Customer Reviews

Claber AquaPass Garden Hose Cassette 8974

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Good materials:

Poor assembly: (it flew into five pieces on first attempt to unreel and, even being better than average at mechanical skills, it took ten minutes of creative frustration to figure out how they went back together and tighten down the friction-fit pieces the way they should have been tightened at the factory (same for the end fittings). I'm still unsure of whether the slip washers are in the right position, but it seems to be holding together.

Lousy Fit: There are four fittings (snap fittings and threaded fittings) and all are either proprietary Clabor design (or, possibly, metric) so they fit no standard English threaded garden faucet or standard English nozzles, sprinkers, couplings etc. Even their snap-fittings are non-standard and don't allow purchase of supposed equivalent snap-fittings from your big-box garden supply. Even if they would fit, it comes with no standard threaded male termination to the business end of the hose (and the female end, being non-standard, fits nothing either), so your stuck going back to Clabor for everything you use (including hooking it up to any faucet in the first place) If it's metric, it might work in Europe.
As sending this proprietary rip-off back is more effort than its worth and material quality seems good, I'll retrofit all the end pieces with standard fittings for about an added $10 and a trip to the big box, but never buy Clabor unless you are redoing your whole home, garden and garage in Clabor products, love do your own hardware retro-fitting and/or own their stock.

There should be a warning on this product.

The Claber is easily the best hose we have ever used. It was easily attached and very easily re-coils after use. This is a European product and uses (a supplied) adapter to connect to US style outlets. We bought a second adapter so that the hose could be easily carried from one outlet to another. It comes with a simple spray pistol. If you want something different, you must use an adaptor or purchase a model that uses this standard (widely available at garden centres). We have found the ease of use far outweighs the need for an adapter.

When the first one didn't have it, I returned it and ordered a second. No luck. The orange adaptor shown in the picture (and on the box) either is not included at all, or the picture just represents the piece used to hook the entire device to the water supply. In other words, there's no way of attaching anything to the hose but the included very basic plastic nozzle.

This is the third model 8974 Claber Hose Reel that I have purchased. I like the light, easy to handle hose that is great for watering flower gardens without mashing down the plants. The manual retractable reel works simply and easily. The design and workmanship was very good. The problems I had were experienced by other owners such as fittings already installed were loose and leaked the when the water was turned on in the one hose reel. The other 2 were ok in this regard. A more serious problem was the method the nozzle supplied was connected to the hose made it impossible to replace with a better pistol type nozzle even those made by Claber. There was no quick disconnect for the nozzle as depicted in the photo in the description and the image on the box it came in. It was attached directly to the hose and clamped on with a compression fitting. This was the same with all three hose reels so I contacted the manufacturer and discovered that this was the wrong nozzle one that they had not manufactured in 5 years. Claber took all 3 hose reels back and replaced them with reels with the proper quick disconnect connector and I am extremely happy with these and would highly recommend them if you can get them with the proper connector for the nozzle.

unlike the first poster, i found that claber connected well to our current "hose system" -- specifically the snap-fit connectors which worked well with the melnor brand we picked up at home depot.

trouble is (and here is where the first poster has a bit of a point), the hoses themselves are 1/2in (12mm), whereas most US sizes are 5/8in... however the fittings themselves are 3/4in M/FHT (male/female hose thread), so other than the smaller line size, it's a perfectly working system that snaps or screws to any US hose accessory (imho).

in fact, the smaller line size means less bulk and a more supple hose and the loss of volume is barely noticeable -- and, in our case, the water is coming from a 1/2 in copper house line and (again, in our case) going to another 1/2in sprinkler line, so a 5/8in or 3/4in hose would be overkill anyway.

the best attribute of the claber hoses is the hose-to-fitting connection (where the rubber hose meets the plastic end) assembly which is simply brilliant -- essentially a full-compression-type fitting that works much better (and is more leak-proof) than the typical barb-and-clamp type... this means, it's really easy (with the hose-ends which amazon oddly does not sell -- 125west does) to make up all sorts of shorter hoses... presently, we're using these shorter hoses to connect supply taps to offset timers and sprinkler lines. these hose ends ("repair kits") are not as cheap as the big box variety, but are leak-proof.

we liked the claber products so much that we traded over and have since purchased the retracting hose reel, a few water timers which we used for an automated sprinkler system, several spray heads and the smaller hose reel on this page. the design is quite nice and "modern" -- we like the orange... a nice foil to all of the typical brown and green garden accessories. we *do* hope the plastic is UV resistant...

Great product... I had the same product purchased 15 years ago and just now purchased a new one to replace the old. I love the practicality and quality of the Aquapass garden hose!!!

Concept is good and package looks great but you will be dissapointed. It leaks, it does not coil back in, plastic is cheap, hose kinks and scraps against sharp plastic. This thing is one of the most poorly manufactured and designed things I have ever bought. Needless to say I returned mine. DO NOT BUY THIS!

The reason I returned it was because the reel was so pour, i never even put water through it, I knew it wouldn't mount easily to the wall and with no swivel it would have broken and I couldn't get it to roll back up into the reel , i had to stair inside and help it along so it lined up enough to get in there with out kinking, the hose and fittings look nice but the reason i bought it was to hang on the wall and it was just way too cheap for that, pretty much useless unless you take it down every time you want to use it and if that is the case then just set the thing on a shelf.

But a better product in my opinion and worth the extra cost.

Pros:
-smaller and better build quality
-made in italy
-nice design and other components in system are well built too (spray gun, etc)
-included nozzle works well

Cons:
-as the other review said, had to tighten all the fittings first time before use (no manuals!)
-have to buy other quick fit adapters
-$

if you are going to buy this, then suggest buying the other adapters at the same time.