Although this wand is much better made than others we have, and is certainly more expensive, I didn’t count on its weight. Replacing a funky water powered retractable reel by Suncast, I was hoping my 86 year old wife could more easily handle the back patio watering of our dozen + pots with a Hoselink reel and wand. Unfortunately the hose requires enough force to pull off the reel that even I am a bit taxed. Ditto for our older Hoselink reel by the garden shed.
I’ve resolved part of the issue on the patio by a combination of hose guides along a house wall and feeding loose hose through them such that it piles up on the ground between them, and out of harm’s way, instead of going back on the reel. It’s easy then next time to pull the hose for use. It does kind of mute the usefulness of the spendy reel, but it is what it is, and the reel can still be used for winter hose storage.
Unfortunately the heft of the wand will make it too unwieldy for my wife, especially in telescoped mode. It is handy for reaching around or over some obstacles to water “remote” pots, especially hanging ones . I also like the double soft hand pieces that aid with comfort and control in some circumstances.. That said for my use, for my wife I may have to replace the wand with the standard hose end nozzle when she opts to do the watering if I’m busy elsewhere.
I should add also that we aren’t enamored of the wand’s twist on/off feature. It’s too clumsy with both hands at that valve while trying to balance the torque of the wand’s weighty length, even not telescoped. In the dim evening light it’s hard to read the lettering on the twist valve too. So I instead soon went to using the swing valve on the Hoselink Quick-connector to easily fine-control flow and on/off.
To reiterate, the product quality is unmatched. But beyond thoughtful design (human engineering), that same quality is partly attributable to its heavy duty materials, resulting in a weight consideration's to be entertained by customers with handicaps or weaknesses.
