Rich, to answer your specific questions:  The a/c vacuum is nothing but two lines hooked to a venturi....no moving parts so it's pretty impossible to screw it up.    The hose reel may or may not be crap depending on which style it is....but Homier Distributing has an auto retracting reel for about $40 with hose that I think is a much better deal then any manual one.  
Hose reel