Anderson winches or harken?

[zenwood]

Anyone here have experience with Anderson winches or Harken.
Looking at Anderson 46st SS and Harken 46st radial, thanks

[GordMay]

If not AndersEN , or Harken; why not or ANTAL or LEWMAR Winches?

[cat man do]

Had Andersen, Harken and Lewmar.

Andersen were by far the best, they are beautifully made, a real work of art.
Harken were ok
Lewmar were rubbish IMHO, I had 4 winches and had to swap parts between them to try and get a set that ran smoothly.
I used to think they were OK until I had better.

[zenwood]

Originally Posted by cat man do

Had Andersen, Harken and Lewmar.

Andersen were by far the best, they are beautifully made, a real work of art.
Harken were ok
Lewmar were rubbish IMHO, I had 4 winches and had to swap parts between them to try and get a set that ran smoothly.
I used to think they were OK until I had better.

Thank you , that's what I was hoping for, although I read somewhere that Andersons had problem with internal drum not
Being machined properly, not perfectly round ??

[CarlF]

Also had Andersen and Harken. Same opinion, Harken were fine - Anderson were great. The stainless drum took no maintenance and looked great.

Practical Sailer did a review years ago and rated the Andersen as the easiest to take apart and the most efficient at pulling a line (least lost in friction). Never heard of non-round drums. Only problem I heard were the first flat motor drives had problems and were swapped out by Anderson - but that was a long time ago and they did the right thing.

One difference (and this may have changed) is that the Andersen self tailer takes a fairly small range of line sizes for each winch size. It was also the best self tailer I've ever used.

Carl

[jackdale]

I have used just about every brand of winch. My problem with Andersen winches is the winch handle. The one I have used only toggle in one direction which I found rather annoying.

[S/V Alchemy]

I have two boats, featuring Andersens, Lewmars, Gibbs, Enkels and Barlows.

I rate them Barlows (sadly, extinct and non-tailing), Andersens, Enkels, Lewmars and Gibbs.

The best Lewmars I ever saw were 65s, probably the Ocean series from the '80s.

My Andersens work trouble-free and are easier to clean than the Barlows and the Lewmars. The Barlows can take Lewmar pawls and springs, but that's not cheap, merely better than ordering stuff from Arco (Barlow's successors) in Australia.

The Andersen winch handle doesn't annoy me, and if it did, I would get a different winch handle. They aren't, or don't seem to be, wildly different than any other winch in that respect, as I have a variety of handles...in rough weather, I prefer the floating ones!

[Celestialsailor]

There is a company called Acco/Hutton. Made in Australia. But they're good anyway.

[S/V Alchemy]

It's "Arco Hutton". I think that Acco makes anchor chain.

Just trying to save the OP fruitless Googling!

[Connemara]

Very limited experience .. installed Andersen 24s over the winter and used them for an hour during the first sail of the season on Sunday.

I think I'm gonna like them a lot.

And they sure do look pretty.

Connemara

[ohdrinkboy]

I had old Arcos, but when I did a refit I upgraded to Andersen. I've been really happy with them. Keep in mind my winches are small and use is not that hard on a 22' boat.