Cleaning your reels once a year is a necessity

I broke my reels down a couple of months ago and was really surprised at how dirty the reels really were. It was fairly clean on the inside so that was fairly easy to clean the inside and then oil and grease the reel. Be sure and use oil where your owner's manual says too as using grease on those parts will decrease the distance you can cast. On the Shimanos, you oil the shaft that extends out from the spool. If you put grease on the ends and the bearings the shaft rides in, you will decrease the distance you can cast.

On the bottom of the reels especially where the line guide moves on the drive shaft and level wind guide were absolutely filthy. I used alcohol and Q-tips to clean all the pieces. Once everything was clean, then I started putting the reel back together and oiling or greasing where it needed lubrication where 2 or more pieces were against each other.

Once I had the reels back together, I could tell a big difference in how smooth they were again. So, I will always clean my reels at least once a year now that I see just how much it takes away from the performance of the reels.

Just one word of advice when using Reel Scrubber in a can. It did affect the finish on the Shimano Chronarch Super Frees. It gave the finish a crackly look. So be careful if you use Reel Scrubber.