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. Now repeat the process the other end of the garden with your hook to hold the line. As always I recommend using a long bar of some description to twist in the hook. In this case we used a hammer: But on the downside don’t be fooled, you’ll need an area of 2m by 2m to fit this washing line in, it’s no small compact unit at all. It’s just a different retracting method but if you’re looking for something to put up against a patio or conservatory that’s easy access then it might be what you’re looking for. Here’s a look at that install and demo process – I warn, the music might annoy you so turn your volume down!

When it comes to retractable washing lines, there are a few things to be aware of that will no doubt affect how long your chosen model will keep on working at its best, and those things are- the housing, the internals, the line, and the fixings. 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. 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:

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. Don’t get tripped up on install – there’s every chance you won’t be happy with the fixings provided. Whilst I appreciate many have done just fine, I really don’t think the fixings they give you work well at all for wooden structures. As I allude to in my Vileda Automatic Retractable Clothes Line review, you will want to get some decent wood screws – anything over 40mm will do you just fine. For concrete I think the fixing kits are just about OK – you’ll need a 6 or 7mm SDS bit from all of the kits that I tested in this review. Worth knowing as you’ll be pulling your hair out if you don’t have one! Build quality

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. 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 🙂 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. 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.At 8 metres long this is far from the longest washing line in this list, but considering it is completely portable, it’s a good size and more than enough for a small family on a caravan holiday or camping trip. It’s not going to be enough for huge loads like the Better heavy duty washing line of the Wallfix, but then again, it’s not meant to.