New Equipement Put to the test this Year

[Stewie]

Daiwa Saltist 20H conventional reel. Not really new this year. I wanted to give it two seasons before I talked about it.

I decided not to maintain this reel, one drop of of oil on each spool bearing and one on the handle knob every month, that's it.

After almost two years, something finally started to go wrong, the clutch lever got stiff. I opened it up and found that there was some salt crap built up in the guts of the right sideplate. The backup (Abu style) antireverse was also stuck with crap. A good cleaning and relube made it like new again. Since the inside of the left side was sparkly clean, I assume the salt crud snuck in through the drainage holes in the bottom of the right side. This winter, I'll take it apart again and use silicone to seal these weep holes.

After using/repairing Abu level winds for years, it is a delight to just use a reel and not worry about it. The drag is sweet, strong and smooth, the reel casts very well and is comfortable in the hands.
What more could you ask for?

I never had a non levelwind Abu and nearly all the problems I had with those reels was with the pawls and worms and gears relating to the level wind function