Oil

[matuka]

Most of my baitcasters have come with a small tube of oil for lubricating the reel. Over the years, (not too many)the oil yellows up. Does anyone know for sure if this indicates that the lubrication properties are breaking down?

[Angry John]

Depends. A synthetic will not change. Most likely just the bottle. A refined oil will slowly break down and not be good. I cannot understand with the volume required to do a good job why people would not just buy the good stuff. Insert favorite brand.

[matuka]

Depends. A synthetic will not change. Most likely just the bottle. A refined oil will slowly break down and not be good. I cannot understand with the volume required to do a good job why people would not just buy the good stuff. Insert favorite brand.

I have used a variety of other oils over the years, with variable results. I went back to the manufacturers oil simply from advise from various reel maintenance folks and internet advise from repair/manufacturers. Didn't figure it would be inferior to other. Anybody know if the oil Shimano supplies is synthetic?

[SirSnookalot]

Shimano's oil is mineral oil based, I suggest using it as they have be know to void a warranty for using other oils.

[troutbum1]

How about good gun oils.  what oil to get. how about grease.

[FishTank]

I don't think effects the performance of the oil.  I have a couple of bottles of Shimano oil that have yellowed over the years but the oil seems to work just fine.  I do also use Ardent's Reel Oil and it works, as far as I can tell, about the same.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

I was a lube oil distributor for years and have never heard of a lubricant breaking down from simply sitting in the original container. The Bantam oil is not a bad product, but you can use whatever appropriate oil you have. If you used a lubricant in the wrong application, say putting motor oil in a transmission obviously that will void a warranty but equipment manufacturers can not require you to buy oil from them in order to honor warranty. Rem Oil, 3in1 or even sewing machine oil will work fine.

[SirSnookalot]

I was a lube oil distributor for years and have never heard of a lubricant breaking down from simply sitting in the original container. The Bantam oil is not a bad product, but you can use whatever appropriate oil you have. If you used a lubricant in the wrong application, say putting motor oil in a transmission obviously that will void a warranty but equipment manufacturers can not require you to buy oil from them in order to honor warranty. Rem Oil, 3in1 or even sewing machine oil will work fine.

 

 

Au contraire mon ami....................Shimano did it to me on my spheros 4000 a number of years ago.  Just one of the reasons in a growing list of them that make me a consumer of other brands.

[tholmes]

How about good gun oils.  what oil to get. how about grease.

I've used RemOil for years with zero problems. 

 

For grease, I usually use either Ardent Reel Butter or Berkley.

 

Tom

[BobP]

The viscosity of reel oils changes according to temperature.  On most oils, it changes a lot. Also, the thinner the oil, the faster it will be thrown out of a ball bearing and the more often the oil needs to be replenished.  A few years ago, a materials scientist on a different bass fishing forum did lab tests on various oils that were in vogue at the time, and the differences in viscosity were interesting.  From 78F to 38F, viscosity increases by a factor of four for most reel oils.  So while there's a ton of opinion on "which is the best" oil, it really boils down to how you fish, how fast do you want the bearings, what temperature you fish in, and how often you are willing to re-lube your bearings.  Player's choice.  Many oils, formulated for reels or not, will get the job done.  I doubt a color change will have much if any effect on the lubricity of an oil. 

 

Lube.............................Viscosity@78F (cP)

Mobil-1 0W-30 (syn)..................400 (for comparison sake)
Zebco Needle Oiler....................206
Quicksilver Storage Seal............203
Abu Silicoat Reel Oil...................176


Browning Midas Gun Oil (syn)...140
Quicksilver PS and Trim Oil........136
BSB Speed Bearing...................114


Red RF (hc).................................93
PMI Paintball Gun Lube...............90
Power Steering Fluid...................90
Diawa Std Needle Oiler...............84
Reel-X.........................................74

ATF Dextron III...........................62
Shimano Std. (hc).......................60
Yellow RF (hc).............................59
3-In-1 Oil....................................40

 

Reel Butter..................................28
Quantum Hot Sauce....................25
X+1R...........................................21
Diawa TDZ lube (syn)..................18
Diawa/Liberto Pixy Lube (syn).....18
Whale Spit (hc)............................14
Abu Black Max .............................14

WD 40..........................................6
Tournament RF (hc)......................4
Friction Zero Lub (hc/syn )............4
Rem Oil (hc)..................................3

Reference: DI water.....................1
-------------------------------------------

Lube....Viscosity (cP) @ 38F.........@78F........@ 98F (cP)

Yellow RF ........................285..............59..............35
3-In-1 Oil.........................161....... ......40..............20
Quantum Hot Sauce........100..............25..............16
 

[Fisher-O-men]

Just open the reel, spray with WD-40 and close it up!  (DON'T DO THIS!)

[Sherlock 60]

Is it OK to switch oils on a reel? Such as using Abu oil when the provided tube of Shimano oil is empty?

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

Yes it's perfectly safe to add oil of another brand as far as interaction between them. It's still best to flush regularly.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

Au contraire mon ami....................Shimano did it to me on my spheros 4000 a number of years ago. Just one of the reasons in a growing list of them that make me a consumer of other brands.

They're pushing the envelope if not outright breaking law. GM tried this in the 90s and got in trouble. Of course no one is going to court over a $100 reel. I don't blame you for having a bad taste in your mouth over that. There's too much good competition in the tackle business to alienate customers.

[Angry John]

I have noticed a reduction in casting distance in the cold so it does matter. I use the alphas platform about 80% of the time and have at least one on every trip. Took me a little while to figure it out. You can loosen the tension knob and make up most of the distance and still not birds nest.

[Jeff H]

I think for most guys, Rem oil is a bad choice.  It is so thin it doesn't seem to stay in the bearing very long.  Even worse if you have removed the shields.  I have had to relube after only a couple days use with Rem oil.  If you have to quiet down a ceramic bearing this is probably a good choice for that.

[adam32]

Au contraire mon ami....................Shimano did it to me on my spheros 4000 a number of years ago. Just one of the reasons in a growing list of them that make me a consumer of other brands.

Same thing happened to me. They wouldn't honor my warranty on a two month old stradic because I used a different grease. The funny part is bantam1 has admitted on another forum that he wasn't sure what kind of grease they were using on spinning reels at the factory.

To the o.p., I have a lot of the shimano oil that has turned yellow. I'm sure it's still good but for the little amounts I use it's not worth taking a chance.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

Was it because of the grease or the fact that you opened a relatively new reel?

[adam32]

Was it because of the grease or the fact that you opened a relatively new reel?

The grease. They said some aftermarket greases cause a chemical reaction with their grease. Which wasn't true in my case because I cleaned all the original grease out. Just a reason for them to try and charge me.

I'm not sure opening a reel should void the warranty either. Unless you assembled it incorrectly.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

That's such BS on their part. Some grease additives do react to one another but worst case scenario the grease would just pool or gunk up and even then it would take months of dry use to wear anything out. It's not like a catastrophic event will occur and the mixed greases themselves will damage anything.

[matuka]

Interesting stuff! It only seems obvious that viscosity is temp dependant, but I had no idea it could be that much! One of the oils I used to use, (it was red) would sure make it easy to spin your reel, but I remember that I, (as well as others), got tired of having to re-lube so often. Maybe it just plain spun out of the bearing as the season wore on. I switched to Reel X fir bearings, and Shimano brake grease where appropriate upon advice of several tackle repair folks. I accumulated all those  little blue capped bottles over the years and thought I better just use them on my Shimanos. I don't mean to have a  brand bashing conversation, but I am switching over to other manufacturers for my reels. I picked up a Curado I recently and was shocked that an afterthought note was placed in the box advising lubricating a braking drum ...after each use! Huh? Even then I had to take the spool out and remove the grease, (yes grease) on a portion of the spool shaft to get it to cast well. It casts well now, but I'm afraid I've hit my limit.

[SirSnookalot]

Same thing happened to me. They wouldn't honor my warranty on a two month old stradic because I used a different grease. The funny part is bantam1 has admitted on another forum that he wasn't sure what kind of grease they were using on spinning reels at the factory.

To the o.p., I have a lot of the shimano oil that has turned yellow. I'm sure it's still good but for the little amounts I use it's not worth taking a chance.

At the time it happened I posted my displeasure about the voided warranty episode, Bantam swore up and down they don't do that.  I didn't buy what he said then and I don't buy it now.

 

Thought this might be an interesting sidebar.  I used to fish out of the Palm Beach inlet once a week, there happens to be an Authorized Shimano repair center there, Lott Bros.  Lott Bros is quite the tackle shop, I take one of my Shimanos in for repair and the tech tells me he uses nothing but Corrosion Block instead of oil, regardless of reel brand.  After his suggestion I started using it, pretty darn good stuff.

[adam32]

At the time it happened I posted my displeasure about the voided warranty episode, Bantam swore up and down they don't do that. I didn't buy what he said then and I don't buy it now.

That's funny because that is the exact same thing he told me when I messaged him about it. He said he'd never heard of a warranty being voided from using aftermarket grease or oil.

[SirSnookalot]

Adam, that was the initial episode that soured me on Shimano.  Since that time there have been a few other issues with them that left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Shimano, best game in town, well not for me.