Shimano Reel Water Intrusion

[Mike Cork]

One of the worst things boaters do to their reels is to leave them on the deck of the boat and then drive home while it's raining. Truck tires fling road grime and dirt into the mist that is blasting your reels upwards of 70 MPH.

My last tournament... It started raining at 2 PM and it was a true frog strangler. You couldn't see the back of the boat for an hour. At three we headed in and it didn't quit. So versus opening my rod lockers to put my rods away and getting the rod lockers soaked, I elected to let them ride it out on the way home on the deck of the boat (I should have put them in the cab of the truck). There were nine in total but 5 different versions of Shimanos.

I just took them all apart to clean them and to look and see how bad this single trip in the rain was...

Shimano Metanium - The most expensive and the worst at sealing out the water. While the pinion gear bearing of all these reels had some moisture in them, this reel had moisture beaded up inside the reel around the gears. The grease under the crankshaft bearing was discolored as evident with moisture. So if you have spent the money on a Metanium, enjoy it, it's a fine reel, but stay on top of the maintenance to keep it performing like new.

Shimano Core - This reel has a hole in the housing under the crankshaft. I'm not sure why, maybe so one could force a drop of oil in there but it would be virtually impossible, so we'll call it a drain hole. Even with this hole, this reel did a very good job at keeping the moisture out. All bearings were in great shape except the pinion gear bearing, it had minor moisture in it. The crankshaft bearing grease was still in great shape. There was no evidence of moisture penetration that I could find.

Shimano Curado 70XG - This reel amazed me, even the pinion gear bearing was clean and moisture free.  While it's an awesome performing reel, the lack of water intrusion tells me that short of dropping it in the lake it will be a fairly maintenance free reel. If water can't get in, dirt also has trouble so if an angler keeps up with annual lubrication the 70 is going to last a long time.

Shimano Curado 200K - Again pretty impressed. This one, however, the pinion gear bearing was very wet. But the rest of the reel was in great shape. Again, if an angler keeps up with regular lubrication, I think this reel is going to provide a long term relationship.

Shimano Curado 200E - I have a personal love affair with this model. It doesn't do that great with water intrusion. Again it's the pinion gear bearing that has the most trouble. In this most resent UNOFFICIAL test, it faired better than the Metanium, much better, however there was some evidence of moisture in the housing.

Just for information purposes, the pinion gear bearing is the bearing you see when you pull the spool out and look into the housing. You can see the brass pinion gear (the spool shaft slides through it), and then outside of that is the pinion gear bearing. So it's easy for water to get behind the spool and then onto that bearing.

Food for thought, if your reels get caught in the rain, it's a good idea to blow them out with compressed air. However I wouldn't use a powerful air compressor as you can also blow the lubricant out of the bearings. So a quick blast with a dusting can and then put a drop of oil on the bearings you can access and you should be good to go.

Bottom line, only have the rods you need on deck during a rain storm and don't leave them on deck for the drive home...

[zippyduck]

Great review and advice.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[LgMouthGambler]

Reel covers, reel covers, reel covers.....People dont understand just how great they can be to keep dirt, and direct contact with water in a hard rain. You are still gonna get moisture inside a reel no matter what, especially in rain. Leave them uncovered after you wipe them down after fishing. I leave mine out for a whole day before they get put back in the reel bags. Drain holes as they are called, are great for massive water intrusion drainage, but still gonna get condensation in them no matter what.

[Mike Cork]

Another great option if the rod locker isn't available.

I need to get half a dozen reel covers for days like that day when it was raining so hard I didn't want to open the rod locker. 

[Capt. BassinLou]

Another great option if the rod locker isn't available.

I need to get half a dozen reel covers for days like that day when it was raining so hard I didn't want to open the rod locker. 

Yeah, reel covers help a lot when the rain is coming and there isn't enough time to put gear away in the rod locker.