As others have said in reviews here, those nubs on the bottom---the ones that are for wrapping the cords around a couple of times to keep them in place rather than to retract when the lines are in use---are on seams and do not appear to be all that sturdy. Rather than to experience what others have gone through with fracturing and splitting nubs, I cut to the chase and purchased a couple of three-inch hard-fiber cleats to use for cord-wrapping, mounting them outboard of the clothesline housing maybe 1.5 inches or so. They work very well and should outlast the unit and its cords. I of course will not use the nubs at all. The manufacturer should reinforce those nubs, which are scandalously flimsy. I'd give this five stars then rather then four. My need is in the laundry area for hanging smaller items that are not going into the electric dryer nor worth putting up the Brabantia Lift-o-Matic umbrella clothes dryer outside for---purchased, incidentally, from Amazon a couple of years ago and the best such device I've ever seen or used---so it's spanning only about 12 feet, which is just fine. But one thing briefly puzzled me, and that was how to get the lines relatively taut and non-saggy. It can be done, but if it's not organized but instead done by eyeballing the lines each time, the lines will either be too saggy or too taut to finish attaching to the cleats. But then I figured out how to do it just right every time. Here is the process for both lines: 1. Pull out the lines and attach them to the hooks you have installed at the end of their run. 2. Get a yardstick---easier to use for this purpose than a retractable steel tape rule---and hold the end against the orifice where one of the lines emerges from the device housing. 3. With thumb and forefinger of the other hand, grasp the line right at the orifice where the end of the yardstick is. Pull the line out to 19 inches---this is a good place to start, because that is the distance at which I finally arrived after much experimentation---and hold the line against the yardstick at the 19-inch mark with your thumb and forefinger, keeping the yardstick firmly snug to the line orifice as you do so. 4. With the hand that was holding the yardstick, let go of it and grasp the line right at the orifice. Now you have one hand holding the line against the yardstick at the 19-inch mark and the other hand holding the line against the edge of the orifice. 5. Keeping the line taut between the 19-inch hand and the orifice hand, let go of the yardstick (now being held by the 19-inch hand) and let if fall. 6. Holding the line in place at the edge of the orifice, and keeping it taut with the other hand, bring the line around against the side of the housing and catch it against the bottom of the cleat. 7. Wrap the line entirely around the cleat, bottom to top and then top back down to bottom, and then bring the line back to the top again, which gives you one-and-a-half wraps. Hook the line at the top of the cleat as if to wrap it again, but don't. 8. If 19 inches is correct for your setup, the line will be slightly saggy but about as taut as you can get it without putting too much tension on it. If it is too taut to catch at the top of the cleat, start over trying 20 inches the next time; if it is a little too saggy, try again with 18 inches. 9. Whatever the correct length of the pull-out portion turns out to be, when you have the line hanging and secured the way you want it, take a magic marker and dot the line right where it bends back against the edge of the orifice. Then unwrap the line from the cleat, which will cause it to retract, and pull the line back out until you see the black dot. Take the magic marker and put a black ring around the line at the dot location so you can find it easily whenever you want to extend the lines for use. The black mark always goes right at the orifice edge. There may be another way to do this, but I could not figure it out. It's a minor hassle, but once the correct amount of slack line is determined to be correct for securing the lines at the cleats, and the lines are marked with the magic marker, it will be no problem to extend and secure the lines ever afterwards.
