The difference between a generic and a Hewes reel was *huge* for me.

I've tried plastic too.  Personally I much prefer the stainless Hewes.

Then again I struggle with my 120 stainless reel (but it may not be a
hewes)

Did you buy it new or used? Used reels may be bent, which will cause
problems.

I've got two generic reels that I bought used, and they give me problems.
I think they're bent. I've also got two Hewes reels that I bought new and
that load very smoothly. That's not really a fair comparison, but it's the
only one I personally can make.

Are there any plastic reels that fit inside stainless steel tanks? I've
got a plastic AP tank with both AP and Paterson reels. They're much wider
than my stainless steel reels and wouldn't fit inside my stainless steel
tank. There may be smaller plastic reels, but if so I don't know anything
about them.

Personally, I find the plastic reels harder to load than the Hewes
stainless steel reels, but this is very much a matter of personal
preference; lots of people prefer the plastic reels.

I have used Paterson reels and tanks for 35 years without difficulty.

There is nothing better.

I used stainless steel reels for several years in several different
darkrooms.  They have stainless steel ribs but carbon steel hubs.  If
they got dropped they bent.  Check your reel for alignment.  i.e.
CAREFULLY measure to be sure your reel isn't bent.  Good Luck
Clint H.

Is this a Hewes reel distributed by Jobo?

My personal recommendation is to find and use what works best for you, my
own preference is Hewes reels and Kindermann tanks.  Both are made of
thicker metal than their flimsy counterparts and the Kindermann tanks use
tight fitting plastic lids that don't leak a drop.  For years I thought it
was normal to have developer and god knows what running down my arm when I
lifted and agitated my film.  That changed after I got a Kindermann tank and
lid.  For a cheap alternative Durst made (or at least marketed a Kindermann
tank and lid clone made of plastic that gets the job done, still find them
on auction sites once in a while).

Note that I don't have enough Hewes reels to fill my larger tanks (I have
lots of tanks) so I have a medley of assorted Nikor (Honeywell import not
Nikkor/Nikon) Omega and Kalt.  The lighter gauge wire in these reels will
bend at an unkind word but can usually be straightened out.  (One 120 reel I
had was very frustrating to load, I eventually concluded the problem was
that the dang thing was slightly undersized.)

I usually have extra reels standing by when using the lightweights, if I
can't load it, I stop, practice a few of my more colorful expressions and
try another reel.  My usual practice is to fill tanks with developer, stop
and fix, load all film into a dry tank, cap it and turn on the lights just
long enough to check developer temperature, adjust processing time on my
timer and then turn the lights off and transfer the film to the developer
tank (with 4 and 8 reel tanks, I'll use a lift rod to put the film in the
tank) then cap the tank and agitate by inversion in daylight, when developer
time in almost up the lights go off, the cap comes off and the film is
transferred to the next tank.  Stop and fix get lift and drop agitation and
the lights go back on after 2-3 minutes in the fixer (maybe longer if using
TMax films).  I'll usually use two fixer baths and HCA with TMax and mark
off rolls on the storage jugs just like one would with paper processing,
stop bath and developer are one shot.

I'm also fond of Unicolor and use it on the Unidrum motor base for some
applications and it's especially useful with films like TMax that require a
lot of fixation or for a low volume darkroom.  I can just set the buzzer and
do something else while the film fixes.  (Coffee break or bathroom,
usually.)  Here I am currently using Kodafix diluted as for paper-one
shot-and get good fixing in 5 minutes for TMax.  Nice when you don't have
enough film volume to justify mixing fix by the gallon.  Now that I shoot
only for me and at a pretty low volume (compared at least to what I used to
shoot) I appreciate the convenience and economy of one shot processing.
Nothing ever dies in the jug.

Paterson, etc. also good and a few of the guys I worked for loved it (they
couldn't load ss) but I don't like inverting P-tanks, the old ones leaked
and the newer ones "glug" too much and I got occasional airbells on
negatives, and don't like the swizzle stick agitation much either though
it's better than inversion for me.  Other than that, 10 ounces to process a
roll of film Vs 8 in a s.s. tank is a waste of resources.

When I started deving my own films Patterson sprirals seemed the way to
go with their flexible 3 films in one spiral design. SS seemed just too
fragile - both edges need to be parallel otherwise they don't work.

Inversion worked very well for me and the acquisition of a 16mm spiral
(try that with SS) made it very easy to process any kind of film that
came my way.

It may be a hassle, but I'd humbly suggest selling the kit on ebay and
starting anew with the plastic reels.

What happens to prevent you from successfully loading
the reel?  Does the film bind in a particular place, or does
it get off-center?  If you don't get the film entering the reel
quite straight, by the time you are getting to the end, one of
the edges tries to dive under the spiral and overlap the
previous turn.

 Did anybody mention the Jobo Hewes reels are intended for Jobo 15xx type
tanks? Not for common stainless tanks. If you want a reel to fit those then
look for the plain Hewes not the Jobo Hewes reel. Now if you want a new tank
then get the Jobo Hewes reel and which ever Jobo tank tickles your fancy.
Just make sure it's a 1500 series tank and not the bigger 2500.

    Nick