SWIMLINE HYDROTOOLS 5100 Advanced Resin Solar Reel System For Inground Pools | Convenient Roll-Away Design | Pinch Roller Bearings | Sturdy Foot Pads | With Straps & Hardware | TUBE KIT NOT INCLUDED

Owned 1 week. Also purchased the hydrotool pole (54000).Received defective product at first (plastic was molded out of shape not allowing reel to roll). Amazon was great replacing with 1 day shipping.Replacement worked perfect. The instructions aren't great, but installed within 2 hours. I have a 21' round pool so installed right down the center. Rolling the cover up is incredibly easy (about 20 seconds). I love how the reel swivels right and left and open at the top so you can lift the pole up to remove it completely. Cranks on both ends will be useful if someone else wanted to help, but it's easy to roll by myself. Any debris on top of the cover goes in the water when you roll it up, but that's with any solar reel on a round pool. It's too early to speak to the durability of the resin/plastic, but it seems strong; doesn't bend as I crank the cover on/off.Putting the cover back on is not so easy. With the pole in the middle, the cover should unroll on both sides. Instead, the cover sticks to the other side and both sides roll out to just the right. I use my skimmer pole to separate, but it's easier to be in the pool when you start unrolling it. Once you get it started, it's goes pretty smooth. It takes me about 3-5 mins to get the cover back on by myself.I've noticed my cholrine is lasting longer compared to when I didn't use my solar cover.Overall, worth the money and I'm now using my solar cover all the time (I used to not ever want to mess with it). This will definitely give me more swimming time in the season.

It took some time, but I installed this reel system with their recommended pole. I mounted the actual reel system on two 4' x 4' five foot high pressure treated wooden posts, as I have an INTEX ultraframe pool, and cannot mount to an edge. These posts are at the end of the pool, 2 feet away, where I can still reach the solar blanket to pull it over the pool. I drilled holes in the base of the reel mechanism and then screwed these reels to a wood platform that then goes on top of the 4 x 4 post. Turn handles are screwed to the collar that holds the actual pole, so that nothing moves, then the pole is screwed to that collar. So there is definitely no wobbling or shifting. It took careful measuring to get the length of the poles correct. You need to drill holes in the poles to keep in place together, and for the end keeper plates and straps for the solar blanket-measuring for these also. I did not use their end predrilled plates to hold down the reels. I may put rubber bushings on my reels' bottoms where I drilled and screwed- so that they do not crack on the wood platform I made for each. These reels move beautifully! No struggle whatsoever rolling out the solar blanket onto the pool, or rolling it back up onto the pole again. After taking the time to configure my own pool situation, I am very happy with this product!

1st point - be careful in your order. This item is only the end pieces (the bearing assembly). You need to order seperately the aluminum tube that goes between these 2 wheel-looking items. The object description does state this, but I have seen many reviews where buyers were disappointed because they didn't get the whole kit.2nd point - very easy to assemble. Putting the ends together took around 5 minutes. Putting the seperately purchased tube together took around 15 minutes and attaching the cover to the whole assembly took another 20 minutes. I needed a battery powered drill, screw driver and a seperate wrench for the whole thing.3rd point - works very well with my 15' by 30' rectancular pool. The whole cover can be rolled up relatively neatly. The great thing is that I can actually re-cover my pool with no help and no running around to each side to advance the cover. I just slowly pull out the cover from the reel and make sure it lays flat on the water at the beginning. If I advance it slowly, it just rolls out flat and smooth onto the surface of the water, without the cover bunching up.4th point - the plastic seems sturdy, but the aluminum for the reel pole is pretty easy to damage. I did have one of my mounting screws for the cover pull out of the aluminum. I had to replace the origianal screw with a slightly larger one to hold more firmly in the relatively soft aluminum.

We needed replacement ends for our solar cover reel. These are pretty close to what we already had. The plastic is a touch thinner than our old ones, but it still feels sturdy. Assembled easily and rolls nicely. It doesn't come with the pole, but I knew that from reading the description.

We have had this reel system for the solar cover for two summers on our 16-feet diameter Intex pool. We mounted the brackets to 4x4 treated posts and zip-tied them to two pool supports. We use Gorilla tape and stainless steel screws to keep the center section of the pole from sliding back and forth inside the end sections of the aluminum pole. The stainless steel screws held up but the rotation of the pole pulling the wet solar cover puts a lot of strain on those connections. The handles on the ends appear to be pvc and these usually fell off and broke or broke and fell off often. I tried using Gorilla glue to mend them, but alas the handles were rendered useless by the middle of the second season. Perhaps the sun breaks down the pvc and makes them brittle.The system was a good value and it is attractive and easy to work with since the two-piece pvc brackets pivot. Even a small woman can easily remove the cover by herself. I could put it back onto the brackets by myself, but unrolling the cover and getting it spread out evenly on the pool was much easier with two people.