Every time I’ve upgraded a piece of equipment I’ve always been super happy with my decision to do so, so now I’m thinking about upgrading to some powered reels…but I’ve never ran one and don’t know anyone who has them.
So if any of you have power reels let me know are there any downsides or is it all upsides, how’s longevity, are they slower/faster than hand crank??
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I have both electric and manual on two different trailers. When the electric ones work they are great, just carry an extra solenoid since that is what usually goes bad.
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Electric reels will break fingers, drain batteries, and bring rose bushes, small children and old ladies with walkers to the bumper off your truck. I sold all of mine pretty soon after buying them
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That’s to funny. I can see all that taking place everyone and everything all bundled up being dragged to the truck. I love mine but you’re right you have to watch what you’re doing.
If you are a one man show, they would probably be great
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Yeah there’s a lot of ways I do things that I would never let employees do. That’d be a workmen’s comp claim waiting to happen
I run nothing but electric. They really help with long runs of hose. They do break though. Switches / selinoids / chains to maintenance. But I think it’s worth it .
I am a one man show…and I work myself like a dog… that’s why I was thinking it would be awesome to have some automatic reels one less thing to have to do😁
What do you do if one breaks out on a job? Is there anyway to hand crank till you get fixed? Or do you just have to roll the hose up manually and fix when you get back to shop?
Yep you pretty much role it up by hand. Or shove a screwdriver over the selinoid. The motors don’t just fail they get weak and hard to turn first. More common is the chain breaks . But that only happens if you don’t take care of it
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