Greenway GCL9FAB Large Outdoor Bamboo Rotary Clothesline - Heavy Duty 360° Rotating Clothes Drying Rack for Backyard, Laundry, and Patio Use | Perfect for Sun-Drying Clothes, Towels, and Bedding

This bamboo clothesline is a mixture of positive and negative features. Out of the box, it looks great. The bamboo is smooth and sturdy-appearing. The clothesline string itself is smooth and thin, so it's somewhat hard to use clothespins -- they don't have much to grip to and they slide if the clothes are wet and heavy. Opening and closing the clothesline at first worked great, but even before the end of one summer it jammed and no longer was possible to open and close. The mechanism to open and close is plastic and flimsy. On mine it jammed open and there was NO WAY to unstick it other than to remove that whole mechanism -- the flimsy spring popped out and I took it off. It works better now -- I open and close it easily and just use a thin stick to hold it "open" (it's a peg-in-a-hole mechanism.) Sounds bad, but it works fine now.Soooo -- everything is a trade-off. I have used several different styles of clothes-trees and they all have problems, though I have never purchased the really expensive ones. A feature I like on this one is that each level of clothesline, in a circle, is independent of the other levels. Therefore you can tighten the clothesline easily, level by level rather than the whole thing being one long line. (Some of you will know what I am talking about.)It is lightweight, easy to put away after each use (which I do.) It looks attractive, tho not beautiful when it's out so is not a complete eye-sore. I hang my clothes more or less out where the neighbors can see, so how it looks matters to me. I try to hang clothes discreetly and make it look ok. There is a zippered cover that comes with it that probably protects the wood. When it's on it looks ok, but not great. You could make your own that might look better -- I may try that next year.If you can tinker and like the look of bamboo and are ok w. slippy plastic clothesline (which is true of most clothestrees) -- this is a good choice. The price is very good for what you get.Okay, I admit that I've just unwrapped and examined this bamboo foldaway clothesline, but it's looking good ... and I wanted to add a bit of good news:I have a patio table that has a shade umbrella and a very heavy base for the umbrella. I took the umbrella out of the base/table, and slid the Bamboo clothesline pole into it. Perfect fit! I may not have to sink the pole-holder into the ground at all! I will update as I continue to use the product. (I only gave it 4 stars because the clothesline itself *does* look slippery.)UPDATE 2015: Had this clothes line for 2 years now and still love it.UPDATE 2019: I skipped a year or two of using the clothesline. It was stored in the rafters of my shabby garage. When I brought it out this year to start using it again, I was afraid it would have gotten warped... but no: IT STILL WORKS GREAT!UPDATE 2020: I still love my bamboo rotary clothesline. After 7 years, though, something broke: that is the spring-loaded mechanism that holds the lifting mechanism in place. That doesn't look fixable BUT, I just replaced it with a short bolt, and so far so good. See the accompanying photo to see what I'm talking about.Looked good out of the box. Made in China. Easy to put up. Lines were thin and slippery, hard for cloths pins to grab hold. The first year it was ok. Second year it began to come apart. By the 3rd. summer it was broken in several key stress points and became useless. I found another umbrella clothesline that was made in the U.S.A. from Iowa. Made of steel and hardwood, not bamboo. I'm sure this one will hold up better.Rarely like the product however the plastic clips that hold it open are flimsy. Mine broke before I even got it set up. Quick fix. I used a nail tapped in where it needed to be to lock it in place. I don't understand why they would make such a nice product and use cheap plastic for the most important part. Will check to see if they offer a replacement piece. I would've given 5 stars if not for that.We loved this when it arrived, hurray for bamboo and all that, and it looked nice. Initially it felt ok, just ok though, not reassuringly sturdy or anything, but enough. We had the thing just over 2 years now, and i suppose it hasn't been that bad. Our issues were the jacket for it ripped apart pretty quickly from the sun, the clasp mechanism broke after about a year, it just wouldn't grip any of the slots, so had to jam a nail in there instead, no big deal though. Today, it finally gave up and snapped the main pole at the bottom of the unit, and it wasn't even windy To be fair, it has survived two PA hot summers and cold winters, mostly unprotected as the jacket was useless. But still, 2 years isn't great. Especially as we only really do laundry once a week. I would like to say I would purchase another, but we will most likely be going with a metal unit, one from Brabantia most likely. Comparatively its expensive, but i don't mind paying extra for something that will last and not have to worry about. Set it and forget it, I like most things to be this way.This clothesline is not as stiff as a metal one we bought at lowes a few years ago and the wood doesn't allow the unit to rotate when it is loaded on only one side. I don't think it'll break, but it is very flexible when you load with wet towels or jeans. The latch was broken upon delivery, so I just shot a screw into it to fix. The unit still folds up and the cover fits, so no worries there. It is much prettier than the metal ones.Had a clothes line looked exactly like this but then we moved house and left it behind. So I thought this would be the same but the mechanism to put it up and run it down doesn't work. There is a row of holes in the pole and a plastic cuff that has a spike which sticks in a hole unless you push in a button. So the idea is you push the cuff upwards, thus expanding the 4 arms, stop pushing the button, spike catches one of the holes and bingo - hang out your washing. Not this one. So I screwed in 2 screws into the holes where I wanted the tension in the lines. It works but I can't take it down now without taking out my DIY mechanism fix.