The lowdown on the Avet 80W - Page 2

Addicted2fishin · Apr-24-2008, 07:29 PM

Alan, when I disassembled the reel after trying hours to break it in I did post above that it did seem to have some oil on the drag. The stainless washer was shiny with a rainbow effect and it did feel slick. Which is why I posted above which may have been an assembly problem consilidated to my reel. No high spots upon looking at wear after burning off hundreds and hundreds of yards of line. Even wear on complete fiber washer. Hence the only know associated problem was grease or oil on it which I did find out later.

You probably know me since I bought a handle for my tld30 and want one more for my dad's 50SW. I also do hundreds of maintenance of friend's and families' reels. I am not associated with Avet but will stick to what Harry said on his reel. I have 2 EXW 50's.. one greased and one dry. I have been trying them side by side throughout our Ono season. Greased is Shimano smooth. Dry sticks at beginning and releases smoothly after overcoming the initial break. Not bad in any way and both have their goods and bads. I like Shimano smooth but Avet dry does catch fish too so I have no gripes about it other than the fact that if i'm one of those lazy fisherman who won't take apart a reel for 2 years (like my dad) then grease it for less maintenance. I love to take things apart therefore I might not need the greasing for my line of fishing. But like said above, I like shimano smooth.

When ever you are in Hawaii Alan give me and my friend a call. We might be able to take a booze cruise and maybe end up with some small Ono and Ahi as bonuses. Oh and you might have to put up more tutorials over at the new uluafishing forum I sent ya.

alantani · Apr-25-2008, 12:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benjaminfrazier

As one of Avet's Pro Staff, I would like to emphasize that we do NOT grease our drag washers.

yeah, well, ben, apparently someone on your prostaff has joined the dark side. for those of us in the business, there is one true master. his name is cal sheets......

as for you, rj, the first round is on me. hell, maybe the first several rounds. and if you ever come over to the mainland, let me know. fishing here really sucks, but i can at least get you out on the water. alan

seriola · Apr-28-2008, 05:42 AM

Hi guys,
hi Alan,
interesting comments. I own since a few week a nearly brand new Ex 50. With that sticky and jerky brake and a lot of other problems. In the moment the reel is open to locate the problem, why the brake is so sticky that i have lost 3 Blufintunas with here.

One problem i have found out is that the resin which is used to fix the CF washer on the aluminium discs was coming out and touched the surface of the steel disc.
Second problem, the backside of the steel disc is extremely scratched between the wholes, still bad work in the fabric. Parts like this never would pass through a good working Quality control.
Third problem, the spool had corrosion after one use a year before, but this is an optical problem. It was rinsed very well and stored dry.

I take some fotos and will send them to AVET. It is worse, that a reel which is sold in Europe for nearly 900 US Dollars isn't perfect handcrafted.

So in the moment, the performance of my 4 Tiagras 50 WLRSA is otb light years better. Sorry, i hope AVET will help me to solve the problems, in the fact the design is very nice, but with the design only i couldn't catch the fish.

What do you think, would they help me?

Juergen

Addicted2fishin · Apr-28-2008, 06:16 PM

No matter where you guys are they should help. As long as you bought a reel... granted it wasn't abused by the first owners.... then they will do all they can to help. Hope you can get the problem resolved soon.

Only option I can think of before Avet takes a step in.. and since the drag fiber washers are already known to be the culprit... use a fine sandpaper or a dremel tool and to sand down the glue so it doesn't touch the metal washer. Once that is done try and reinstall the drag and do a couple of trial runs. If it still feels jerky pull the metal washer and do a super fine wet sand and polish the disc. Clean off all oils and residue and reinstall. Do a couple of trial runs again. If still not working properly... grease'em up with shimano or Cal's drag grease. That'll solve almost anything except for a raised section on the fiber drags.

Oh and on a side note... I'm ordering one more 80 today.

seriola · Apr-29-2008, 12:48 AM

Hello RJ,
thanks for your response. What you describe are the steps i tought to do.

The reel is fished only 2 times for 6 hours. It was spolled with Mono and now with JB Hollow 130 + TS.

So there is no damage or a bad handling story. And for this i am a bit angry, because the reel has left the factory without an effecient quality check. It could not be, that a steeldisk has 0,3 mm deep scratches (from driller) on the surface, where the drag is working. Also bad fixed carbon units, and perhaps a non sufficient thick coating on the spool.
Is it normal, that the client has to fix this things when they are new???
RJ , i love this reel very much, but the performance isn't what i thought i should get for this lot of money.

If Avet would help me to solve the problems i am happy and perhaps the luckyest custumer they should have in Europe.

her are some images for better understanding.

TL
Juergen

YANK N CRANK #2 · Apr-29-2008, 01:00 AM

None of my avet reels have required anything beyond regular care and maintenance... I would suggest you coat the reel with a product such as corrosion X or equivalent lubricant/protectant before spooling the reels...

Addicted2fishin · Apr-29-2008, 02:02 AM

Juergen,

Those scratches do look bad. It looks like a manufacturing error or someone decided to take your reel apart and try to put it back together by use of major force and a way too big scredriver to try and remove the c clips. My 50's and 80 didn't have that at all. Looks like you got what we might call a blemish reel which sells for a lot less than what a new unblemished one costs. Either way you spent big money on a reel and expect it to perform well out of the box which is what I would definitely expect too. The fiber washer looks like a 9 year old kid tried to glue it on. Definitely a high spot right there. Grind away glue first and check for high spots. Can't do much there if there are any so I would definitely wait for a response from Harry or Sarkis... email or call them at the numbers/email above. If you can't wait you can band aid fix it by using drag grease and hope for the best. How's the other fiber washer? The same or in good condition. All I can say is that with high spots... it'll slip and grab no matter what.

Maybe Alan can chime in and help you with a "band aid" solution until it gets replaced.

seriola · Apr-29-2008, 02:47 AM

JR ,
thanks for quick response.

I was really surprised if i opend the left reel side. From outside the steelwasher looks pretty good, but the inside was scratched. It is definitly from the driller, the scrtaches went from one hole to the other, nad very deep. It was fixed in this direction, that you couldn't see the scrtaches from the outsidebreak (left). Major force? Impossible.

Here a two pics more. I had send yesterday a mail to Avet what they had received. Until yet no answer. The Bf season is running and the baby lays open in the garage. Bevore i sand down the high spots, i like to have comments and perhaps a solution by Avet.

Here is one report on our forum in Germany:

Penn International 30 + 50, Zerlegung und Generalüberholung - Rollen - Big-Game-Fishing-Board

it's my work, so you know, that i had expierence in working on reel maintenance. By this way, thanks to Alan with his extremly helpfull comments.

YNC,
yes i know this trick with car wax or simliar. But only for thinking about, the two 30 years old Penn international in the report above haven't seen at any time this treatment. And there is no corrosion. Why we didn't get today a good and high quality coating like in the '70?? Not enough time to let the parts in the soap for a few hours?

I wish, that my Avet is as good as my 4 Tiagras or better. Hope that the AVET guys will response soon.

TL
Juergen

Addicted2fishin · Apr-30-2008, 09:45 PM

Juergen,

Did you grease it up or just installed it dry after sanding it down? Let us know how it went

seriola · May-02-2008, 02:57 AM

hello RJ,

i was waiting until today for a response from Avet. It looks that they are in holidays, or busy or not interested!ß Who knows, are they so slowly in communication?

So i have to help myself, because the BF season is running and i like to use this reel.

First step,
sand down the high spots and tryed here again. Less sticky but realy not good enough to fight with fish.

Second step,
Now I greased the drags, smoothness is back :-)))
It is sufficent enough for fishing in the moment, but it isn't as smooth like the tiagra. For my taste, not good enough and I think the problem is still the brake unit; I've got a bad one. Hope that Avet will chance the parts for free.

With the next fish on it, i will know more.

So there is still the corrosion problem, but i prfere to open in the next days a special tread for it. For me it looks like, Avet has or has had for a period problems with the coating. I will explain you why i think it's so, including pics.

Report about the use with here will follow.

And perhaps, some of the Avet guys is reading with, are you so kindly to comunicate with me by email or give me a call?

TL
Jürgen

Addicted2fishin · May-02-2008, 03:22 AM

Sounds good. Just let it break in with some fish and it hopefully will get better. Avet doesn't recommend greasing the drag but you are miles away and need to get fishing. I did it with mine and encountered the same problem. Still sticks a little at the beginning and releases smoothly after the initial break. This is the greased one though. I do have the dry replacement they sent a week later that I have to install. But I caught some fish on it already and the greased works fine.

I do have another 80wide which should be arriving in the next couple of days. That I will leave dry from the factory and run it as is.

As for corrosion issues... happened on earlier models which one of my 50's is. The spool is fine but the frame has some weird tarnishing going on near the letters on the top. Granted I got the first run of 50's so they should be better now. I am in no way complaining on the tarnishing of the silver on the reel because it still catches fish. Coat the spool with a nice layer of car wax next time and it should help.

seriola · May-02-2008, 06:38 AM

Jr,
It would be intressting to see the results greased / non greased. Because the reels are nearly new. I think, there would be not a lot of difference in the drag.

Yes, in the moment i had no other opinion than to grease the reel.
Now i will see with patient, what Avet like to do.

From what production year are your 50s? 2005?

It's not only the spool, there are some other places.