Reel Care...Oil/Grease

[Mike Stark]

where do you put the oil and where do you put the grease?

i have heard a couple differnt things out there. just got some HOT SAUCE and want oil up my reels for winter.

believe it or not this is the first time iv oiled/greased my reels.

[Scott M]

Clean everything up, then lube it. When you've removed the spool, lube the shaft, the attached gears...take things off in order and put them back in order. Or follow the blown up schematic that came with the reel.

Cleaned and lubed with hot sauce, things always feel a little smoother.

[CAMAN]

Oil the bearings - One drop will do

Grease the gears and everything else that looked like it had grease on it.

FYI- Hotsauce is made for Quantum reels with the PT bearings ONLY it contains Teflon powder that will damage bearings not designed for it.

[Mike Stark]

CAMAN,

i have not heard about hot sauce being for quantum reels only. lots of folks have recommended it for use on all reels.

anyone else heard about this???

[Ed Carlson]

I not think'n so...and we find it very useful in guns too.

I have it in every reel I own now, none of which are Quantum PT's...all work like a clock. The Teflon additive does not appear to have eaten my reels up over the past 3 years of year around hard use, with periodic cleaning and maintenance with the Hot Sauce oil. None of my reels have lost a single bearing over this time, so I'm think'n no.

[fishwater]

Teflon powder is a lubricant, can't imagine it would do much damage.

[CAMAN]

Teflon is ONLY a lubricant under certain situations where it can fill in a low area (or pore) of a surface where it can be unobstructive and allow other surfaces to glide freely over it. Otherwise it will either A: (best case scenario) move out of the way off to the side of the bearing, or B: be an obstruction and in worse cases an abrasive that can damage bearings.

Most bearings used in reels are solid stainless or chrome plated, neither of these materials have pores large enough to allow the Teflon powder to penetrate.

Evidently Quantum makes their bearings out of a material with pores large enough to allow the teflon to penetrate and fill-in the pores allowing the teflon to do its work.

You may or may not see a difference right away and if your lucky, may never see a difference.

I learned all this after an expensive mistake. I have a dozen Quantum PT Tour baitcasters and the newer Shimano Curado that I bought to try out side by side when I bought my first PT Tour (didn't like it as much as the quantum and was planning on selling it), a couple winters ago I was dissassembling and cleaning all my reels and relubing them all. I had ran out of the oil that came with the Curado so I used the Hot Sauce that I was using on all my other reels. It all went together perfectly and I set them on the shelf to wait for opener.

That next spring I didn't have any problems with the quantums and didn't have any issues with the Curado for about 5 minutes of casting then the casting distance started to go down and I kept loosening up the spool tension and removing brakes until the spool was completly in freespool (no brakes, no tension) and I was only able to cast about 25-30 feet with a 1/4oz jig, when before the distance was only limited to the amount of line spooled on.

Shortly after, I was down in florida fishing and got into a conversation with a guy who happened to be a reel machanic while out fishing. I explained to him the problem and he said "You put Hot Sauce on it didn't you?" I said I did and he said he had seen issues with it from some of his customers. He explained the very thing I just stated above and the only fix he has found was to replace the bearings because the stuff doesn't just rinse out. I soon after sold it on Eb*y for $20 to someone who needed it for parts.

Believe me or not I don't care, but I know I will never again use HotSauce on a reel not designed for it.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

I too have heard multiple times that hot sauce doesnt play well with other reels and Caman just gave me even more reason to not use it. My shimanos come with oil anyways.

Id recomend looking online at shimanos HSOforum there is a decent little 'how to' on oiling and caring for reels. I wouldnt recomend opening it up and just tossing oil and grease around. Adding oil and grease where they are not needed can impair your reel from working to its full potential.

[Ed Carlson]

I guess I have been lucky so far than. I have been using it in 2 Calcutta's and a couple Cardiff's with no complications. All my Pflueger and GS spinning reels are ok with it too.

I have not contaminated my baitcasters drag washers with it, and I could easily see the Teflon raising some Cain there if they became saturated with it.

I do appreciate the input though on the potential for complications on some reels.

[zooks]

OK, if we shouldn't use Hot Sauce for non-Quantum reels, what are some products you'd suggest and where might a guy find them? I've been having a hard time finding anything besides Hot Sauce for quite sometime now and all my reels need a good cleaning...

[Ed Carlson]

Ardent also makes a good reel care cleaning and lubrication system if the Hot Sauce in not to your liking, they call it Reel Butter lube.

[fishwater]

I don't believe it. As far as I can tell this lore was all was started on a thread on Tackletour in 07 by a Shimano rep and is completely unsubstantiated. Using a lubricant is way better than no lubricant. No lubricant is perfect in every situation, but using Hot Sauce is probably as good as any for a simple fishing reel. The only problem with hot sauce is that it can get fairly viscous in the cold.

[CAMAN]

Like I said Fishwater, I don't care if anybody believes me or not. Go ahead and use Hot Sauce or whatever you want, maybe throw a little graphite dust in there also since that's used as a lubricant also. I am just sharing my experience and what I have been told. I am no 'Shimano Rep' and make no money from anything I post on here or anywhere. If this is such an unbelievable story, please, explain to me what happened to my reel. I take great care of my equipment and try to atleast lube and clean my reels every couple weeks during the season. Also I disassemble all the reels over the winter and clean everything in solvent and relube everything appropriatly. I've been doing this for about 10 years now and never had any problems until I changed to a different lubricant on ONE reel.

BTW --- I recommend going to the manufacturer and using whatever they recommend, nothing less, nothing more.

[Crusty old Swede]

If you want some more info on lubing baitcaster reels may I suggest looking at the ifish dot net tech tips and keepers thread. The top item has a bunch of specific model tear down/rebuilds by Alan Tani. These are mostly saltwater reels but if it works for salties it'll work on freshwater reels.

[fishwater]

If this is such an unbelievable story, please, explain to me what happened to my reel. I take great care of my equipment and try to atleast lube and clean my reels every couple weeks during the season.

I didn't say I didn't believe you that you had a reel go bad Caman. I said I don't believe it; it being that Quantum Hot Sauce will do any real damage if used in moderation. One reel means nothing, basically the same as zero reels going bad. As I suggested, about any lubricant (including graphite and KY jelly) will work for a device as simple as a fishing reel. I've had a Revo go bad after a couple months for no obvious reason, it happens. I don't lubricate my reels very often at all.

[Ed Carlson]

At one time I used Connola oil...not now, and or PHAF sewing machine oil, both did the trick on most reels in there day.

Most industrial high grade sewing machine oils are about as good as you get too.

I'm comparing the new Ardent oil with the Hot Sauce on 2 new Gander Mountain Professionals and 2 Frabill reels this winter, I'll offer feedback latter on how they do in -0.