Tekton Dual Arm Auto Rewind Air Hose Reel

By Stuart Dow
April 17, 2017

Pro Tool Reviews

Build Quality
Deployment
Ratcheting Mechanism
Retraction
Hose Quality
Value

4.7

Final Thoughts

The Tekton Dual Arm Auto Rewind Air Hose Reel doesn’t just deploy, store, and pick up your air supply – it’s an important safety feature of your shop. It eliminates a common tripping hazard while also extending the life of the hose. You might expect to pay more, so I think the $139 is a great price for an excellent tool – I highly recommend it!

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User Review

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Every workspace can get cluttered and messy, but maybe none more quickly than the garage or automotive shop. It really seems like you start a job and as soon as you turn around, a tool is in your way or you’re looking for that fastener you just removed. For safety and sanity, you have to be disciplined about the tidiness of our area. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a tool that stored, deployed, and then picked itself up? It might sound too good to be true, but if you consider it, that’s exactly what a hose reel and hose does. And it’s exactly what the Tekton Dual Arm Auto Rewind Air Hose Reel is designed to do.

First Impressions

I don’t have to be convinced of the value of hose reels since my grease and oil lines already use one. But the 50-foot by 3/8-inch inner diameter Tekton Dual Arm Auto Rewind Air Hose Reel is particularly fancy. It’s got a solid brass inlet and sturdy, all-steel construction with dual arms – what the company calls a full-frame system. It wasn’t necessarily easy to hoist the 37-pound unit up to the attachment point and install the brackets (I provided those since I didn’t install the Tekton in a hose reel track), so you’ll probably need an extra hand. Fortunately, a kindly coworker assisted me and we had it ready for service in less than fifteen minutes. You can also attach the reel to the wall or floor.

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The hose is rated to stay flexible in the wide temperature range of -40 to 190. Best wishes if you’re still working in either extreme! It features a rubber bend restrictor, solid brass connectors, and is constructed with a core tube, a spiral mesh, and the outer rubber jacket. Its hanging length is governed by a hose stopper. The reel has a roller guide, a locking pawl with 12-position ratchet gear hold the length of hose you pull out, and the internal spring-powered drive retracts the hose. It all really seems pretty slick. Let’s get to work.

Is This Reel Life?

Although battery technology is encroaching on pneumatic tools turf, at least for now air power is a mainstay in the shop. I hooked the 250 PSI max Tekton supply hose up to my compressor – which is running around 150 PSI – and hooked my air wrench up to the other end and began work around the shop. The first thing I noticed was the silky smooth hose deployment aided by the reel’s roller guide. The pawl clicks as you pull more out and locks the hose at the desired length. At 50 feet long, it easily reached everywhere I needed to work, even around my large workspace.

The hose’s bend restrictor is an excellent touch since crimping near the brass coupling would otherwise be a certainty. Even the toughest hose will eventually weaken at those pinch points. The hose coupling itself works as expected. I like the easily-adjusted hose stopper, too.

Hose Ins and Outs

Hose retraction is just as smooth as deployment. I’ve used many reels whose retraction is so violent that you really need a secure hold on the hose until it reaches its stopper because it lets the coupling whip dangerously. That’s no so with the Tekton Dual Arm Auto Rewind Air Hose Reel – retraction is safe and slow. Of course, the manual doesn’t advise that you let go of the hose during retraction but I found that it was no problem to do so. Still, the brass coupling could do some damage to paint jobs and windows, so use caution as you would any other time.

Ultimately, the Tekton Dual Arm Auto Rewind Air Hose Reel isn’t just the only tool in your shop that stores, deploys, and picks up after itself; it’s a significant safety feature. Eliminating the trip hazard of a hose is worth every penny of the quite reasonable $139 price tag!

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The Bottom Line

The Tekton Dual Arm Auto Rewind Air Hose Reel is a full-frame, dual-arm reel made fully of steel. It features a solid brass inlet, locking pawl with 12-position ratchet gear, internal spring-powered drive retractor, and roller guide. The reel is home to a 50-foot by 3/8-inch inner diameter, 250 PSI max rubber hose made of a core tube, spiral mesh, and tough rubber jacket. It has a bend restrictor, solid brass connectors, hose stopper, and can stay flexible between -40 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit.

The reel deployed the hose with remarkable smoothness and ease while the locking pawl held the desired length securely. Fifty feet was more than enough length to reach all areas of my large workspace. When I was ready to retract the hose, pulling it past the pawl’s locking mechanism allowed the hose to gently and slowly return to the reel. There was no violent whipping as the retraction becomes progressively faster like you’ve probably experienced with other reels.