I read a lot of reviews for this clothesline before buying it, and it has all the issues most people have posted about the lower mechanism broke as it was put up, but we put a screw in to hold it up, so it still works. The cords are very loose, so I will most likely have to take it down to re-string it. Ive only used it so far to hang bedsheets, and the cords got so loose that my sheets were touching the ground. The pole itself is on the shorter side, but thats fine for me because Im only 52. Solid 3 stars because its not awful but also not great. Still a better value than the local hardware stores (99)