Reviews of Bayco SL-800 Professional Retractable Reel with 30-Foot Triple Tap

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List Price: $43.99
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Mounted to a a roof joist, you'll wonder how you ever survived without one. Mine plugs into the same outlet as my garage door opener and is used all the time for the electric leaf blower, handheld saws, drills, etc. etc. etc.

Very good design and function I'd rank it as FIVE Stars but after a couple of years one of the three outlets got flaky. I have to really make sure that the plug is inserted firmly, and even then sometimes the power cuts out. I write it up to iffy quality, although it's probably been run over at least once.

I then knock it down another star because with 16 gauge wire it's really only suited to medium / lighter weight applications (10A) Running a shop vac and table saw simultaneously on this is not a good idea you notice a definite drop in current and the wire does get warm enough to notice. I'm sure this is higher than the 10A it's rated for, however, so it's not something you should be doing anyways.

There are a couple of alternatives which are 12 gauge wire which gives you 15A capacity. Some of these are even longer. I'm planning to get the Grizzly, which is a little more but also 10' longer and 12AWG/15A...

Update: I now have the Grizzly 12 GA which I use for a light duty table saw, router, etc. I still use this for light duty items, again noting that the 10A recommendation means you shouldn't use this for more than 1250 watt items.

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Last year I moved into a new house and my woodshop now exists in a nice one car garage. The only downside to my new shop (other than its small size) is that the previous owners did not install many outlets. Before I had the time to do so myself, I came across this retractable cord reel. I hung it from the ceiling, dead center just next to the garage door opener (they can thus share the same outlet), and the 30' length easily reaches every corner of my shop. I am sure this length would do equally well in a two car garage too. I especially love the fact that since my main bench and tablesaw are directly below this reel I can quickly run power to either of those without having any cords tripping me at floor level.

I have found the construction of this reel to be top notch the steel housing will last forever and the winding/retracting mechanism inside is very robust. I predict this to be a lifetime tool, never to need replacing.

I highly recommend this item, especially to those whose workshops started out life as a garage!

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First of all, since I planned on hanging this reel, I purchased this item based on the fact that it looked like it had a nice sturdy ring to hang the cord reel from (I made the mistake of ASSUMING that the black ring depicted was ATTACHED to the bracket that held the reel. WRONG!!!!! It didn't have a ring...unless the cheap, wire item that resembled the wire rings car repair people use to attach your key and a ticket number to was supposed to be used for. I tried to "make it work" and after several attempts, and a broken nail (it's girl thing LOL) I just thought "forget about it" and jerry rigged something so I could at least be fair and try it out.

When an item is advertised to be 30 feet, well...call me picky, but I EXPECT it to be 30 feet! When I pulled the cord completely out, I thought it looked short, so I grabbed a tape measure and had my son hold the reel and one end of the tape measure, and sure enough, it was 25 feet. If you include the reel and the bit of cord on the other side, it was 28 feet. Five feet doesn't sound like much, but I really needed thirty feet, and I didn't want to lug a 50' reel (hmmm, the 50' reel might have ended up being 42', so maybe I should have considered that LOL)

All in all, I was very disappointed with the product and returned it immediately.

Honest reviews on Bayco SL-800 Professional Retractable Reel with 30-Foot Triple Tap

I've had the Bayco "Model 800" for about 6 years. Super handy for power tools in the workshop, garage, or driveway. "Must Have."

Mine has 14 gauge cord, but this "SL-800" has thinner 16 gauge cord. To handle a variety of power tools, I would insist on 14 gauge or heavier. When you need to use a 13-amp, tool, you're not going to interrupt your work to do extension cord eval. Err on the heavy side when buying a cord like this.

I'd consider the Reelcraft LD2030-143-9 Spring Driven Cord Reel with 30-Feet of 14/3 Cord and Triple Outlet, or the Grizzly H5695 Cord Reel 12awg x 40' . or the Grizzly look-alike at Harbor Freight Tool.

My Bayco held up well under moderate use (about 10 times a month).

The 3-outlet end is good. The female contacts grip fine, but a stronger grip would be nice.

Mine has at least 29 feet of retractable cord, as promised.

Slight problem: The last 4 feet doesn't always retract. A little silicone on the cord seems to solve it. Or, I could probably open it up and tighten the spring.

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As one of the other reviewers mentioned, the reel doesn't come as pictured with an eyelet presumably used to hang it from the ceiling. I was hoping to do that so I could cover the whole garage with one cord. Oh well, I ended up mounting it to a wall and I will likely have to pick up another one. Also, yeah, it is short. My garage is 25' deep and it won't reach all the way across. Quite a bit of cord is still in the reel at the last point the ratchet locks. Oh well.

Now, that said, I kept it as it's a really well made reel. It definitely feels like it should last a while, unlike the similarly priced plastic junk you see around. The metal construction is good and it has excellent retraction tension. Overall it's a good deal and I would've given it 5 stars if it weren't for the inaccurate picture and the false 30 foot claim.