Reel Cleaning for Novices

[FlyPelican]

I just dropped off 2 of my reels to FTU for cleaning...$50 later (not including parts) and I'll be back in business.

I've wanted to learn some "beyond basic" reel cleaning for some time now...as I seem to take my reels in several times a year and that gets expensive and is time consuming. Hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

I'm looking for good youtube videos or other instructional sites that I can use to help me get started. I pretty much only fish with Shimano reels if that makes a difference.

Does anyone have some good info they can share?

Thanks.

- FP

[Curmudgeon]

I know nothing about cleaning reels other than it requires enough room to do it without losing any parts. I usually spend most of my time making sure they get rinsed and loved after fishing. The Galveston chapter of CCA used to have occasional meeting with reel cleaners, so you might check into that. If you can find a good reel mechanic they might be interested in sharing their knowledge as well. I just never pursued it.


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[Steve_A]

You can send your reels to shimano and they will repair them for $25.00, including parts. There are some helpful youtube videos out there.

[Robalo]

Replace the bearings with ceramic bearings. Replace the drag washers. Use only 'light oil' such as RemOil, do not use WD 40 since it will turn 'gummy' and 'sticky'-never use WD 40 on a firearm either. Don't soak your reels with water after fishing, just spray them lightly with water, then after they dry (about an hour at most), spray with RemOil.

[JT]

You can send your reels to shimano and they will repair them for $25.00, including parts. There are some helpful youtube videos out there.

No sheet?

[TroutSupport]

I take pics with my phone for each and every part I take off, take a pic before it's removed. I also lay them out in the same order that I took them off.

Grease only goes on gears, oil in bearings and on spool shaft. Denatured alcohol is about as strong as you need.. anything stronger may melt the plastic side plates on some reels.

If you're not ready to take your own apart, but a $10 reel at a pawn store and break it down using the above.. they're all fairly similar but a little different depending on what brand. After you do it, give it away to a kid or if it doesn't work out at least you know what you're up against and haven't lost anything. It's really not hard.. just take your time and keep track of all parts. Buy some cheap *** towels at ross or TJ max to lay out the parts on.

Get some quality reel lube and oil.. I've been using Reel Butter and it's good, heard Royal Purple has some out now, Diawa Hot Sauce is fine as well. Good info on watching you tubes as well.

[Steve_A]

Here's a link to Shimano's web page: http://fish.shimano.com/content/sac-...ce-centre.html
Sometimes there will be a fee, depending on the part, like bearings, which most of us can replace. I have sent in a Chronarch 51E that was only a year old and was having problems, and they replaced it with a new Chronarch CH151 for $25.00.

[JT]

I've always cleaned my own in manner trout support outlined. I have a lot of reels tho.

But for $25 bucks apiece, I'm about to farmout 1/2 of them to shimano and when I get those back, they're going to get the other 1/2.

I'll then return to being a "fishing machine".

[plugger]

All good advice . Like trout support said , take pictures before and after removing a part . Place them in order they were removed . Lock the cat out of the room cause sure nuff he'll saunter over and plop down on top of all your parts . .

[Hopper]

Shimano has some pretty good real cleaning videos on their you tube page.