I've purchased a few new reels lately, as I've been updating gear after quite some time. 

2- Daiwa Coastal SVs

2 - ABU Revo SX

1 - Daiwa Tatula CT

 

The Coastals and one of the Revos are dead silent when reeling.  However, the other Revo, and the Tat CT both "whirrr" pretty good when reeling. I don't know that I'd call it "geary", but definitely noisy.  They have been cleaned, bearings flushed and oiled, appropriate places greased, etc.. have even tried various greases, with no change. 

 

If the answer is "sometimes entry level reels are noisy, sometimes they aren't", then I guess I understand that.  It's just crazy that one of the Revos is dead smooth and silent, and one is quite noisy.  The Tat CT may be known to be noisy? I have no idea. 

 

 

What gear ratio are the reels?  I have found my 8.1:1 Tatula is far noisier on the retrieve than the others of different gear ratios.  It casts great and is very free but has some gear noise exactly as you describe.  

 

 

My first baitcaster 3 years ago was a tatula ct, that reel is now my wife's first baitcaster and there is no odd sound when reeling. That said i have no idea if the model has been changed in the last few years. If you can confirm its the same I'd return it. Upon further review as they say...i dug it out, it is the 8:1 and i compared it to my tatula sv's and it does indeed whine lol. Still works great but it has a noise for sure. 

26 minutes ago, JediAmoeba said:

What gear ratio are the reels?  I have found my 8.1:1 Tatula is far noisier on the retrieve than the others of different gear ratios.  It casts great and is very free but has some gear noise exactly as you describe.  

 

 

7.3

Other things you could try are taking out the pawl on the worm gear.  If it still makes that noise you know it is a bearing or the main gears.  It's possible the main gears don't mesh well and a small abrasive polish like traditional toothpaste could smooth it out but I wouldnt go that route.  

 

Sometimes you just get a bad bearing too - you can get decent abec 5 bearings for relatively cheap from FastEddy or ebay.  

44 minutes ago, JediAmoeba said:

Other things you could try are taking out the pawl on the worm gear.  If it still makes that noise you know it is a bearing or the main gears.  It's possible the main gears don't mesh well and a small abrasive polish like traditional toothpaste could smooth it out but I wouldnt go that route.  

 

Sometimes you just get a bad bearing too - you can get decent abec 5 bearings for relatively cheap from FastEddy or ebay.  

I actually may try lapping the gears on the Revo, just as an experiment. 

Rigid, light weight reels transmit vibration just like a rod blank but with opposing desire. None of the modern reels will feel like a Curado D but these days the weight of the D would be a deal breaker for many. 

1 hour ago, BaitFinesse said:

High speed reels and plastic sideplates are a recipe for gear noise.  Time for a re-grease.  Put some cals on it.  My 8:1 VT SV is noisy but mostly smooth.  My 8:1 aluminum handle sideplate old Tatula is silent.  I'm sticking to aluminum handle sideplates from here on out. 

They are greased up. 

It's just interesting that one of the Revos is dead silent. 

1 hour ago, Delaware Valley Tackle said:

Rigid, light weight reels transmit vibration just like a rod blank but with opposing desire. None of the modern reels will feel like a Curado D but these days the weight of the D would be a deal breaker for many. 

Right. I guess the most surprising is that one Revo is nearly dead silent, and one is quite noisy. 

Both of the Coastals are silent as well, to the point that when I fish them right after using my Tat CT, something almost feels wrong the first few retrieves. 

4 minutes ago, BaitFinesse said:

You would surprised at the amount of variance in noise and smoothness from reel to reel.  Gears are only QC tested in lots and not individually.  It seems like the higher end you go the fewer the variance in reel to reel.   

This is why I may try lapping the gears as an experiment. I wouldn't normally be a proponent of it, but it COULD possibly help if the teeth aren't machined quite right. 

1 hour ago, AmmoGuy said:

They are greased up. 

It's just interesting that one of the Revos is dead silent. 

Right. I guess the most surprising is that one Revo is nearly dead silent, and one is quite noisy. 

Both of the Coastals are silent as well, to the point that when I fish them right after using my Tat CT, something almost feels wrong the first few retrieves. 

Not uncommon at all for reels of the same model to have their own personality. I’ve seen with with all kinds of mechanical things. 

7 minutes ago, Delaware Valley Tackle said:

Not uncommon at all for reels of the same model to have their own personality. I’ve seen with with all kinds of mechanical things. 

10-4. 
 

So just ignore it and fish? Ha. 

21 minutes ago, AmmoGuy said:

10-4. 
 

So just ignore it and fish? Ha. 

Yup. If it gets worse or something else pops up contact me. 

Swap gears in the Revos to see if the problem goes away. There could be a number of reasons you're feeling this. One that might be hard to solve is a sprung frame casting. It happens during manufacture and can mis-align the gears just enough that you'll feel the gears meshing. Doubtful that it'll amount to a problem though. A geary reel is unlikely to grenade during normal use. It can be annoying, or in some cases an intolerable high crime, if you're focused on such things.#Baitfinesse?

Similar experience here with the Tatula CT R I have. Completely quite on the cast, but loud and geary sounding on the retrieve. I maintain all my reels myself and despite deep cleaning and oil/lube, the noise is still there. 

17 minutes ago, Boogey Man said:

Similar experience here with the Tatula CT R I have. Completely quite on the cast, but loud and geary sounding on the retrieve. I maintain all my reels myself and despite deep cleaning and oil/lube, the noise is still there. 

 Sounds exactly like my issue. 

Just for updates sake... 

 

So, one of my Revos got bad enough that I took it to BP and as soon as the customer service guy spun it, he swapped it no questions asked. Super geary. The new one is better, so far. 

 

A re-grease helped my CT a little, but it's getting louder again. You can "feel" the "geariness" more on the CT. If I had bought it at BP I'd take it and swap it too. 

 

On top of that, one of my Coastal SVs, has started producing a heavy gear "whirrr" when retrieving. Cleaned and re-greased and tossed some swim jigs with it yesterday, and the whirrr continued. I can't help but think a $250 reel shouldn't be this noisy after a month.  

 

All of these reels are less than 3 months old. Been babied, cleaned, lubed.  Maybe I'm being too picky? But surely people aren't OK with geary, noisy reels? 

 

Am I going to have to spend $400+ to get a reasonably quiet reel? 

11 hours ago, AmmoGuy said:

 

Am I going to have to spend $400+ to get a reasonably quiet reel?

Maybe, but there are no rock solid guarantees. Daiwa and Shimano have struggled with this issue in their higher end models too. There are discussions elsewhere about this problem. Plenty of tears from guys who've plunked down on big ticket reels and are unsatisfied because of their expectations and their focus on gear meshing. Sometimes it's because of aluminum main gears, sometimes it just is what it is.

 

A good place to start is to get a reel with a fully supported geartrain. Nothing below a Zillion coming out of Daiwa offers that. Quantum gives you that in the $100 retail Accurist. The Icon PT I have is at least a 5 year old design AFAIK, and has it. Not sure why Daiwa resists. Lew's/Doyo is partially there with the P2 reels, but falls short ultimately by not employing a drive shaft bearing on top of the roller clutch bearing to complete the deal.

 

You're entitled to feel whatever you feel and want what you want. Personally I tune it out. I have a few reels I really like to fish with like the Pflueger Supreme XT  that went geary quickly. They still do everything else really well. Just fine actually, so I go with it. New gears won't change a thing because it's the nature of the beast. Gear meshing isn't like sand in the gear box or chipped teeth, it's just a lack of tight tolerances to begin with or the inability of the original tolerances to be maintained by the platform over time because of use/stresses. Gear meshing tends to plateau for the most part if lubrication is maintained.

 

I'd swap reels until you're happy, but don't be surprised if the condition arises again. It's not fatal, and it's not always a gear issue. Sometimes it's a pinion bearing(s) or a driveshaft bearing(s) issue that feels a lot like a gear meshing issue. While it's just about impossible for even a very talented person to produce a fishing reel in a basement machine shop, they are still dumb simple machines. They aren't complicated at all. Associating oneself with their moving parts will sometimes make it easy to solve what are in fact small issues and help in diagnosing easily correctable problems like a dry, or bad, driveshaft bearing that feels like bad gears.

1 hour ago, PhishLI said:

A good place to start is to get a reel with a fully supported geartrain.

Can you elaborate on that? 
 

Where is, say the 100, gear train unsupported. Or rather, what am I looking for in addition? 

I mean... here’s what I’m dealing with on the CT. (Touch of spool tension added to simulate a lure retrieve). 
 

No way I can tune this out when I’m fishing. 
 

 

7 minutes ago, AmmoGuy said:

I mean... here’s what I’m dealing with on the CT. (Touch of spool tension added to simulate a lure retrieve). 
 

No way I can tune this out when I’m fishing. 
 

 

Yep, that's pretty close to what mine sounds like. Doesn't effect the performance, but man it's irritating?

32 minutes ago, Boogey Man said:

Yep, that's pretty close to what mine sounds like. Doesn't effect the performance, but man it's irritating?

 

For me, “not being loud enough to be annoying” is definitely a performance metric. But I know what you meant. 
 

I think another member, in another thread eloquently described it as “hot garbage”. 

6 minutes ago, BaitFinesse said:

My Tatula CT SV sounds the same way.  They're cheap workhorse reels and not nice.  If you want nice buy a made in Japan Daiwa.  

What’s funny is that my neighbor has a couple of $40 reels from Wally World that are quieter. ?‍♂️
 

But anywho, the CT is one thing, but the Coastal being almost as loud is another. That’s sad.  

3 hours ago, AmmoGuy said:

Can you elaborate on that? 
 

Where is, say the 100, gear train unsupported. Or rather, what am I looking for in addition? 

Daiwa's trick with the CT and 100 platforms uses one pinion bearing in the frame. There's no bearing to support the pinion on it's other side, the gear side plate side. Instead the pinion's inner diameter is supported by the spool shaft's outer diameter. The shaft is stepped and the larger of the two turned diameters supports the pinion during retrieve. That's the extent of the support. But because there must be some clearance to allow the spool to spin freely without lubrication during casting, the tolerance is somewhat loose. This affects the interaction of the pinion and main gear. Some samples are smooth and stay smooth and others don't.

 

If you'd like to see an example of a fully supported gear train then take a look at the launch video for the new Kast King Speed Demon Elite 10 speed. A section of the video highlights the gear train bearing locations. That frame snapshot will help when you look at any reel's schematic. 

 

As far as Daiws go, at minimum the current Daiwa Zillion SV TW. Just be aware that it's been described as the "TaT Zillion monstrosity thing" by at least one discussion group barfly whose presence is conspicuous across fishing forums that bridge many time zones, languages, and headdress. In private he'd advise that you give up your Friday night penny-a-pot Pinochle game in service of unearthing an ancient reel worthy of it's name from a pacific rim protectorate, then pilfer your 1st born's tuba lesson fund to rebuild it. Only then will flowers bloom again. Good Luck!

1 hour ago, BaitFinesse said:

Are those reels slower ratio than your Tatulas? I've found that 8:1 Tatulas get noisy quick.  This is why I don't buy 8:1 Tatulas anymore.  7:1 ratio reels seem a little more resistant to developing noise and vibration.  

 

The Coastsl is a Tatula.  It is a Tatula 100 platform reel and this platform is developing a reputation for having gears that are not greased out of the box, not being smooth out of the box and for developing gear noise and vibration.  For as light weight as they are I wonder if they have a higher aluminum content in the gear alloy than the previous gen.  Just speculation at this point.  The part number are different.

None of mine are 8:1.

the CT is a 7.3, and the Coastals are 7.1s. 
 

Yea, the Coastals are 100s, but with a more rigid side plate, and a $250 MSRP. You’d just assume they’d go more than a few weeks without getting noisy.  At least I can’t FEEL the noise on the Coastal much. The CT on the other hand vibrates the whole reel. 
 

Sending them to Daiwa isn’t really an option, as (by their definition) there isn’t anything wrong with them.  I’m about at the point the CT is going to get thrown in the garbage. It’s simply unenjoyable to fish with. 

12 minutes ago, BaitFinesse said:

Just buy a new gear set from The Tackle Trap and relube it every season with Cal's drag grease.  I think they are $30 to $40 for a gear set.

What makes a new set any better than the set thats in it? The reel is only a couple of months old, and hasn’t been fished much. Been greased several times (in attempt to quiet it).