Kromer has been in business since 1868, when Carl and Theodor Kromer started the company in the Black Forest making security locks. The balancers came later. Today they are built in Gottenheim, outside Freiburg, and Kromer has been part of the Carl Stahl Group - a family-owned lifting technology business - since 2000.

That is a long time to be making one kind of thing, and it shows in the details. Every family in the range is engineered for its own load band rather than scaled up from the one below.

Kromer, Packers Kromer, 7230 or 8230?

If you have bought these before, whether the label says Kromer, Packers Kromer or Carl Stahl Kromer, you are in the right place. Same manufacturer, same factory in Gottenheim, same units.

The model numbers changed in 2025. Kromer gave the zero-gravity balancer range a facelift and renumbered it from the 72xx series to the 82xx series:

• 7228 is now 8228
• 7230 is now 8230, and the ratchet-lock 7231 is now 8231
• 7235 is now 8235, and the ratchet-lock 7236 is now 8236
• 7241 is now 8241
• 7248 is now 8248
• 7251 is now 8251
• 7261 is now 8261

Everything else is the same. A 7230-04 and an 8230-04 cover the same load over the same cable travel. The retractors kept their original numbers - a 7211 is still a 7211, a 7221 is still a 7221.

Retractors up to 31 lb

A Kromer retractor has increasing retraction force: pull the tool down and the spring pulls back harder, so it returns to its rest position on its own when you let go. Kromer builds three families:

• Type 7200 - up to 5.5 lb (2.5 kg), 5.2 ft (1,600 mm) cable travel
• Type 7211 / 7212 - 1.1 to 12.1 lb (0.5 to 5.5 kg), 8.2 ft (2,500 mm) cable travel, dropping to 4.6 ft (1,400 mm) at the top capacity step
• Type 7221 / 7222 - 4.4 to 31 lb (2 to 14 kg), 9.8 ft (3,000 mm) cable travel

The 7212 and 7222 are the same units with an automatic ratchet lock, which holds the cable where you stop it so there is no upward pull on the tool.

Balancers up to 661 lb

A Kromer zero-gravity balancer has constant retraction force across its travel, so the load stays wherever you leave it. Kromer's ladder is long:

• Type 8228 (was 7228) - 0.9 to 14.3 lb (0.4 to 6.5 kg), impact-resistant plastic housing
• Type 8230 / 8231 (was 7230 / 7231) - 6.6 to 46 lb (3 to 21 kg), impact-resistant plastic housing, with or without ratchet lock
• Type 8235 / 8236 (was 7235 / 7236) - 33 to 121 lb (15 to 55 kg), chill-cast aluminium housing, closed ball bearings
• Type 8241 (was 7241) - 26 to 220 lb (12 to 100 kg), pressure-cast aluminium housing, patented freewheel
• Type 8251 (was 7251) - 33 to 441 lb (15 to 200 kg), chill-cast aluminium housing, double-spring design, 9.8 ft (3,000 mm) cable travel
• Type 8261 (was 7261) - 331 to 661 lb (150 to 300 kg), chill-cast aluminium housing, cable travel through a deflection pulley

What Kromer puts in that most balancers do not

• Spring fracture safeguard - standard from the 8230 up, and above 3 kg on the 8228 and the retractors. If the drum spring fails, the unit blocks instead of dropping the tool.
• Patented freewheel on the 8241, 8251 and 8261 - protects the mechanism against over-rotation when the spring is released, which is when these units are most likely to be damaged.
• Cable overload protection via a cable extension limit stop on the larger families.
• Cable wedge on most of the range - lets you set the working cable length anywhere within the cable's length, without changing the extension range.
• A safety chain or safety expansion chain as fall protection, included.

Rust-free (INOX PRO), for meat and food plants

Kromer builds a corrosion-resistant execution of most of the range. These are not painted units - the rust-free models use stainless cable and stainless suspension hooks and NSF H1 food-grade lubricant throughout, and the rust-free balancers add AquaGuard against water-logging, which matters in a plant that gets hosed down every night. Kromer's own documentation covers saws up to 95 kg used in slaughterhouse work.

See the Kromer food industry range.

Certification

Kromer's retractors and balancers carry GS - Geprüfte Sicherheit, or tested safety. It is a real product certification, issued by DGUV Test in Germany and tested against DIN 15112, and it is granted per item number rather than per model family. Most of the range is covered, a few executions are not, so the individual product page is the place to check.

Kromer itself is certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 and is a CO2-neutral company. Those cover how the factory is run - quality and environmental management - rather than the performance of any one balancer.

Whether you know them as Kromer or Packers Kromer, you can get the full range from us: standard and rust-free, retractors and balancers, with and without locks, in every capacity step Kromer builds.

Tell us the tool weight, what is hanging off it and the drop from your mounting point to the work, and we will size it. Contact us at contact@toolbalancersusa.com or (978) 560-3775.