A little info on the Quantum Exo Reel Seat.

[SenkoGuru]

I didn't know if you guys knew this or not but I wanted to give you all a heads up on the Quantum Exo Baitcaster reels.  I was close to buying one a while back but at the last minute I jumped ship and went to Lew's Reels. I am SO glad I did. My friend bought a Quantum Exo reel a little over a week ago and at first we thought, "WoW this is a pretty nice reel" but a few days later the trouble started. The reel just started to wobble on the reel seat, we thought maybe it was just loose but after trying to tighten the reel down more we found out the problem. I am not sure what Quantum was thinking when they did this but the Exo reels are secured to the reel seat plate with Two Rivets! After a few days of fishing the Quantum Exo, my friends reel had developed loose rivets and would just wobble on the rod. He has traded the Reel but I'm not sure how long it will be before this happens again so if you want a Quantum Exo, just know about the rivet problem before you spend your hard earned money.

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[Pro Reel]

The best advice is to just not buy any Quantum reels. None of them hold up for very long.

[LgMouthGambler]

Ah men! ΔΔ

[larryb778]

I have all Quantum reel,  I have some that are over 10 years old and they work fine!  Along with 4 EXO's!


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[BassChief]

I have 2 Quantum 1310's one I've had for 15-20 years. No complaints on these reels at all.

[Down4ttown]

I have felt the quantum and they are ok. I would honestly buy the new H2O reel over a quantum though.

[d.branch3]

There is nothing wrong with most quantum reels, been fishing them for over 20 years without any malfunctions and i can assure you i am the hardest on equipment than anyone!!!

[Pro Reel]

Many die hard fans of Quantum will say that they have 10 to 15 year old reels that are still in fine shape. Good for you. You probably took very good care of the reel and you bought them at a time when they were being built better. You can't go to a store today and buy a new in box 10 to 20 year old reel, so when I say I wouldn't recomend buying a quantum reel, I'm obviously refering to the models that are available today. I have been working on reels professionally for 6 years now. I worked on my own for many years before that. During that time I have found many trends that are very evident. One of those trends are that the vast majority of quantum reels sent to me will need a new gear set. This year I hired a helper. One of the things he just recently noticed and comented on is the fact that almost every Quantum casting reel that comes through the shop feels like it has a grind in it and we end up either ordering a gear set for it or recomending it or worse yet they need it and we can't get it for the older reels. He has worked with me for 3 months and in that short time he has easily noticed this trend. What I have also noticed for many years and he in a short time is that no other brand we work on has any reels that routinly need new gears unless the reel shows obvious signs of abuse and lack of care. What this leads me to believe is that Quantum either uses an inferior metal for the brass gears or the overal design of the reels doesn't provide enough suport for the gears to keep them tightly meshed. I'm not sure which is the cause or if it's a little of both.
One other thing that i have found is that quantum has very irregular prices on the sale of parts. This is discouraging when i can easily see that they are price gouging parts on the more expensive reels even when those reels use the same exact part as a cheaper reel. Case in point just happened to me this week. I have seen it many time before but am dealing with it again. I have a Quantum Energy 100 reel in the shop. It's a quantum casting reel with a couple of years of use on it, so of course it needs the gears replaced like most Quantums. Even after cleaning and service it still has a very noticable grind to it. I looked up the brass 5.1:1 gears for that reel and they list for $42.00 The average cost of a gear set for other brands is half that. Anyway, if you have worked on quantum reels for much time at all you will notice that the gears look pretty much the same as they always have. Many of thier reels use the same gears as many others. The week before I had a Quantum energy 650 reel in the shop. It also needed a new gear set. The 5.1:1 gear set for the 650 lists for $9.00 Knowing that the 2 reels use the same size and shape of frame and share several identical parts, I grabed the used set of gears from the 650 and tried them in the 100. Not only did they fit , they were an exact match of identical materials. The parts number for the 5.1:1 gears for the 650 are WX-4011 and cost $9.00 The parts number for the identical brass gears for the 100 are FW 4011 and cost $42.00. Thats price gouging as i see it. I ordered the WX set for my customer and they were as expected identical in every way.
Another recent Quantum experience thats disapointing happend with another Energy reel. It was not engaging. The trip lever had a chunk of metal chipped off the end. The reel was one year out of production and the part was listed as no longer available. I called on it anyway and was told that it was not available and they would not be ordering any more because the reel has been discontinued. Some parts are available but when they are gone they are gone. That reel is one year old. I was able to fix the reel by filing the chipped end down and giving it a fresh edge. I then had to cut into the side a bit to allow it to move further up so the new edge could engage the ratchet gear. If it happens again, that one year old reel will be junk.
As a final note, if you are still going to buy a quantum reel, make absolutly sure it's a quantum line of reel and not a made for sale at BPS reel. Quantum  builds several reels for sale exclusivly at BPS. Most of these are KVD reels. Quantum does NOT sell parts for those reels. The only source of parts for those reels is BPS and they only have them if they have a used parts reel to take them from.

[Down4ttown]

I think Quantum would be much more popular if they fit themselves into a better price range. They need to build their credibility back up before creating a reel (smoke) that has to compete with they LEW's Tourney Pro and Chronarch. I use the smoke as an example because it is their only reel that gets good reviews.

[Pro Reel]

I think Quantum would be much more popular if they fit themselves into a better price range. They need to build their credibility back up before creating a reel (smoke) that has to compete with they LEW's Tourney Pro and Chronarch. I use the smoke as an example because it is their only reel that gets good reviews.

The smoke is another reel that I have to maintain a stock of gears for. 7 out of 10 smokes that are sent to me for service will have a noticable grind to them.

The smoke 100 is the worst of these. For some reason the designers thought it would be a good idea to put decorative holes all around the side cover to handle bezel. That would be fine if the holes were just on the outside bezel and were sealed, but they are not. They go all the way through the cover and if you look in them, you can see the main gear. Almost every one of those reels I see has corrosion and wear inside. the corrosion is from acidic water that gets splashed inside through the holes and the wear is from dust and grit mixing with grease and oil to form a grinding compound. the dust and grit falls in through all of those open holes.

[SenkoGuru]

Thanks for the info Pro Reel. I am glad that some of you have old Quantums that are still working, That's not the reel I am talking about thought. I for one feel like my friend got ripped off, he paid $269.00 plus tax for a brand new Quantum Exo and after three days of fishing it, the reel was about to fall off of his rod because the rivets were coming out. That is just plain sad and it is not right. Quantum needs to either charge WAY less for the Exo or they need to fix the design flaws that the reel has. Now when my friend and I see the bassmaster pro's on T.V. and they are swearing to fish lighter with an Exo, we laugh at it and think yes, they will be fishing WAY lighter because the reel is going to fall off of the rod and they will be fishing with just the rod. The only way they could give me an Exo is if I knew where I could sell it really fast and buying one? I think not.