Cheapest Baitcaster messing up

[Basser2021]

Hey guys,

About a month and a half ago I bought one of the cheapest baitcasters I could find the "Quantum Nitrous". It was going good and then I had a hectic fight with a big smallmouth in the river. During this fight, I might have gotten sand in it or something, but now when I cast it and turn the handle to retrieve my lure, it doesn't "click" and start retrieving the lure. I know absolutely nothing about taking apart baitcasters and fixing them. Do you guys have any suggestions about fixing this issue? Thanks!

[MN Fisher]

I bought a Nitrous a couple years ago - tossed it in the trash after two trips...absolute junk.

[Eric 26]

I would suggest sending it to DVT to be serviced but I’m thinking it would cost as much to send and service as it did to buy the reel. I would do a google search for reel repair in your area and see if anything pops up. I’m not comfortable tearing apart my gear either and I’m lucky enough to have a shop close enough to me that does. I’m sure there are members on here that can offer advice on whether it would be cost effective  to fix.

[Tatulatard]

Weak clutch spring or it came off from frame flexing.  You can try lifting the thumb bar with your thumb tip to move the clutch since it is no longer a spring returned clutch.

[Big Hands]

When you can get a new one for $30, it's hard to justify paying someone a fair price to repair it. It would also be hard to justify buying another, even for $30, if one good fight has left you with a reel that doesn't operate correctly.

 

Cheap reels are a gamble (as are some expensive reels). Sometimes you can successfully manage the risk and come out OK. Sometimes, you just get lucky. Sometimes it doesn't go your way. Going forward, if my budget didn't allow for something more expensive, I would probably be more inclined to gamble with a nice second hand garage queen reel. 

[Eric 26]

12 minutes ago, Big Hands said:

When you can get a new one for $30, it's hard to justify paying someone a fair price to repair it. It would also be hard to justify buying another, even for $30, if one good fight has left you with a reel that doesn't operate correctly.

 

Cheap reels are a gamble (as are some expensive reels). Sometimes you can successfully manage the risk and come out OK. Sometimes, you just get lucky. Sometimes it doesn't go your way. Going forward, if my budget didn't allow for something more expensive, I would probably be more inclined to gamble with a nice second hand garage queen reel. 

Perfectly stated. There is a current thread on cheap baitcast reels you might want to look at. Best of luck.

[Basser2021]

So... I got some oil at walmart and oiled her up. I let it set for like a couple hours and now it's perfectly fine.

Will it permanently be like this? Probably not but I'll take it Lol

[dodgeguy]

Glad that worked out for you.

[lunkerboss923]

Do yourself a favor and buy a Daiwa Fuego or a Shimano SLX. Those are 2 value hot performers and they are both awesome.

[garroyo130]

This is the perfect time to learn to work on your own reels. Crack it open, take pictures as you pull it apart, and then put it back together. It'll make that $30 reel a wise investment for you.

[dodgeguy]

20 minutes ago, garroyo130 said:

This is the perfect time to learn to work on your own reels. Crack it open, take pictures as you pull it apart, and then put it back together. It'll make that $30 reel a wise investment for you.

Good idea.

[T-Billy]

2 hours ago, lunkerboss923 said:

Do yourself a favor and buy a Daiwa Fuego or a Shimano SLX. Those are 2 value hot performers and they are both awesome.

But... Not as awesome as a Lew's LFS. ? Lol. All three are solid. I like the Lew's best straight out of the box. Fuego 2nd. SLX are ok, but I wouldn't buy another with the other two as options. The Fuego with a bfs spool is awesome for fishing light Trigs on braid. I wish there was more aftermarket support for Lew's reels.

[dodgeguy]

24 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

But... Not as awesome as a Lew's LFS. ? Lol. All three are solid. I like the Lew's best straight out of the box. Fuego 2nd. SLX are ok, but I wouldn't buy another with the other two as options. The Fuego with a bfs spool is awesome for fishing light Trigs on braid. I wish there was more aftermarket support for Lew's reels.

What he said.

[Tatulatard]

31 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

But... Not as awesome as a Lew's LFS. ? Lol. All three are solid. I like the Lew's best straight out of the box. Fuego 2nd. SLX are ok, but I wouldn't buy another with the other two as options. The Fuego with a bfs spool is awesome for fishing light Trigs on braid. I wish there was more aftermarket support for Lew's reels.

I liked the sized of the LFS but didn't like how choked off the casting was being a magnetic only reel so I sold it.  My next lews will be the TP with that swing arm centrifugal brake.  That looks promising.  

 

[new2BC4bass]

4 hours ago, Tatulatard said:

I liked the sized of the LFS but didn't like how choked off the casting was being a magnetic only reel so I sold it.  My next lews will be the TP with that swing arm centrifugal brake.  That looks promising.  

 

I don't understand this.  I've made some pretty long casts with magnetic only brake reels.

[BrianMDTX]

46 minutes ago, new2BC4bass said:

I don't understand this.  I've made some pretty long casts with magnetic only brake reels.

So have I. In fact, I was fishing with a Zara Spook this morning with a Black Max spooled with 12 lb. YZH on a Daiwa Aird-X MF rod, and it was bombing them. But I have it set on a light brake setting and rely more on my thumb. 
 

Still, for such an inexpensive reel, it casts pretty smooth and pretty far. 

[Tatulatard]

1 hour ago, new2BC4bass said:

I don't understand this.  I've made some pretty long casts with magnetic only brake reels.

It's gets good enough distance but doesn't live up to all the hype I read about it "casting a mile".  When spooled with 65 lb power pro i couldn't empty the spool with a frog but I can with my fuego and tatula elite.  The casting felt real similar to my black max but maybe a bit better.  The reel test guy also didn't think it casted all that far either but it was close to the fuego which I can cast noticeably further.  It did good side arm casting and turning the brakes down when I was throwing jigs from the boat but bank fishing frogs on long casts I felt really underwhelmed with it especially compared to the old one with the dual brake that I liked.  It felt like a step backwards in casting performance but a step forward in size.  Just not for me I guess.

[new2BC4bass]

8 minutes ago, Tatulatard said:

It's gets good enough distance but doesn't live up to all the hype I read about it "casting a mile".  When spooled with 65 lb power pro i couldn't empty the spool with a frog but I can with my fuego and tatula elite.  The casting felt real similar to my black max but maybe a bit better.  The reel test guy also didn't think it casted all that far either but it was close to the fuego which I can cast noticeably further.  It did good side arm casting and turning the brakes down when I was throwing jigs from the boat but bank fishing frogs on long casts I felt really underwhelmed with it especially compared to the old one with the dual brake that I liked.  It felt like a step backwards in casting performance but a step forward in size.  Just not for me I guess.

So basically you are saying it's the reel, not the braking system as Daiwa uses Magforce Z...which is magnetic braking.  I'm not into the nitty gritty of brakes, but AFAIK the Daiwa Magforce doesn't use any form of centrifugal braking.  Maybe some of the guys that do their own reel work have a better understanding than I do.  My reels get sent out.

 

Also it's possible you got a poor specimen.  Everyone said how great the SV105 was when it came out.  Mine had a tendency to backlash during the middle of the cast (a lot!), yet I felt it was over braked.  A trip to a professional turned it into a much better reel.  He actually tuned the inductor to make the spool a bit faster.  No more overruns in the middle of the cast.

[garroyo130]

19 minutes ago, new2BC4bass said:

He actually tuned the inductor to make the spool a bit faster.  No more overruns in the middle of the cast.

new plugs? ... how does one do this? 

[DougHall_NY]

If you're on a budget, I know plenty of people that have fished the Abu Garcia Black Max hard, are happy and get a few seasons out of them. They're about $50 bucks. As others have said fixing it just might not be worth it.

 

[Tatulatard]

1 hour ago, new2BC4bass said:

So basically you are saying it's the reel, not the braking system as Daiwa uses Magforce Z...which is magnetic braking.  I'm not into the nitty gritty of brakes, but AFAIK the Daiwa Magforce doesn't use any form of centrifugal braking.  Maybe some of the guys that do their own reel work have a better understanding than I do.  My reels get sent out.

 

Also it's possible you got a poor specimen.  Everyone said how great the SV105 was when it came out.  Mine had a tendency to backlash during the middle of the cast (a lot!), yet I felt it was over braked.  A trip to a professional turned it into a much better reel.  He actually tuned the inductor to make the spool a bit faster.  No more overruns in the middle of the cast.

Magz is uses centrifugal weights to move the brake cup out to the magnets.  It's a different animal from regular magnet brakes.  It's more like a dual  brake reel.  Also the SV105 is an sv reel and those are also brake different from a lews magnet brake but are sort of similar is braking behavior.  I could edge out my lews magnetic with my tatula sv on a long cast with a frog but neither are what I call long casting reels.  Both would brake more than I want at the end of the cast when set up to not overrun early to mid cast. 

 

Not a big deal at all.  Each tool has a place.  I just fell for the "casts a mile" hype without actually looking into what that meant it what they were comparing it to.  I should have kept it as a jig reel but got rid of it because I bought it for frogs and was upset with it.  I still have the sv because I knew what I was getting and it's casting matched my expectations.  I just didn't do my homework.  I've had other magnet reels with that same type of button magnets and flat side of the spool brake and just thought that the lews might be different based on the reviews.  Lesson learned.  When I want a distance reel, just get a centrifugal or magz reel.  

[GRiver]

I started out with inexpensive gear to start, it would  break sometimes, and sometimes it wouldn’t break. When it did, break I went got another one just like it, now I had one for parts too.
The main thing was I was out there fishing. I totally agree to buy better gear, but at the time I just couldn’t afford it. And I wanted to fish. 
I buy middle of the road gear now and maintain it the best I can. But buying the cheap stuff taught me out to fix them and maintain them, and appreciate the better gear. 

[lunkerboss923]

On 4/24/2022 at 11:10 AM, T-Billy said:

But... Not as awesome as a Lew's LFS. ? Lol. All three are solid. I like the Lew's best straight out of the box. Fuego 2nd. SLX are ok, but I wouldn't buy another with the other two as options. The Fuego with a bfs spool is awesome for fishing light Trigs on braid. I wish there was more aftermarket support for Lew's reels.

Lew's is like the fishing's version golf's TaylorMade brand, they've got 900 pro angler's using their equipment and they are sold everywhere. Lew's are fine, but when you go to a big box store, there is a reason why you'll less Daiwa and Shimano on the shelves versus Lew's, which is stocked full. I did have a Lew's LFS, and performed nice, but it was cheaply made. The writing began to wipe off after a month of use. I called Lew's and the customer support laughed and said..."yes, that's common." I did get an exchange out of them, but I ended up trading it for an SLX. 

[PhishLI]

1 hour ago, lunkerboss923 said:

I did have a Lew's LFS, and performed nice, but.....The writing began to wipe off after a month of use.

All you had to do was belt sand your callouses off and the lettering would've been fine.

[lunkerboss923]

18 hours ago, PhishLI said:

All you had to do was belt sand your callouses off and the lettering would've been fine.

Oh c'mon Phishy Phishburn