Make Your FreeReel Hum!

The FreeReel does not require maintenance because of the materials used in the FreeReel. The main material used in the FreeReel is referred to as an “Engineered Thermoplastic”. This material has a base of polyamide, commonly known as nylon. Embedded throughout the nylon are short pieces of fiberglass that greatly modify the physical properties of the nylon. The addition of the fiberglass results in higher stiffness, higher strength, and less influence from water vapor content on the dimensional stability of the nylon. In combination, this composite material allows the development of a myriad of products, including the FreeReel, that would not be possible without it. 

Back to seasonal tuning of the FreeReel. The FreeReel may have minor changes in dimensions (on the order of 0.5%) because of temperature and humidity changes associated with changes in season. These changes have negligible effect on the performance of the FreeReel. But there is one thing you may want to tune. If it feels like the cord guide is too loose (turning too easily) or too tight (turning too hard), then you can tighten or loosen the nut on the back of the FreeReel. In the picture, I am pointing directly at the nut. Put a 7/16” socket on this nut, hold the Cord Guide from turning, and you can change how tight the nut is. 

When you do this, you will see that slight changes in the nut tightness have a measurable impact on how easily the Cord Guide turns. Adjust it to how you like it. Users have different preferences for how easy or hard it is to rotate the Cord Guide.

Make Your Cords and Hoses Quick to Use and Easy to Store

This FreeReel shows 3 cords wound sequentially on the reel.

A nice feature of the FreeReel Reel System is the ability to store and use multiple cords and/or hoses at the same time with a single reel.  

Multiple cords can be stored on the FreeReel sequentially, with one cord following another. In this case, the cords are plugged in male to female and wound onto the FreeReel in just the same way you would wind on a single cord. 

The cord connectors stay together during winding and unwinding

Just plug the male end of one cord to the female end of another, and wind like it a single cord.

We have found when storing cords on the FreeReel sequentially, it works best for us if we put the longest cord on the reel first, and then go with the next longest cord and so on. The reason we like this is because it seems for most our jobs, a 15-foot extension cord is all we need.  This would be typical when working in the garage or basement. If the 15-foot extension cord is the last cord wound onto the reel, then this cord is immediately accessible.  If your next longest cord is a 25-foot cord, then together, the last two cords are now good for 40 feet.  This also seems to be a very useful length.  Finally, if the last cord on the reel is a 50-footer, we now have 90 feet in combination, really useful when you are doing yardwork or something that is farther away from the electrical outlet. 

To use one or more of the cords stored on the FreeReel, just unplug the cord(s) you need!

If you use this method, however, it is important to remember that the cord gauge or size is important if you are powering devices that can use a lot of power, such as electric snow blowers or chainsaws. To assist you with choosing what gauge cords to put on your FreeReel, look for a follow-up post on how cord gauge and cord length effect AC electric motor performance.