To Grease or Not to Grease?

[seriola]

Yes, in case it's an AVET. They have open construction and write in their maintanance guide to do clean here with loose drag.
If you speak about Penn international, Tiagras and Titus gold, rinse them under preload.

[Afry]

Originally Posted by seriola

Yes, in case it's an AVET. They have open construction and write in their maintanance guide to do clean here with loose drag.
If you speak about Penn international, Tiagras and Titus gold, rinse them under preload.

You mean I should read the instructions? Thanks

[seriola]

Upps, and greetings to barby.
My english isn't good enough, i have to learn more.

[Jason]

English is over rated. We all know what you wanted to say.

[Addicted2fishin]

To all those that read my post. It wasn't a debate over greasing.... the good and bads. It was about fixing a problem that shouldn't have been there. Avet seemed to have missed the point when testing the theory. Its about start up and not constant load.

I could not under any circumstance get rid of the most irritating factor associated with the most important part of a reel.... the jerky drag. Initial break was so disappointing that I almost cried after 3 hours of pulling line off of the reel. No amount of breaking in fixed the problem. So my point is "How am I going to get it to become smooth without going against Harry's and Sarkis' words?" Unfortunately.... can't unless they find away during the build to incorporate quality control to prevent this from happening..... or shimano/Cal drag grease. I am over a thousand miles away from the Mainland.... in the middle of the ocean. 3 weeks of downtime is crucial.

Like Brian said... they didn't even touch the subject of initial break... or in my case the problems with 4 of our 80's with the same exact sticky drag. Address these and there wouldn't be a need to grease.

Some people are fine with not greasing. Some are fine with greasing. Its a tradeoff in performance... which I know a little about watching some reels fry and some hot enough to cook pancakes on the sideplate but not missing a beat.

Now all they have to address is the problem with the drag in the 80's and not debate about grease or not to grease. I had to do what I had to do to make it work.. if not... I would have not one fish in the boat and a ton of lost lures and fish.

Aloha.

[slater]

I think most people are concerned with: Is it a good idea to grease our drags for a more consistent & smoother trouble free system???? So what if you lose a few pounds on drag pressure but get an upside of increased drag smoothness "silkiness", just turn it up!
Jerky drags suck & who wants to tear down reels all the time for a small amount of water intrusion!
Was heading to Lupe on the Gun for a 5day about 15 minutes before hitting the tuna grounds a wave came over the side & nailed a whole rail of rods....
First thing I did was checked the virgin LX, drag was totally jerky. Had no choice but to tear it down in the galley & borrowed some hotties blowdryer...
Could a little bit of grease prevented this from happening ???

[Addicted2fishin]

Originally Posted by slater

I think most people are concerned with: Is it a good idea to grease our drags for a more consistent & smoother trouble free system???? So what if you lose a few pounds on drag pressure but get an upside of increased drag smoothness "silkiness", just turn it up!
Jerky drags suck & who wants to tear down reels all the time for a small amount of water intrusion!
Was heading to Lupe on the Gun for a 5day about 15 minutes before hitting the tuna grounds a wave came over the side & nailed a whole rail of rods....
First thing I did was checked the virgin LX, drag was totally jerky. Had no choice but to tear it down in the galley & borrowed some hotties blowdryer...
Could a little bit of grease prevented this from happening ???

From my experience with my lx and 50.... yes. For warranty reasons don't do it. I sacrificed my warranty for fishability.

[slater]

Originally Posted by Addicted2fishin

From my experience with my lx and 50.... yes. For warranty reasons don't do it. I sacrificed my warranty for fishability.

Warranty is only a year & drags probably aren't covered due to water intrusion anyway!!! Warranty doesnt seem like a good enough reason not to grease'em!

[coryellk]

Originally Posted by Jason

English is over rated. We all know what you wanted to say.

That's how timski gets a "B" average. I would normally be loath to write something like this but I know timski and fredski wouldn't get through half of Rick's original post before moving onto one with more pictures.

[baja tailhunter]

So the way i see it is that avet only cares about drag presure loss and not about how smooth the reels are.
avet says do not grease drags and live with a jerky drag.
Cal's,Allen,Shimano, Diawa,Accurate use grease and all have very smooth drags.
Each person will have to choose what thay want a reel to feel like.
I HAVE BEEN USING GREASE ON ALL MY REELS FOR AT LEAST 7 YEARS WITH NOT 1 DRAG FAILURE.

[alantani]

been watching the original post, and then this one, for quite a while now. i actually sat down late one night and wrote a long response after some very cold vodka. it took two glasses to write it. it would have taken four glasses to post it. good thing i ran out of alcohol.

i work on alot of avets. it's the same routine; cal's grease on the drag washers, yamaha grease in the screw holes, yamaha grease on all the non-exposed metal surfaces, open and lubed (corrosion x) spool bearings, all other bearings packed with grease, rearrange the bellevilles to increase the drag range, and oversized handles. the result is a very reliable reel. it will perform well within specs, it will perform reliably with specs. there are other reels that perform at a higher level, and many more that are lower. for the money you pay, the avets are a perfectly reasonable value.

many of you know that a greased carbon fiber drag has been my standard for many years. i am happy to say that this drag system is now used in the flagship two speed reels of penn, shimano, daiwa, accurate, and okuma. avet is last company that does not. i find that odd, but not odd enough to warrant a review of my current procedures. clearly in the minority, avet's stance troubles me little. for those of you that wish to abide by avet's policies, i wish you luck. for those of you that wish to grease your drag washers, i welcome you to the dark side.......

[Addicted2fishin]

Originally Posted by alantani

been watching the original post, and then this one, for quite a while now. i actually sat down late one night and wrote a long response after some very cold vodka. it took two glasses to write it. it would have taken four glasses to post it. good thing i ran out of alcohol.

i work on alot of avets. it's the same routine; cal's grease on the drag washers, yamaha grease in the screw holes, yamaha grease on all the non-exposed metal surfaces, open and lubed (corrosion x) spool bearings, all other bearings packed with grease, rearrange the bellevilles to increase the drag range, and oversized handles. the result is a very reliable reel. it will perform well within specs, it will perform reliably with specs. there are other reels that perform at a higher level, and many more that are lower. for the money you pay, the avets are a perfectly reasonable value.

many of you know that a greased carbon fiber drag has been my standard for many years. i am happy to say that this drag system is now used in the flagship two speed reels of penn, shimano, daiwa, accurate, and okuma. avet is last company that does not. i find that odd, but not odd enough to warrant a review of my current procedures. clearly in the minority, avet's stance troubles me little. for those of you that wish to abide by avet's policies, i wish you luck. for those of you that wish to grease your drag washers, i welcome you to the dark side.......

Great post Alan. Because of you... I have turned to the dark side. . Awesome.