No leaks for me on my caber reel, my son got about 5 years out of his last one and it still seems serviceable
I found however that 100 metres of some microbore tended to slip over the edges when reeling out, I cut 10 metres off mine and its fine.
I like a fixed reel myself but that's just IMHO.
For a budget, value for money diy system I'd pay out the £45ish for one, you can also pay £400 or whatever for a hose reel but that's not for some budgets