly flimsy piece of plastic. ( I needed plastic since i live near the ocean and most metal in products (even aluminum )will have a problem sooner than later. anyway if you must buy one of these install a valve next to it ... it's the only way to stop this from leaking.

SUNCAST "sidewinder" hose reel works OK

This hose reel works pretty well if the hose is to be outreeled and returned PARALLEL to the surface onto which it is mounted. Not so much if the hose is to be pulled perpendicular to the mounting surface!

TERRIBLE DESIGN AND MATERIALS

Bought a fancier wall mount Suncast hose reel many years ago. It was impossible for me to attach my hose to the unit without ruining the threads on the hose reel, making the whole thing worthless. It was designed so that my hose fed through an opening in the reel and then had to make a 90 degree turn over about 7 inches to line up with a brittle plastic threaded adapter on the reel. Really! Garden hoses just aren't that flexible. Of course, the cheap plastic threads broke off when it wasn't aligned perfectly, making subsequent attempts to attach my hose even harder. Never got it attached. I so regret not immediately returning it to HD.

Leaks through o-rings.

I'm on my 12th reel and every single one (brand new) leaks through the o-rings. See attached video. Suncast has no interest in discussing. Only sends out new orings which leak just as well. Going to keep returning and swapping out until I get a non-leaker. I have this same reel approximately 20+ years old which has never leaked. They really cost reduced / cheapened these up badly. Don't buy these newer models. I was able to find an older model at a mom & pop hardware store which looked like it was laying around for many years. Works perfectly.

Don't buy this reel - Plastic frame broke after 10 months!

Purchased this hose reel in Nov 2021.

junk and bad service

This was a very bad experience with Walmart. When I got this, I was very concerned about the quality of the item. It seemed very flimsy but I installed it. I fashioned it securely to the house. Every time that I wound the hose onto the reel it felt like it was going to fall apart on me. yesterday my neighbor came to my door and told me that I had water spring all over going into the garage and on the driveway. I went over to the location of the real and found that had broken apart. I took it over to Walmart for a return. I was one day over the 90-day exchange. They would not do anything for me. in the past if I've tried to return something to Walmart they have been very liberal with their exchange policies. I was very disappointed with the service that I got and the product that I bought. I buy a lot of things from Walmart. The next time I'll think twice before buying again. You can't treat customers this way in this day and age.

Good Value

This hose reel works as advertised. It's a little flimsy compared to the hose reel I purchased 20 years ago, but just about everything made today is not as well made as 20 years ago. Addressing some of the other reviewers concerns:

One of the worst made products I’ve ever purchased. The...

One of the worst made products I’ve ever purchased. The hose fittings are made of some material similar to playdoh (extremely soft plastic). I was *extremely* careful to attach the hoses evenly and without any undue pressure, yet both ended up cross threaded. Possibly the threads were manufactured incorrectly in addition to being made of subpar plastic. The reel leaked heavily immediately and was not fixable. Returned immediately without issue. This product shouldn’t be on the market.