Hi guys, some of my casting reels are feeling a little less effortless to reel. What are some lubricants or tactics you use to keep your reels working well?

Yearly quick clean - flush the bearings and put a couple drops of oil in them

Bi-yearly full clean - strip the reel down, clean the gears and bearings, new grease and oil

Grease - I've used Abu grease, it never let me down - higher price...jump right to Cals Tan.

Oil - I use 'sewing machine' oil. It's formulated for high speed, repetitive motions

Full strip-down is this far for me - This is one of my Tatula 100 reels.

32 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Yearly quick clean - flush the bearings and put a couple drops of oil in them

Bi-yearly full clean - strip the reel down, clean the gears and bearings, new grease and oil

Grease - I still use Abu grease, it's never let me down

Oil - I use 'sewing machine' oil. It's formulated for high speed, repetitive motions

Full strip-down is this far for me - This is one of my Tatula 100 reels.

Pretty much all I needed, thanks.

I do a partial in the summer and a then a full clean over the winter. Haven't mastered pulling the spool bearing just yet but either way full jobs are time consuming depending on the number of reels that get the treatment.

As for lubricant, I have been using this and I like it. CorrosinX bearing oil, lubricant and grease.

A-Jay

I was in a bind last year and ran out of grease and the reel oil I left in my tackle bag 2 states away ... of course haha

I ended up buying Ardent Saltwater Reel Care 3 pack. It had a cleaning solution, oil and grease. Man, was I impressed with that after I used it. I think it was like $12 for it.

I use TSI 321on the bearings, Cals grease on the drag, Daiwa grease on the gears and Shimano Bantam Oil on everything else. I like the Lucas Oil cleaner for getting the gunk off.

The most important part is to get it clean and soaking the bearings or putting them in an ultrasonic cleaner. To clean the bearings I like Simple Orange.

I have been waiting to post this. Looks like this is the right time...... I was going to order some pricey oil from Japan Tackle and asked about it. Here was thier response. I was kind of surprised.

I believe Shimano ACE-0 grease and Shimano Bantam Oil B-100 are the best for bait casting reels.
You may use them to both to shimano and Daiwa.

The oil should be used at the ball bearings at spool shafts and knobs. The one-way clutch roller should be lubed with the oil as well. 
All other parts, like gears, other ball bearings and etc should be lubed with grease.
These are the basic, but great enough for fishing reels.

And, please do not much try expensive oil. They tend to damage whole reels.
I have dealt with a few hundred used reels, and the most damages have come from salt and expensive thin lubrications.
Dirty reels without "maintennce" tended to have the least damages at mechanicals.
Shimano/Daiwa reels have enough grease to protect mechanicals, and you don't have to open it often.

Enjoy maintaining your reels!

Jun Sonoda

Shimano and Daiwa stuff is the best. Cheap, and quality, so no reason to bother with the others outside of spool bearing oil, which i personally use from Hedgehog.

Lucas fishing reel oil and Daiwa grease. Once a yr. to a professional reel mechanic for a complete breakdown and cleaning.

Good Fishing

11 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

Yearly quick clean - flush the bearings and put a couple drops of oil in them

Bi-yearly full clean - strip the reel down, clean the gears and bearings, new grease and oil

Grease - I've used Abu grease, it never let me down - higher price...jump right to Cals Tan.

Oil - I use 'sewing machine' oil. It's formulated for high speed, repetitive motions

Full strip-down is this far for me - This is one of my Tatula 100 reels.

So as you stated this is as far as you go. Is it fair to assume the only reason to go further is if the workings you left attached are looking a bit gnarly etc. Do you clean any of that stuff you left attached? If so how? Also the spool bearing A-Jay refers to. Is that the bearing in the side plate or is that bearing in the inner workings of the reel where the shaft goes in? I suppose I could just look at my reel(s) schematic(s). Also I don't see the level wind or thumb bar mechanism in that pic. What's your deal with those?

Sorry if some of this has been covered. I know we have the thread someone started that was supposed to be the main reel maintenance thread and there have been various other discussions over the years.

For various reasons I've been kicking around the idea of trying to do some of this maintenance myself. I used to maintain my bicycles back in the day. Altho we used gasoline to degrease and clean everything lol smh... so I'm familiar the basics and the why's. Just never took down a reel and the parts are a lot stinking smaller.

Oh... that zero adjust. That's just extra tight to turn right? Kinda like the those stay tight nuts that have plastic or something in them (forget their name). Probably a fair amount of this in on youtube? Okay, starting to ramble. I'm done.

I only go that far cause I can reach the rest with brushes/sprayers and yes I do clean them too

Spool bearings, as you say, are the one's in the side-plate and the inner workings one...both of them. Cheaper reels will replace one with a bushing.

I hate Zero-Adjust.....

Lucas Reel Oil and Ardent Reel Butter.

Spool bearings- Mobil #6 Spindle Oil

Grease- Any Calcium Sulfonate NLGI 1 or 2 grease.

Drag Grease- Shimano or Cals

I take all of my reels apart once a year. I use abu Garcia and shimano oil and abu Garcia grease. I have not had issues so no need to change in my opinion.

All bearings except the ARB gets put in acetone for about 2 minutes, agitated, dipped in hot water, and then dipped in rubbing alcohol. I then use an air compressor until they are dry. I apply 1-2 drops of oil per bearing.

Most of the metal parts, drag washers, gears, plastic parts, etc get a bath in simply green and scrubbed down and rinsed with fresh water.

I also take a q-tip and clean the ARB with some simply green as well. Once dry I add a couple drops of oil and swab it with a a-tip. Less is more with the ARB, as I royally screwed one up by messing with it too much.

2 hours ago, stk44 said:

I take all of my reels apart once a year. I use abu Garcia and shimano oil and abu Garcia grease. I have not had issues so no need to change in my opinion.

All bearings except the ARB gets put in acetone for about 2 minutes, agitated, dipped in hot water, and then dipped in rubbing alcohol. I then use an air compressor until they are dry. I apply 1-2 drops of oil per bearing.

Most of the metal parts, drag washers, gears, plastic parts, etc get a bath in simply green and scrubbed down and rinsed with fresh water.

I also take a q-tip and clean the ARB with some simply green as well. Once dry I add a couple drops of oil and swab it with a a-tip. Less is more with the ARB, as I royally screwed one up by messing with it too much.

I have nightmares about accidents with the ARB. I've pulled it completely out by accident twice and just finding all the parts is a task. Less is definitely more

Cal's tan grease (gears, drag, low speed bearings) and lews hyperspeed oil (spool bearings, levelwind) for this young man

Reel X Grease and Oil is my go to. Also Cals drag washer grease.

Oil-Rem Oil

Grease-Superlube

Drag Grease-Shimano

If you use cheap lubricants, it's probably a good idea to replace them every year.

With the quality of synthetic lubricants made today, you can go many years without replacing them or rebuilding your drive.

Spool bearings are a special situation. If you use unshielded spool bearings and micro-spool-bearings, they need a drop of oil about every month, or in the case of salt, a drop before each trip, and a drop after every trip to flush them.

The harder you work your drive gears, the higher-viscosity grease you should use. The grease I like is MTCW-B for general gears, and MTCW-SW for high-load.

Spool bearings can use much lower-viscosity bearing oils than normal rotating spindles need.

The oils I use range from 5 cS to 55 cS bushing oil.

Don't get carried away with any lube - I use an art brush to apply gear grease. Oil spreading out can destroy your drag washers and makes a general mess to collect dirt.

Cal's is great drag grease - the way to apply drag grease is to make sure everything is wetted, especially inside and out edges, then essentially remove everything so the thinnest film remains.

17 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

Spool bearings are a special situation. If you use unshielded spool bearings and micro-spool-bearings, they need a drop of oil about every month, or in the case of salt, a drop before each trip, and a drop after every trip to flush them.

Disagree.

5 years in salt

If you're smart enough to disagree, you should also be smart enough not to call out another's experience in exception.

I also use Abu oil its the only oil I can get at my local tackle stores. It works well and seems to be about the same as shimano oil which no one seems to carry in my area.

The fact that you’re doing something at all gets you 90% of the way there. The actual products you choose are preference. There’s no magic in anything labeled reel oil. Biannual deep clean and as needed interim maintenance is a great place to start.

As far as ARBs are concerned, use a foam swab and not cotton. Loose fibers can find their way into the rollers and cages which can cause malfunctions. I clean them with mineral spirits along with the rest of the parts.

Unfortunately, I just went through a fiasco about this. I keep a set in the boat for a squeaky handle or such, but some of it dried up and I had to restock for the bench. They used to give you a small bottle of oil with most reels, but that's been going away - cost cutters?

All I can add is I use the Abu silicone reel grease(for decades), because if you dunk one, it's keeps it clean/coated and can shake out the water and keep fishn. Until you have time to tear it down. I don't like doing on the boat, because easy to lose a small part. Most of the reels are pot metal or aluminum and can pit with water gets to 'em.

I went to buy some replacement oil and grease at the local BPS and the road was blocked, traffic backed up, I was late to another appt, so I had to turn back, so I ordered online. Apparently BPS doesn't carry the sil grease. I opted for ardent reel butter, but the package wasn't sealed right. The grease spurted out the bottom all over the bench. An omen => Go back to abu?

I found another old stand by source for Abu silicone but still waiting. Thought it would be here today it's been a week, but track says Mon now???? USPS performance has not been very stellar the past year or so. It's 10 hours to drive from here to IN. I had a part shipped and it went on a sight seeing tour of the USA, even went passed my house once. Soon as I contacted the USPS claims, it showed up the next day???