Claber 8990 Hose Reel with Automatic Reeling, 20 m (Black/Orange/Grey)

Today is August 31, 2019. I bought one of these 20M/66foot reels on April 21, 2012, and installed it almost immediately. It was installed on the north wall of a Phoenix Arizona house, so somewhat sheltered from the sun, but has led a heavily used life that has exceeded 7 years! In no way has it been pampered - my wife leaves the water on all the time with the hand sprayer in the shut off position, meaning that way too often this hose is sitting there under pressure, in a house with pretty high pressure. Not to mention, our water is pretty hard around here so many hoses fall apart under corrosion. The plastic parts on this hose have held up well, and have never corroded. Maybe 3 or 4 times, the hose end nearest the hand sprayer ballooned out from all of the twisting, but the way the Claber quick connects work, it has been super easy to trim 4 or 5 inches off each time it happened. Maybe around year 5 or 6, the hose reel itself started to get a little sluggish and worn, and needed a little more coaxing. The biggest issue being that at that point the feeder on the front that slides back and forth to wrap the hose around the reel was getting a little jiggly, so sometimes I would have to realign the hose by winding it all the way out and then applying some pressure against the sliding feeder to try to pack the hose in. Then it would be great for a number of additional months.But now, it has a funky little wrinkle in the middle of the hose - kind of like it got wrapped around something really tight. I suspect someone smushed it in the yard or left something heavy on it, and it's not winding past that point so well. So it looks like it is time to replace my reel. But alas, that's the sad ending to this tale - it is much to my disappointment that it looks like Claber is no longer selling the autoroll. So now they need to come from England, and man, that shipping is mighty, mighty expensive.