[WahooUSMA]

Originally Posted by Tamarack Studios

of course they said that. I don't care what Avet says, Im going with Alan Tani. Alan doesn't have a dog in the fight, he just knows reels. "

From BD forum

To Grease or Not to Grease?

---

WOW! The quest for perfection. You would think something as simple as slowing down a fish hell bent on freedom over a frying pan would be easy. NOT!

Well, I have read all of your posts from Hawaii to Germany, from salmon to giant bluefin tuna, from jerky to super smooth and from grease or no grease.

The bottom line is, no matter how much someone listens, researches, reads or peers into the crystal ball, they are always going to follow the method that they feel either makes the most sense or that which makes them more confident in their own ways.

Well, here is one more post that I hope will settle down this flurry of varied self determined opinions weather to grease or not to grease.

Today, May 14th was dedicated to full-on total R&D (grease/no grease) day at Avet. Sarkis, Harry, Dave Rocchi and Ben Frazier spent the day burning a lot of gas, burning a lot of drag washers and tearing down and scrutinize a lot of reels.

They obviously needed to standardize their testing so 100 yard monofilament topshots were designated as the line of choice since they had between 100 and 110 yards for their flight path. That length would cover most topshots with spectra backing and at the same time maintain consistency of the increase in line pressure as the line diameter decreased and the spool rotation increased.

Both single and twin drag reels were tested. Single drag reels were tested at full and twin drag reels were tested at strike (Dave really wasn’t up for what you called “asphalt skiing”). Line size was standardized to 40lb for single disk and 130lb for twin disk. Speed varied from 25 to 30 MPH at 75 yards depending on how close the looke lou’s got. Between the V-10 Dodge truck and the Hummer, speed was not nearly as critical as breaking.

While maintaining a common stance, they used what they thought was the best drag grease available and testing was performed immediately after the line was retrieved back on the reel with a calibrated scale.

Results are as follows:

v Single drag reels (dry drags): After 1st test = 100% of original drag, 2nd test followed immediately = 105% of original drag and immediately followed by 3rd test which also yealded 105% of original drag setting.
Teardown exposed slight yellow/bluish tinting of drag plate, but very little visual wear of carbon fiber drag.

v Single drag reels (greased drags after setting drag with excessive grease wiped off): Prior to load testing, the wet drag maintained same drag pressure as the dry drag on straight short pull. 1st (high speed) tests showed an average of 6 - 8% reduction from original drag setting. 2nd tests resulted in 10 to 13% reduction from original setting and 3rd tests stayed around the same.
Teardown also exposed yellow/bluish tinting of drag plate. Also appeared that as heat built up grease would become thinner and the centrifugal force would send (oil at this point) the grease to the outer diameter of the spool. After the third test, there appeared to be very little grease left on the drag. Possibly absorbed into the drag material but not visible at this point.

v Conclusion at this point: Single drags will be fine with smaller fish that won’t put the reel to the big test by pulling a lot of drag and building up a lot of heat. When the heat starts to build up, it appears as though the drag effectiveness is compromised.

v After the 3rd test, they allowed the reel to cool off for 3 minutes and retested with a short pull test. The drags came back to within approximately 5% of the original setting, and after 10 minutes of cool off, the drags came back to 100% of the original setting.

v Twin drag testing was performed with a Pro EXW50/2 loaded with 130lb mono over spectra. The Spectra was never exposed during any of the tests. All testing (both greased and non-greased) was with a drag setting of 35lbs at strike.

v First and second dry tests resulted in drag increasing to 37lbs. After the second test, those drags were getting very hot and we decided to take it apart cool it down and grease em up, wiping off any excess.

v Results from the 1st test equated to the same as the dry test showing an increase of 2 lbs of drag (37lbs).

v Results from the 2nd test showed a decrease of 3.5 lbs down to 33.5 lbs of drag immediately after the line was retrieved.

v The reel was disassembled and showed just slight discoloration of the plate and once again small amount grease built up on inside of side plate. Also there was very little sign of any grease on washers themselves.

v They figured it was getting late but had time for one more test, so the drag washers went to the sink and were soaked with water and reassembled.
Once again the drags were set at 35lbs (strike) and off went the Hummer. This was somewhat non-conclusive since the drags were still warm, but not hot and the water absorbed into the drag washers pretty quickly. As a result of the wet/no so wet drag, there was only a loss of .5lbs down to 34.5lbs of drag.

v Conclusion at this point: Twin drags with no grease stayed fairly consistent and even increased slightly when initially heated up (or worn in).
With grease applied, the drags also increased up to 37lbs but when really heated up the drags started to loose a little moving down to 33.5lbs.

Your call at this point depending what your fishing for. Granders from Hawaii to Portugal that are going to do everything possible to melt you and your drags while strapped in and strapped down using monster drag settings (35-70) or stand-up on the rail dealing with a little less drag (30 – 45) and YFTs, BFTs etc. that hopefully will settle down and not get too stupid with you.

Avet’s stance at this point: They are going to hold on to their original direction of NO grease due to inconsistencies resulting from varying temperatures, having to reapply grease periodically, grease having a tendency of attracting inherent elements such as salt, carbon dust etc.

One very important factor to take into consideration is that Avet is building high quality reels for people fishing all over the world for every type of application be it extreme or simple day of enjoyment on the water type of fishing. Their thought process is to keep them simple, affordable, and strong while maintaining a high level of quality and customer satisfaction. Consistency and quality control are two of the most challenging facets of any major reel manufacturer. As the age old adage goes, “you can make everyone happy some of the time and you can make some of the people happy all of the time, but you can’t make everyone happy all of the time”. This is one company that I know that will keep trying their best to make everyone happy.
__________________
Any questions or comments reguarding Avet Reels please contact me rickozaki@sbcglobal.net