Although not the longest washing line among our featured products, at 15 metres you can still get a decent amount of washing on there, and it would be just fine for any average sized family.

The reason it can do this better than the others is that Brabantia have gone with a largely metallic construction for the wall fix, and every support arm for the washing lines is extremely solid and robust. There’s just no plastic model that can compare. I used an adjustable spanner to grab my hook and just twisted it into the timber – install complete! The first question that you need to ask yourself is- where do I intend to use my retractable washing line? Is it for setting up in the bathroom to pop towels over? To set up in the garden like a traditional washing line? Or maybe you want something that you can take camping with you?

This extra weight is just a byproduct of the very solid build quality that this retractable washing line has. Even when all five lines were filled with wet and heavy clothes, towels, etc. it showed no signs of sagging. From the most expensive, to the cheapest now, with our choice for best budget retractable washing line- the Beldray LA026996, which will give you a good bit of change from a tenner, and won’t disappoint you as long as you don’t expect too much from it. For the review score, we gave Minky 2 x 15m Outdoor Retractable Reel Washing Line 9.2 out of 10. To reach that score we use information on what customers are saying about the same product from a number of retailers, to create an aggregate score. However, there is one flaw to this design that stands out, and that is when you have a lot of clothes on each line, the inner lines won’t get as much air flowing through to them and might dry at a slower rate.

ALTERNATIVE: Best wall mounted retractable washing line: Brabantia WallFix Retractable Washing Line with Fabric Cover– best of the best but it’s wall mounted retractable rather than a straight washing line. I’ve decided to throw a bit of a curve ball – this is a retractable clothes line but does so againt the wall rather than a spool. The upside, it’s robust and compact making it extermely easy to put all washing out without moving or messing around so much, the down side is the price. You can get a lot of drying done with the Tensor, as each line has a maximum extension of 15 metres, giving you 45 metres overall. That’s more than any other product featured in this article. What’s more, it actually does a really good job of staying taut when under heavy loads.

If you are tired of stretching out a washing line from one point to another, every time you have to dry your clothes, then you are looking at the right line here in my opinion. The Brabantia WallFix Retractable Washing Line is a unique wall – mounted design that can be folded shut when not in use. It definitely solves the problem of stretching a washing line out over and over again and saves you time and energy – no question. But can you justify spending 4 times as much? That’s the question. If you want quality I guess read on for some key info! Of course, manufacturers and designers have found ways to limit the weaknesses in these materials, and you can get weather resistant plastics, and metals like aluminium that won’t rust and steel with corrosion resistant coating. Toctax’s camping washing line comes with an aluminium alloy hook for just this reason. One handy tip worth mentioning. Your fixings are only 40mm long. So you only need to drill 40mm deep. You can put a bit of tape down 45mm from the tip to give you a guide of where to stop drilling.

Always one of the most important factors is price, and the amount you are willing to pay for your retractable washing line will probably affect the overall quality of the product. For example, if you want a near indestructible washing line like the Brabantia Wallfix, you’re going to have to shell out a lot more than you would for the Beldray washing line. And I was particularly happy with the Vinsani and especially the budget Metaltex if the Vileda single washing line isn’t enough. We found that to be a very good alternative to the top heavy duty Minky: Vinsani retractable washing line held up very well in testing You can now buy retractable washing lines with more than one line. In fact, our choice for the best budget washing line for large families, the Better 35m heavy duty model, has four separate lines. A nice feature of the Better heavy duty washing line is that you don’t have to use all five lines at once if you don’t want to. Let’s say you only need a single line or maybe two for a smaller load, no problem, you can just pull out the ones you need. Although we’ve crowned this product as the best budget for large families, it isn’t a cheap product, but when compared to other true heavy duty washing lines like the Brabantia Wallfix, we think it offers the best value for money. Yes, you can find cheaper multi-line models, but they won’t work as well or last as long as this one. So, you’ve aways got a large load to dry at once, but you can’t bring yourself to shell out for the Brabantia Wallfix. Not to worry, this 35 metre heavy duty retractable washing line from Better (yes, that’s the name they chose for their brand, and not my opinion) is an excellent alterative. Let me just be clear about the 35 metre thing. It’s not one single line that runs for 35 metres, but 5 parallel lines of 7 metres each. This keeps things quite compact, and so you don’t need to have a garden the size of a tennis court to use this model.

Delivery

For the hook end, I literally bodged up whatever wood off cuts I had. I dug a hole and threw a fence post in with a bag of Postcrete. (I didn’t have anything solid enough in the garden to attach the line to otherwise. Also, the post in my mind was too low so I further bodged it taller with another off cut I just bolted to it. Just digging a post in the ground, with the weights involved, and a huge gust of wind, would leave you with a liability 🙂 Vileda Cordomatic 15 Metre Automatic Retractable Clothes Line installed using 40mm size 5 screws rather than the supplied fixing kit Because I already have three retractable washing lines on test at my home I decided to buy one for my good friend Mark. His wife had been on his case for a retractable washing line for months – mainly because Summer was coming up, they had just made a fantastic job of their garden and wanted to enjoy it. Having a fixed washing line in place was a problem for space – it’s not a huge garden. However, when I recommended the Vileda his wife was adamant one 15m line wouldn’t cut it. Given I had already reviewed one retractable line that appears to be very similar and the Minky, here we are testing it in Mark’s garden: When you’re done using the washing line, it all folds down, concertina style, into its wall-mounted, stainless steel, storage box. The use of stainless steel was a great choice by the designers as it is very good at fighting rust, and therefore will extend the working life of the washing line. Worth a look: Soreli Retractable Washing line 12M What you should know before buying a retractable washing line

The Tensor retractable washing line isn’t a budget buy, and costs more than the Vileda, Minky, Toctax, and Beldray models. It isn’t super-expensive, but then again, there isn’t anything that would make me choose this over the Vileda or Minky for garden use. For indoors, however, I would pay the extra for the sleek design. The size of your family is something else to think about here, and how much washing you need to hang up at a time. A heavy-duty retractable washing line with multiple lines like the Brabantia wallfix, or the Better 35m washing line, is more likely to suit your needs here than our best overall- Vileda’s cordomatic, as it only has a single, 15 metre, line. This is an indoor/outdoor retractable washing line and I would agree that it could be used practically for both. The housing is solid and UV resistant, but it can also rotate and be folded flat to the wall, which would make it more inconspicuous inside the house when not in use. One thing is for sure though, you don’t want to try to twist this in by hand – you can get a start is using the wall plugs and then you’ll need a bar of some description for leverage – this could even be a screwdriver, the main point is leverage. But that’s nearly it, with that screwed in just walk the line from the retractable unit down to the hook and you’re in business. It really is that easy

Minky 2 x 15m Outdoor Retractable Reel Washing Line reviews

For the hook I just took out an adjustable spanner to grab hold and twisted it in – equally, if not better would be some mole grips that actually clamp the hook but I didn’t struggle at all my way – here’s a look at how I clamped the hook for install: If we were to do anything different this time it would be install the unit much higher (almost out of arms reach) and then the same with the hook. What we noticed with both lines fully loaded. The washing sags to the point it really is a bit low. Granted the clothes are wet and heavy but here’s an example. We bought the relatively cheap heavy duty washing line prop and that worked out just fine and has been no problem at all for the last 5 months: There’s only a single line, not two like the Minky retractable washing line, but the line offers a good combination of strength and flexibility. In our tests, we were able to zig zag it across a small garden using some screw-in eyelets and it made great use of the space. Multiple lines can be very handy if you’re short on space. Let’s say you have a small garden, or maybe even just a balcony or small spare room to utilise- multiple, parallel, washing lines can help you make the most of your available space.