If you decide (like I did) that you don't give a rat's arse about the warranty, and keep them turning yourself, all of the headaches go away. They're the same inside as a Luxor 300 and not much more complicated than a Penn series 700 Spinfisher, or a 380/390 series Mitchell, and much simpler than a Mitchell 302 and any Japanese reel.
You'd be surprised at the places you can find many of the components, like bearings, O-rings and seals.
They stiffen in cold weather---like any reel with heavy grease or 80 wt gear oil in them. You just go to a lighter oil in cold weather, like drivers had to do when I was a kid (remember single weight oils and changing from 30 or 40 weight to 20 weight every November?).
You can open one with a $10 Sears strap wrench--who needs a $90 self service kit. And the new ones open with a 22 mm open end wrench. So you ding up the paint a bit---so what---it gives the reel a little character. Looks like a fishing tool instead of an SUV. BTW, I've pulled out stuck F-150s with my Grand Cherokee
Worst thing they ever did was go from a hardened stainless steel shaft to a titanium one, and a titanium roller. Fortunately, they did this after I bought mine
:
Threaded Mode