Best hose reels
We find the best car-cleaning hose that won’t wind you up
A hosepipe is considered to be a basic essential in any car-cleaning kit, allowing you to bring a supply of fresh water to your car for bucket filling and rinsing. It will also allow you to hook up a pressure washer to really help shift the dirt.
But hoses can also be the most frustrating tool, especially when you are tired after a car-cleaning session. You need to stow the reluctant pipe without causing any kinks or leaving it vulnerable to damage.
A hose reel will make tidying up much easier and keep the precious pipe protected, while connectors make it simple to latch onto the tap and plug in a pressure washer. Once you are finished, you can reel the hose up in seconds.
Which of our seven reels can steal the top prize in this test?
How we tested them
We looked for a complete kit to let us connect to a tap and immediately start washing a car. We timed how long it took to fill a 10-litre bucket and checked to see what pressure was lost inside the hose.
We tried the supplied spray nozzles, and checked fittings for quality and watertightness when attaching to a pressure washer. The ease of reeling was evaluated, as was the price.
Reviews
See where each of the top hose reels finished...
VonHaus Garden Hose Reel
- Price: around £60
- Hose length: 20m
- Rating: 5 stars
- Contact: vonhaus.com
Used - available now
2023 Ford
Puma
24,561 milesManualPetrol1.0L
Cash £15,000
2023 Audi
Q4 e-tron
20,550 milesAutomaticElectric
Cash £26,655
2021 Volkswagen
T-Roc
35,443 milesManualPetrol1.0L
Cash £13,099
2023 Nissan
Juke
6,805 milesAutomaticPetrol1.0L
Cash £15,599The VonHaus was a clear winner in our last hose reel test, and it cements its position this year thanks to a £15 price drop that makes it even better value.
The compact and smart case contains an auto-winding hose, which smoothly reels in the 20-metre pipe. A 30-metre version is available for an extra £20.
It is supplied ready assembled, complete with a two-metre-long feed hose to connect to your tap, and a wall mounting, which allows the reel to hinge by 180 degrees. The gun nozzle has eight spray settings.
Claber Kiros Kit
- Price: around £43
- Hose length: 29m
- Rating: 4 stars
- Contact: claber.co.uk
Although the Claber Kiros’s less sophisticated mechanism requires you to manually wind up the hose, it makes this almost effortless due to a smooth action and non-kink pipes. The alloy frame and high-quality plastics feel like they are built to last, too, and the wall-mounting hooks are sturdy enough to cope with reeling up without needing a steadying hand.
There’s 30 metres of hose, but you need to cut a length off this to connect the reel to a tap, using couplings supplied.
Hawksmoor Auto-Reel Hose
- Price: £79.98
- Hose length: 30m
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Contact: toolstation.com
The Auto-Reel’s bright colours and huge size might put some off, especially if you plan to leave it on the front of your home. But it is a serious bit of kit, with a 30-metre hose that is efficiently winched in by the auto-reel mechanism.
We loved that it comes ready assembled, and the quality of the connectors feels better than it looks. The flow rate was better than most rivals here, despite the extra hose length.
Kärcher Premium Hose Reel
- Price: around £74
- Hose length: 20m
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Contact: kaercher.com/uk
As you’d expect from a brand such as Kärcher and a model called Premium, this reel has a high-quality feel and a clever design. A smaller drum makes winding back in easier and a mounting dock holds it solidly to a wall, but it can be released with one hand.
There’s also a cubbyhole for storing tools and an Aqua Stop connector to make it easierto swap between a pressure washer and other nozzles.
Hawksmoor 2-in-1 Hose Reel 25m
- Price: £29.98
- Hose length: 24m
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Contact: toolstation.com
If you’re on a budget and don’t mind a bit of exercise by winding up the hose yourself, then Toolstation’s hose reel has all you need, including a wall-mounting hook and a nozzle that features a choice of spray patterns.
You need to do some assembly, though, including cutting off a length of hose to use as a tail to reach from the reel to the tap, which reduces the usable length of the pipe.
Draper 15046 RGH20 Hose Reel
- Price: from £99
- Hose length: 20m
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Contact: drapertools.com
We loved the Draper’s high-quality feel and compact size, which will make it much less of an eyesore. The kink-free hose has a great flow rate, too, and the auto-reel mechanism works well.
Bear in mind, though, that it’s only 20 metres long, which might not suit everyone. It’s disappointing that the nozzle connector doesn’t have an auto-stop valve, too, especially when you consider the price.
Titan Auto-Reel Hose
- Price: from £90
- Hose length: 25m
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Contact: screwfix.com
You might expect a reel from Screwfix’s own brand to be at the cheaper end of this market, so the Titan’s £89.99 price tag will raise an eyebrow.
But the hose impresses with its high quality in most places, with solid-feeling connectors that latch and release easily even when under water pressure. The automatic reeling works smoothly, but it’s a shame that the water flow was one of the slowest.
Verdict
The VonHaus Garden Hose Reel takes the win by offering a well designed reel at a price that beats own-brand rivals. If you don’t need the self-winding feature, then the Claber Kiros Kit looks great value and feels like it is built to last. The final podium place goes to the Hawksmoor Auto-Reel.
- VonHaus Garden Hose Reel
- Claber Kiros Kit
- Hawksmoor Auto-Reel Hose
Now read our test of the best cordless pressure washers...
