# Proper Cleaning of Spinning Reels



## csnaspuck (Apr 2, 2013)

Besides rinsing after trips and adding some grease every now and then, what is the proper way to do a full cleaning. I have not fished in over 6 months and when the new skiff gets here I want everything to be in tip top shape. A buddy of mine used to create a hot water bath with a little dawn and then let them soak for a few hours. After they dry then add some grease to all the moving parts. 

What is your method?


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## J-Dad (Aug 30, 2015)

For a full cleaning/maintenance I'd suggest you disassemble the reels to completely remove the old lubricant and get the new stuff into the right spots. You'll find instructional videos on YouTube - believe Shimano has a good one. Good luck.


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## yobata (Jul 14, 2015)

Disassembly is the way to go. Clean up all the old grease/grime; gears get grease, bearings get lube. As you disassemble, keep track of the order of parts... 

I got a Penn kit that has both gear grease and lube, works well!


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## Megalops (Oct 23, 2011)

Great topic! Okay very curious how others even rinse their spin gear. My close fishing buddy takes care of his tackle beyond OCD level. He lives by cinching down the drag cap all the way and then barely flicks some water on his reels. I just rinse away, I used to cinch the drags but have lost fish because I forgot to uncinch. Another neighbor used to soak in warm soapy water.... Not sure I'm gonna ever do a complete disassembly deal.


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## csnaspuck (Apr 2, 2013)

Yeah there is a lot of debate online. Like types of solvent and oils and greases. I watched 2 youtube video where one guys says he conditions the out side of the reals with WD40 then another video says do not use WD40 any where on your reels.

I think I will start with a rinse with water then dissemble. Clean out out grease with some warm soapy water and toothbrush then apply reel grease to the inside of the gears and then condition the outside only with a cloth with a little WD40 on it.


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## WhiteDog70810 (May 6, 2008)

Spinning reels are simple creatures. Don't be scared to dig into one. You just pull off a side plate and can then get to anything you have any business getting to. Drag disassembly intimidates me, so I leave that to a pro who does it everyday.

I use WD40 to flush old grease and grime out of gears, but it is too light for much else IMO. It also can damage some plastic coatings (it makes the polyurethane on shiny gun stocks peel) and you have to be careful to keep any lube out of the drag. I use the same lubes I used for guns on reels: RemOil and moly-based choke grease. I can barely get to my big projects anymore, much less the little ones, so I let the guy at the local shop service and reline my reels now.

I just hose off my reels most of the time. If I think they got really salty, I'll dunk them in a bucket and let them soak a few minutes. The internals of quality reels always look cleaner than you expect when you open them up. I loosen drags prior to storage, but I never worry about the drag during rinse down. I guess if you had a cork drag it might be something to worry about, but do any modern spinning reels have cork drags?

Nate


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## topnative2 (Feb 22, 2009)

spray down w/ water and quick spray of WD40 on the real body and roller bearing ..wipe off...all I have ever done


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## jupiter934 (Jan 6, 2013)

Almost all my reels are Shimano I rinse them with fresh water and put them away. If one gets a sticky drag or seems to get stiff I send it to Shimano with the $25 fee for clean and lube. Of the 5 I have sent back they have just sent a brand new reel back 4 times. The 5 time they said the reel was out of production and would upgrade me for a small fee to newwer version. (I just took the older reel back and cleaned it) The only downside is the turnaround time can be a few weeks.


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## jupiter934 (Jan 6, 2013)

http://fish.shimano.com/content/sac...File/file.res/Reel Repair Request Form US.pdf

Hope this link works


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## fjmaverick (Sep 18, 2015)

I have a firehose nozzle that I use to clean the boat. I always lay out my rods and wash them with a wide spray pattern. I pay extra attention to the rod guides when I clean them. The reels get the same dose of water from every angle.

I try to have the reals rebuilt once a year. Most of my gear is old penn reels and the rebuilds range from $20-40 each depending on parts.


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## DBStoots (Jul 9, 2011)

Tighten the drags, mist/fine spray of fresh water on the reel and rod, dry with a soft cloth, spray with Lemon Pledge and wipe down, loosen the drag, put the Cabela's reel cover back on, put the rod in the Cabela's rod sock, put it in the under gunnel rod holder on the Professional for the next trip!


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## grovesnatcher (Sep 25, 2007)

I have my friends dunk them in saltwater lol


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## devrep (Feb 22, 2009)

on the advice of Kel of Kels rod and reel in Casselberry years ago I spray all my reels down with pledge, no water at all. They all still look new and operate like new.


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## devrep (Feb 22, 2009)

I also spray my rods with it and then wipe the excess off both rod and reel.


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## CrappieFisherman (Mar 15, 2015)

Depends upon the reel. My expensive Shimano reels are sealed, so they get a drop or two of oil once a year, and that is it. My Penn's get completely stripped down, and completely regreased.

As for cleaning, I'm usually on a multi day trip at a hotel when I'm fishing salt, so my rods/reels/rigs take a shower with me. I want to make sure the salt gets fully dissolved off, but don't want to submerge or hit with too great a water pressure that could push dirt and salt into the reel. I figure saltwater splash on, freshwater splash off.


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## Megalops (Oct 23, 2011)

devrep said:


> on the advice of Kel of Kels rod and reel in Casselberry years ago I spray all my reels down with pledge, no water at all. They all still look new and operate like new.


So you don't rinse first with water? Stupid question, but do you spray the line too? Just curious, never heard of this before.


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## devrep (Feb 22, 2009)

no water at all. I soak the reel down heavily and wipe it off with a small towel. I do go thru a lot of pledge though, buy it in 3 packs at Sam's Club.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

CrappieFisherman said:


> my rods/reels/rigs take a shower with me.


The only thing I want in the shower with me after a hard day of fishing is my Honey!


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

So far, the best advise I've seen is the Pledge thing that DBStoots and Devrep mentioned. I can see where the spray-on wax would help to resist water of any kind. I knew a guy who did the same thing with Armor-all (basically the same concept). I'll have to try that, tho I don't like spraying anything on my reels. It would be more of a wipe on and wipe off. I've done that on occasions with coconut oil. What I like about coconut oil is it has no solvents in it, so if I accidentally get some on my line, it wouldn't break it down over time, like WD-40 would. The pledge wax wouldn't harm line either. Again, good concept.

With that being said, I don't want WD-40 or anything similar on my reel. It's an oil but also has solvent properties. So it will break down any greases the reel might have in place and if gotten on your line, will break it down over time. Plus it smells. So when fishing, if I touch the reel with my hand (normally with my left hand), then touch my lure, that's just one more thing that will turn a fish off, kinda like getting bug spray or sunscreen on it and then wonder why you are not getting any bites while your buddy is wrecking them! Ha!

I don't like dunking or soaking it either. Again, the soap solution will work it's way inside the real and in places it shouldn't be, which will cause oils and greases to dissolve that are meant to be in-place. Then you would have to fully take it apart and completely rinse those soaps out of the reel and then replace the greases and lubes. 8 times out of 10, you'll end up loosing some tiny spring, washer or screw that is important and have to not only try to find it or order a new one, but you have to figure out where it goes back. Just more down time that you don't need.

When I get back from fishing, which happens to be a lot, I don't lock down the drag, but I don't loosing it either. At that point, I just spray it off really good all the way around the reel (including my rod and lures), THEN back off the drag pressure and set it into the garage to let it drip dry. I've never bothered drying them off (I'm just not that anal). I have wiped coconut oil or something similar on the rod guides and once in a blue moon on the reels and then wipe it off, leaving a residue on them. So when I go fishing, I'll re-set the drag, depending on what I need and what I am doing.

Here's another point, I don't like douching out the reel with WD-40 or anything similar unless I'm having to break down the reel completely apart for a mechanical repair. It's a PITA to do and the cleanup is a mess and I avoid it unless I absolutely have to since I'm dismantling it completely anyways. 

Probably in the winter when I'm not fishing as much, I'll take a peak inside each reel, being careful not to disturb anything inside (not only parts, but I don't want to break off harden greases down into the reel. Unless a reel has a noticable mechanical problem, I will not clean out all the old grease in the reel. So any clumps of harden grease will get gently picked out and removed, a bit of grease added to the gears and drops of lube oil placed in certain spots where I think it's needed. I still use that ABU/Garcia reel oil that comes in those needle tubes you use to get with the Ambassadors. You can still buy them. I like those because it is precise oil placement since I don't want it everywhere and thinning out my greases. I also use that oil needle tube to place a few drops of oil inside the handle. If I don't have it handy, I'll use a few drops of coconut oil in the handle, using a toothpick.

Nothing replaces a good reel that withstands the elements of the salt!

Finally, for those novices out there who are not mechanically inclined, do yourself a favor and just take the reels to a good local shop, once a year during your off season and have them cleaned and serviced. It's cheap enough and will save you lots of man-hours and aggravation if you get inside of these newer reels and start misplacing things, trying to clean and do your own repairs. These guys at these shops are trained to know exactly what to look for and can go right to it if you are experiencing problems.

Personally, I'm mechanically inclined, especially small tinkering, like on reels. So I've done my own repairs and servicing over the years. Tho I have Shimanos, I've been trying/using Okumas over the last 10yrs with hardly a problem. But I have a 40/4000 series reel that I think I just plain wore slap out (it's seen many hundreds of good fish (real drag screamers)) and thought I'd give their repair dept a try to see if they could resurrect it. So I think it was a flat $25 repair fee which included shipping return from Calif., tho they have a local repair shop in my area. Just sent it direct to them to save me the drive. Came back working like new. That save me the man-hours alone trying to figure out what went wrong with the reel, much less the aggravation of doing it.

Ted Haas


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## jupiter934 (Jan 6, 2013)

Backwater said:


> So far, the best advise I've seen is the Pledge thing that DBStoots and Devrep mentioned. I can see where the spray-on wax would help to resist water of any kind. I knew a guy who did the same thing with Armor-all (basically the same concept). I'll have to try that, tho I don't like spraying anything on my reels. It would be more of a wipe on and wipe off. I've done that on occasions with coconut oil. What I like about coconut oil is it has no solvents in it, so if I accidentally get some on my line, it wouldn't break it down over time, like WD-40 would.
> 
> With that being said, I don't want WD-40 or anything similar on my reel. It's an oil but also has solvent properties. So it will break down any greases the reel might have in place and if gotten on your line, will break it down over time. Plus it smells. So when fishing, if I touch the reel with my hand (normally with my left hand), then touch my lure, that's just one more thing that will turn a fish off, kinda like getting bug spray or sunscreen on it and then wonder why you are not getting any bites while your buddy is wrecking them! Ha!
> 
> ...


Have you heard that "rumor?" that WD-40 is actually a fish attractant? People will spray it on lures and baits. Of course this seems like non sense but Gulp juice smells nothing like fishand it definitely works. I have heard this from fresh water guys especially people who fish for Catfish. It would make some sense considering the stink baits used to catch catfish. One thing I have heard that I believe to be true and maybe why this story exists it fish oil is used to make WD-40.


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## CrappieFisherman (Mar 15, 2015)

jupiter934 said:


> Have you heard that "rumor?" that WD-40 is actually a fish attractant? People will spray it on lures and baits. Of course this seems like non sense but Gulp juice smells nothing like fishand it definitely works. I have heard this from fresh water guys especially people who fish for Catfish. It would make some sense considering the stink baits used to catch catfish. One thing I have heard that I believe to be true and maybe why this story exists it fish oil is used to make WD-40.


So, I've heard this as well. Of course WD-40 stands for water displacing formula 40. Interestingly, they never patented the compound to prevent the formula from being known...which means it is still a secret formula.

With that said, I doubt there is actual fish oil in the product, but it does seem to have an effect on certain species of fish.


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## csnaspuck (Apr 2, 2013)

I have used it when crappie fishing to spray on jigs and minnows and I have never really made the conclusion if it catches more fish or not. I think it was just an old timers trick before the invention of true fish attractants. 
BTW WD40 them self says it does not contain fish oil.


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## jupiter934 (Jan 6, 2013)

Hey I not saying I used WD-40 for anything but rusty bolts I just find the old story interesting


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

jupiter934 said:


> Have you heard that "rumor?" that WD-40 is actually a fish attractant? People will spray it on lures and baits. Of course this seems like non sense but Gulp juice smells nothing like fishand it definitely works. I have heard this from fresh water guys especially people who fish for Catfish. It would make some sense considering the stink baits used to catch catfish. One thing I have heard that I believe to be true and maybe why this story exists it fish oil is used to make WD-40.


Yeah there was a thing about 8-10yrs ago where grouper diggers were swearing by it and sighted it was made out of fish oil. Smells like machine oil to me and I think it's not true that it's made out of fish oil. I can't find anything that confirms that either. I don't scent my stuff anyways and keep any kind of machine oil away from my lures, especially WD-40. They can do that, but not me. Lol


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