Craftsman Professional  30 ft. Cord Reel

This is a well built cord reel. All the complaints about the spring not being strong enough are from people that are not paying attention. Sometimes the cord gets stacked in the reel. It is a minor inconvenience to pull a bit out a try again.

A neighbor of mine had one of these and I was so impressed with it's utility, I HAD to have one. I'd been using the electrical outlet on my light that was on a cord reel, but it was cumbersome and half the time I'd break the light somehow. This offers three outlets versus two!

Got this reel a couple of years ago as a XMAS gift. Used if for about 4 months and now it will not retract the cord. I can hear the spring unwind. Took it to Sears repair center and was told they are not repairable and parts are not available. The joke is it says industrial on the unit. They suggested buy a new one.  A piece of junk

I am a fireman by trade and this product is possibly the worst thing you can buy. I had one that burnt up inside the housing and returned it for an exchange. Thinking of the possibilities of this happening again I did install the new one. Well to get to the point if you want your house to burn down buy this product. As a joke this is job security for me if you do buy this but as a public servant I would strongly advise against it.

What you buy is what you're stuck with. Don't expect a reply from Sears. From the first pull I knew this "premium" reel was a p.o.s. Weak spring, cord bunches up on itself inside the reel and the only reason I gave it one star is that you have to note something in order to write a review. If possible, I would have left it blank. Just purchased a couple of months ago and have used it only a few times. I'm going to try and take it back for either a refund or a credit. Then I'll buy a quality reel. Craftsman anything used to stand for quality. No more

The Craftsman retractable cord reel is handy to have in the workshop or garage providing easy access to electrical power. The cord reel comes with an easy to install mounting bracket. The cord reel retracts quickly so one should guide the cord back into the reel for best results. The heavy-duty 30 ft extension cord is 14/3 and comes with a triple tap or 3 grounded outlets plus the resettable circuit breaker.

Cord cracked in numerous places, retract very week, I thought I was buying the best by getting the "Professional" version but all I can say is POS

HAD THIS FOR ABOUT 6 MONTHS SELDOM USED IT, NOTICED IT COULD BE SLOW TO RECOIL, HOWEVER YESTERDAY TYHE SRPING MUST HAVE BROKEN AND NOW IT DOES NOT WORK AT ALL

I have no complaints. I use this thing hard and have not had any issues yet. Will be buying two more for my garage soon.

I owned one of these that I bought at the local Sears store.  Overall, I was not disappointed, since I got 4 years of service, which is 3 years more than the warranty.  Judging from all the reviews of all the other versions of these low-priced cord reels that are available from other online stores (**************, Northern Tool, etc.), I think that this is unit probably the ********, and doesn't exhibit any different problems from those other reels. 

From the reviews, the main complaints for these low-priced cord reels are:  

1) that the reel is too small, so that the cord bunches up when retracting.  Mine did this, but I just pulled the cord out a few inches and re-started the retract.  This didn't bother me too much, because the cord always fully retracted.

2) that the retract mechanism is either too weak or that it slowly loses strength.  Mine did not demonstrate either of these symptoms. It was still pulling fine when the final failure occurred.

Mine just disintegrated from within.  Shortly after I installed it, a fairly large piece of plastic fell out, but the mechanism continued to work properly so I didn't get a warranty replacement.  Over the 4 years that I used it, more pieces fell out.  After it failed altogether, I dismantled it and discovered that the sides of the reel were made of very thin plastic, less than 1/16" thick.  This thin plastic apparently cannot withstand the loading exerted by the cord (as the cord reaches the side of the reel, it pushes against the side before it wraps over onto itself for the next layer). The retract spring is quite long, so I don't think that it fatigues with use.  And, the rotary electrical mechanism seems to be well-designed.,  In the 4 years, I never noticed any power interruptions.

SInce I have not found a replacement that is obviously better, I think I'll simply buy another of these. However, I have no doubt that the same problem will occur.  I'm just too cheap to shell out $150+ for an unknown "professional" unit.

Side note:  This appears to be made by Bayco, since it is identical to the Bayco units at the home-improvement stores.  I hope the Bayco engineers read this review.  With a little "beef" added to the reel, this would be a reel-ly good unit!