Alright, so let me tell you about this water powered retractable garden hose reel I put together. I was just so sick and tired of fighting with my old hose. You know how it is – always tangled, a nightmare to coil up, and I’d trip over it at least once a week. I thought, there’s gotta be a better way, right?

Getting the Idea and Scrounging Parts

I got this notion in my head: what if the water pressure itself could do the hard work of reeling the hose back in? Seemed like a neat idea. So, I started looking around my garage and the local hardware store for bits and pieces. Didn’t want to spend a fortune, you know. I already had an old, manual hose reel that was okay, just the winding part was a pain. The main thing was figuring out the "water powered" bit.

I found:

• My old hose reel, the drum and frame were still good.
• Some spare plumbing fittings, a few valves.
• The crucial bit: I managed to get my hands on a small, cheap plastic impeller, kinda like what you’d find in a little pond pump. My first thought was to build a paddle wheel, but this seemed more compact.

The Build Process – Trial and Error, Mostly Error at First

Okay, so the plan was to divert some water from the tap, run it through this impeller, and have the impeller’s spinning motion turn the hose reel drum. Simple, right? Ha!

First attempt: I rigged up the impeller inside a small housing I cobbled together from some PVC pipe bits. Tried to connect its shaft to the reel’s crank mechanism with a very basic gear I made. Hooked up the water. Turned it on.

Well, water went everywhere except where it was supposed to. The impeller spun, sure, but it had nowhere near enough oomph to turn the reel, especially with the weight of the hose. And leaks? Man, it looked like a sprinkler gone mad. My garage floor was soaked.

Back to the drawing board. Clearly, my "gearing" was a joke, and the seals were terrible. I spent a good afternoon just trying to make the impeller housing watertight. Used a ton of silicone sealant. Then, I realized I needed a much better way to transfer the power. Direct drive wasn't cutting it with that tiny impeller.

Getting it to Actually Work

I had to rethink the connection. I ended up creating a sort of belt drive using a sturdy rubber band and two different-sized pulleys I fashioned. This gave me a bit more torque. It was fiddly as all heck to get the tension right. Too loose, it slipped. Too tight, the impeller struggled to spin.

Then, controlling the water flow to the impeller was key. I added a small ball valve right before the impeller unit so I could adjust the pressure going to it, separate from the main hose tap. This was a game changer.

After a few more tries, tweaking the belt, sealing yet another tiny leak, I pulled out about 30 feet of hose. Took a deep breath, and slowly opened the valve to the impeller. The main tap was also on, so the hose was pressurized.

And then... it happened! The reel started to turn. Slowly, very slowly, but it was turning! It was actually winding the hose in. I swear, I did a little dance right there in the driveway. It wasn’t fast, not like those fancy spring-loaded ones, but it was doing it, all on its own, powered by the water.

Living With My Creation

So, how’s it working out? Honestly, it’s pretty cool for a homemade job. It’s not perfect. If the hose gets a bad kink or catches on something, it’ll struggle, and I have to give it a little help. And it uses a bit of extra water to do the retracting, obviously, which I just let run onto the lawn nearby. But the convenience? Oh yeah. No more wrestling that darn hose after watering the plants.

I just unroll what I need, do my watering, and when I'm done, I flip the diverter valve and open the small valve to the retraction motor. Then I just guide the hose a bit to make sure it coils evenly. Takes a couple of minutes, but it's way better than manual cranking until my arm aches.

It’s been a few months now, and the thing is still chugging along. Had to tighten the belt once, but that’s it. Definitely a satisfying project. It took some head-scratching and a fair bit of getting wet, but I got there. Sometimes these little DIY fixes are the best.