It may not be glamorous or have a lot of bells and whistles, but a hose reel is one accessory every cleaning contractor should add to his must buy list. After all, attention must be paid to the hose-the lifeline of any pressure washing operation.

A hose reel offers much more than just storage convenience. First consider safety. With slips, trips, and falls accounting for more than 19 percent of all workplace-disabling injuries, a contractor needs to take steps to make the work place a safe environment. Adds Carl Harry, general manager of Steel Eagle, Inc., "If you are using hot water, and the hose is run over and cut, someone might get burned. By using a capturing system for the hose, you are able to keep the hose off of the floor, eliminating the possibility of a potential hazard."

Another advantage of using a hose reel is a matter of dollars and cents. Not only can a hose lying around be damaged, it is subject to excess wear and tear. Using a hose reel can extend the life of a hose several times over. In addition, when it is stored on a reel, "the hose maintains a proper bend radius all of the time, eliminating the kinks which slow or cut off the flow. Remember also, that it is usually at the kinks that leaks form," comments Bill Martin, national sales manager at Reelcraft. Time is money and a damaged hose in the middle of a job can bring your work to a halt, perhaps even forcing you to have to leave the work site to go and purchase a new hose. Lost time can exceed the cost of the hose reel.

The third advantage of a hose reel is efficiency. Simply pull it out to the desired length. The reel prevents the loops, twists, and kinks in the hose that can cause problems. When you are finished, rewind it onto the reel. No more struggles associated with recoiling by hand!

And don't forget about professional appearance. Cliff Johnson, national sales manager at Summit Hose Reel Company, uses the following analogy: "When you take your car in to be worked on, you want the place to look organized and clean. Everything should be put in its proper place. The same is true for customers that contractors service. To me, organization is a key to a successful operation."

Adds Warren Eley, senior vice president of sales at Reel Quick, Inc. and former pressure washing contractor, "There just is no convenient place to store a hose other than with a hose reel." What do customers think when they see the hose "just thrown into the back of the vehicle, laying on the ground, or thrown on the top of the machine"? Hose reels help create the look of professionalism.

Decisions, Decisions

Spiked pressure impacts more than just the pressure washer. First and foremost says Steven Dein, marketing manager of Coxreels, Inc., "You want a quality reel because as the reel expands under pressure, it really attacks the reel." With the wide variety of hose reels available, your distributor will need answers to a number of questions to help you select the model best suited to your needs. How do you plan to mount the hose reel? What applications will you be doing? What length and size of hose will you be using? At what psi and temperature will you be operating?

Whether you need to mount the reel onto a trailer, an over-the-road vehicle, the wall, or directly onto the pressure washer, your distributor will be able to provide you with the correct mounting bracket.

And don't forget that you need to decide if you want the reel to be fixed or pivotal. With pivoting action, the reel stays in constant alignment with the hose. This eliminates any of the hang-ups that can occur with the flange when pulling out the hose from a stationary reel. The pivoting reels also have lock pins that enable you to lock the reel in one of several positions. And, it obviously makes rewinding easier as well.

With the swivel, however, O-rings and seals will eventually need rebuilding, so check to see that repair kits are available. Depending upon the manufacturer, a grease zerk may be part of the swivel, giving you the ability to grease the swivel.

Most reels come in one of two materials: baked-on, powder-coated steel or stainless steel. While the powder-coated steel reels are corrosive resistant and many contractors choose these, Mark Techler, president of Titan Products, Inc., believes a case can be made for selecting stainless units: "Both the environment and the liquids pumped can be very corrosive. Hose reels are typically placed in accessible, prominent locations on equipment. These facts can eventually lead to a display of ugly rusting reels on trucks. Stainless steel reels do not attract attention, and with stainless steel manifolds they do not rust from the inside from chemicals pumped or injected into the system." Obviously, if a contractor is working in the food processing or pharmaceutical industry, where sterility is an issue; some oil field applications out on the water; or in other marine applications, where equipment is constantly exposed to salt water, a stainless steel hose reel is probably the most viable option.

One option on the powder-coated unit is to see if the manufacturer offers stainless steel plumbing as a factory change-out option. This eliminates internal corrosion, and according to Larry Chestney, national sales manager of Hosetract Industries, Ltd., "Using stainless steel plumbing with a special high pressure swivel can boost the pressure rating. We are seeing pressures as high as 4,000 psi, where it used to be 3,000 psi."

While the majority of contractors purchase a unit that has a manual rewind, there are benefits to choosing a spring retractable or a motor-powered rewind (air-, hydraulic-, or electric-driven). A manual rewind can especially prove tedious if you are working with long lengths of hose.

A few last considerations before making your final decision. Check to see if the reel that you are considering allows you to adjust the brake tension so that the hose won't come spinning off, leaving you with unwanted lengths on the ground. Check the warranty. While not a complex product, the swivel does have O-rings and seals that can fail, although replacement due to normal wear and tear would not be covered. One manufacturer also suggests looking at how the hose connects to the drum. Does a bump occur where it attaches? Some designs set the hose down into an open slot on the drum to further ensure that the hose is evenly wrapped.

Once you make your decision, there are still other options available to further enhance your operation. Depending on your applications, you may want to purchase a reel stacker (great space saving devices) or a portable two-wheel cart. The addition of a roller guide to the reel promotes further efficiency. And, depending on the reel you purchase, you may consider adding a gear guard.

So, make your workload easier when dealing with unwieldy (and many times dirty or greasy) hoses. Of all of the accessories you might be considering, remember that this is one that you will be using every time you use your pressure washer. Let your distributor assist you in determining what will work best for you. You will be making your work site safer, extending the life of the hose, eliminating many of those hose handling problems, as well as creating a greater look of professionalism.