stiff reels

[5 X Master Angler]

I bought my young son a rhino ice fishing rod.  When we aren't in our shack, the reel gets stiff.  I bought hot sauce in hopes of it just being thick grease.  Cleaned the reel and then applied the hot sauce.  I put it in the freezer for a couple hours and it is still stiff!  Take it apart and clean it again.  I lubed it with nothing.  Re-froze it and still stiff.  I have three quantums that are the same. These reels work great in the shack but who wants to sit in a shack all day?

I would like to see a list of reels that have the same problems!

5 X MA  

[mcdee]

Must be some hidden grease or moisture somewhere .

[5 X Master Angler]

Must be some hidden grease or moisture somewhere .

What would you use to clean the bearings?  Solvent?

[sled-in]

That is interesting, I would spray it full of WD40, put it all together, spin it for a while, then take it apart and "hotsauce it".

[GrandrapidsGizmo]

Clean all the grease out of your reels, then re-lube with Frabill Sub-Zero or the HT version(cant remember the name) it is made for ice reels and tipups.Regular grease, whether it is hot sauce or whatever, is not made for extreme cold, that is what is freezing up and making your reels stiff.

[mcdee]

What would you use to clean the bearings?  Solvent?

Some sealed bearings will stiffen up. Some are dry and some have a small amount of grease inside them . Solvent will lossen them up but keep most solvents away from plastic. 

[MIOVER]

I bought my young son a rhino ice fishing rod.  When we aren't in our shack, the reel gets stiff.  I bought hot sauce in hopes of it just being thick grease.  Cleaned the reel and then applied the hot sauce.  I put it in the freezer for a couple hours and it is still stiff!  Take it apart and clean it again.  I lubed it with nothing.  Re-froze it and still stiff.  I have three quantums that are the same. These reels work great in the shack but who wants to sit in a shack all day?

I would like to see a list of reels that have the same problems!

5 X MA  

I bought one of those rhino ice rods last year and same thing. I tried ever thing to fix the problem nothing worked, except keeping it warm

[tommy jr.]

I use Graphite Spray......works really good.

[stumper]

Clean all the grease out of your reels, then re-lube with Frabill Sub-Zero or the HT version(cant remember the name) it is made for ice reels and tipups.Regular grease, whether it is hot sauce or whatever, is not made for extreme cold, that is what is freezing up and making your reels stiff.

Hot sauce oil does not get stiff in cold temps. Im betting the pump shaft still has the factory greese on it. I  put a US reel in the freezer the other day. After an hr it wouldnt turn at all. I disassembled it, cleaned the heavy grease out of it, re lubed with Hot sauce oil and put it in  the freezer over night. Smooth as silk the next day....

[RYEDOG]

I got the same problem with the rhino that i bought last year. I think iam just gonna buy a flugger reel for that rod.

[WALLYWHACKER]

Been using hot sauce oil for yrs and nothing else so I can honestly tell you its not the oil. Must be some grease somewhere! I never use any kind of grease or graphite or WD40 on any reels and no problems. All I use are Quantum and Shimano Reels. Good Luck

[adipose]

why not just take it back for a refund

[Svengalli]

Clean all the grease out of your reels, then re-lube with Frabill Sub-Zero or the HT version(cant remember the name) it is made for ice reels and tipups.Regular grease, whether it is hot sauce or whatever, is not made for extreme cold, that is what is freezing up and making your reels stiff.

Although I don't necessarily disagree with the use of sub-zero or HT's version (Blu-lube btw) I will have to differ on the rather broad statement that Quantum Hot Sauce is not good for extreme cold weather.  Perhaps the grease version is a little stiff for cold temps (if you use excessive amounts) but the oil most certainly is not.  Hot sauce is a full synthetic designed to bond permanently to the metal as opposed to just sticking to it and as such you can use it very sparingly, less is more in this case.  For the most part I exclusively use the oil version on all my ice fishing reels and I never have freezing issues even @ -40C.  Sometimes I will mix a little of the grease version with the oil version for the gears on my larger reels (Pike). 

IMO a lot of problems occur because people use grease (of any brand) when/where they should of used oil and to some extent vice versa or because they used too much.  Also, a lot of new reels (even the "cold weather" ones) are targeted at an audience of anglers where in February they are still tiptoeing out on the ice with a hand auger and a spud bar, while up here we are driving full size trucks on the ice and bring gas augers with extensions.  -30C is not -5C and many lubricants double there viscosity even with a drop of only 5 degrees on the thermometer.

There was a thread in our sub-forum about this last year as well.  I will see if I can find it and I will post the link to it.

Please see the below chart (borrowed from another website) for reference on viscosity values on some pretty common lubricants. 

-------------------------------
The viscosity units are in centi-Poise (1/100 of a Poise) and the lower the value, the less viscous. For a few points of reference, water is 1 cP, vegetable oils run in the range of 70-80.

Lube.................. ...........Viscosity@25C (cP)

Mobil-1 0W-30 (syn)..................400
Superlube w/PTFE.....................245
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) @ 3C.........@25C........@ 36C (cP)

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

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[Icelanderexpress]

I also have a rhino and quantim, both stiffin up, not happy with them at all.......

[firemedic]

I have 4 of them sitting here!!! samr thing so stiff can't real them in. Not impressed!!!

[5 X Master Angler]

why not just take it back for a refund

I got it last year and this was the first time he used it outside of the shack.

[Svengalli]

Here is the link from last year --> http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=150278.0

I also have a rhino and quantim, both stiffin up, not happy with them at all.......

I have 4 of them sitting here!!! samr thing so stiff can't real them in. Not impressed!!!

Rhino and Quantum fall under the same Parent company (Zebco).  I am not a fan of Quantum's lower end reels (except for the Incyte and the Mirco QT).  That being said I have acquired some over the years and for the most part they're just fine.  Once you hit their PTi stuff it is all gravy IMO and I own a couple of their TOTL Tour Edition PTi (unbelievable reel).

You can always toss reels in the deep-freeze while you're re-lubricating a reel to make sure you got off enough of the factory stuff and off from the right places.  You can also do this when you buy a new reel to see if it will hold up in the cold without any re-lubing.

Any reel I buy (especially for Ice fishing) I'll break down before hitting the ice and remove the factory grease then I put in Hot Sauce Oil.  I am willing to bet, you can get your winter reels working top notch in the cold with the Hot Sauce Oil guys.  I will be doing a couple of Shimano reels and a Quantum Mirco soon, maybe I'll try and post the pictures.  If you have any questions you can PM me if you wish.   

[5 X Master Angler]

I bought some varsol yesterday.  Took the reels totaly apart and cleaned it thouroughly in varsol.  I put it back together and put minimal hot sauce oil on the bearings and gears. I then put them in the freezer again for two hours. Problem solved!  Why can't they just do that from factory???  From now on,  when  I buy a new combo or reel, I am sticking them in the freezer and trying them before I use them.  If it is stiff, I am taking it back!!!!!

5 X Master Angler 

[mcdee]

I bought some varsol yesterday.  Took the reels totaly apart and cleaned it thouroughly in varsol.  I put it back together and put minimal hot sauce oil on the bearings and gears. I then put them in the freezer again for two hours. Problem solved!  Why can't they just do that from factory???  From now on,  when  I buy a new combo or reel, I am sticking them in the freezer and trying them before I use them.  If it is stiff, I am taking it back!!!!!

5 X Master Angler 

Now you have a modified hi performance reel . Most if not all reels will need this mod if your fishing in -20 for best performance 

[5 X Master Angler]

Now you have a modified hi performance reel . Most if not all reels will need this mod if your fishing in -20 for best performance 

I bought 2 mitchell avocet gold 1000 reels.  Spooled them with gortex sufix.  Never had to do a thing to them.  Work great in the cold.

[5 X Master Angler]

Clean all the grease out of your reels, then re-lube with Frabill Sub-Zero or the HT version(cant remember the name) it is made for ice reels and tipups.Regular grease, whether it is hot sauce or whatever, is not made for extreme cold, that is what is freezing up and making your reels stiff.

Is the Sub Zero a grease or oil?

[GrandrapidsGizmo]

Its a grease

[30-30]

Clean all of the factory grease and oil out using Varsol.  On main gears use a VERY Small amount of hotsauce, just a film.

Spray the gears with a good quality silicone spray.  Put a couple of drops of gun oil, or 3 in 1 oil on all moving parts.

Depending on how often you fish, you may have to do this a couple of times.

OR, it could simply be water in the reel that freezes outside.

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