ZPI Bearings & When to clean?

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Carruth8
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ZPI Bearings & When to clean?

Post by Carruth8 » Fri May 04, 2018 8:42 am

So I recently purchased ZPI bearings for a few of my reels & I really do like how accessible they are. Since they do not have a shield, how often should I flush them & reapply oil? With my other bearings, I only do this once or maybe twice a year depending on how much I use a particular reel. Thanks guys!

toddmc
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Re: ZPI Bearings & When to clean?

Post by toddmc » Fri May 04, 2018 9:53 am

You have to open the reel to access the spool bearings. It's pretty easy to tell if they, and the rest of the reel, are dirty when you open the reel up. I fish clean clear water most often, and cleaning the bearings is not necessary very often. Dirty/brackish water will require more service. I just add a drop of medium light Alchemy Oil every eight hours or so of use, or at least twice a year for my reels that don't make it out of the rod locker very often. You can get by with less, but I want top performance. My reels are covered in my rod locker or closet when not in use. I rarely have much grit inside or outside of my reels because I never put reels down on the ground unless it is on clean grass while golf course fishing and I want to take a picture.

PikeRoadBassn
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Re: ZPI Bearings & When to clean?

Post by PikeRoadBassn » Wed May 09, 2018 5:33 am

Carruth8 wrote:So I recently purchased ZPI bearings for a few of my reels & I really do like how accessible they are. Since they do not have a shield, how often should I flush them & reapply oil? With my other bearings, I only do this once or maybe twice a year depending on how much I use a particular reel. Thanks guys!
I tend to pull and clean mine once every 3-4 months, depending on how much fishing I do. Keeping them freshly oiled, once every 8-10 trips seems to extend the service intervals on them.

toddmc
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Re: ZPI Bearings & When to clean?

Post by toddmc » Wed May 09, 2018 9:15 am

Keeping a service log for your reels will help take out the guesswork once you have determined what service intervals you are comfortable with. I have about 25 reels in rotation. It is too hard for anyone to remember what has been done when with that many reels without keeping a list. Your spool bearings that use light oil will need more service than your greased parts, like your gears.

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