Fin Nor LT 100 rated well by Alan Hawk. Ok, its a spinner.

[Tightlines667]

Good thread.
I also forgot to mention that I like the larger diameter drag washers in the versa-drag style (w/fitted/eared CF washers) and the stack under the spool over the diawa/fin nor types.  The penn seems to have a slightly better main gear as well as a superior line lay mech.  Also could use a few more bearings in my humble opinion.  Time will also tell how effective the simplified 'water resistant' seal system will 'hold water' in extreme surf tye environments.  The high end reels (diawa, van stal, and shimano) seem to have solved this issue admirably, and I can't see how these modifications are cost-prohibitive at reels designed at lower  price points.  But I'm no engineer.

[maxpowers]

This reel was not meant for dunking into the water.  Primarily used as a boat reel so a few splashes should be ok.   Even the SSV is not meant to be an underwater reel.  As for the drag, I do like the versa drag type more but as AH's wrote in his review, the drag performed well above expectation for a $100 reel.  As for the drive train, its nearest competitor are the SSVs and the Baitrunners and both have inferior metallurgy in the drive train.  The SSV's gears are cast zinc alloy main and brass pinion.  I am just excited because if this works out that meant the saying that a quality reel can't be built within $100-200 range is utter BS.

[Three se7ens]

Good thread.
I also forgot to mention that I like the larger diameter drag washers in the versa-drag style (w/fitted/eared CF washers) and the stack under the spool over the diawa/fin nor types.  The penn seems to have a slightly better main gear as well as a superior line lay mech.  Also could use a few more bearings in my humble opinion.  Time will also tell how effective the simplified 'water resistant' seal system will 'hold water' in extreme surf tye environments.  The high end reels (diawa, van stal, and shimano) seem to have solved this issue admirably, and I can't see how these modifications are cost-prohibitive at reels designed at lower  price points.  But I'm no engineer.

Alan Hawk sheared the threads on the pinion of the 8500 ssv at only 22 lbs of drag.  The fin nor performed flawlessly at more than double that.  Not to mention the intentional abuse on his testing, like reeling fish against a trolling boat time and time again, etc.

The lethal 100 has to be taken for what it is.  It's made to be strong and durable, sacrificing refinement for a lower cost.  There are countless reels that are more refined, but try finding stronger without spending $700+ for a reel along the lines of the penn torque or saltiga/stella. 

[johndtuttle]

Good thread.
I also forgot to mention that I like the larger diameter drag washers in the versa-drag style (w/fitted/eared CF washers) and the stack under the spool over the diawa/fin nor types.  The penn seems to have a slightly better main gear as well as a superior line lay mech.  Also could use a few more bearings in my humble opinion.  Time will also tell how effective the simplified 'water resistant' seal system will 'hold water' in extreme surf tye environments.  The high end reels (diawa, van stal, and shimano) seem to have solved this issue admirably, and I can't see how these modifications are cost-prohibitive at reels designed at lower  price points.  But I'm no engineer.

Alan Hawk sheared the threads on the pinion of the 8500 ssv at only 22 lbs of drag.  The fin nor performed flawlessly at more than double that.  Not to mention the intentional abuse on his testing, like reeling fish against a trolling boat time and time again, etc.

The lethal 100 has to be taken for what it is.  It's made to be strong and durable, sacrificing refinement for a lower cost.  There are countless reels that are more refined, but try finding stronger without spending $700+ for a reel along the lines of the penn torque or saltiga/stella. 

I think you are taking one review a little too seriously. We have to take each and every review that someone does with a very, very important caveat: Any individual Study (review) has no Statistical Power when it comes to identifying manufacturing defects or identifying the next great thing for that matter.

What this means is that one SSV with crushed pinion threads means nothing other than "heads up" there might be an issue. One pinion could have missed it's hardening treatment and caused this trouble. Keep an eye peeled etc.

If *hundreds* of SSV had this problem then there would be a large enough sample to say "there is definitely a problem".

But the reality is that SSVs have landed huge numbers of tuna and jacks without this issue ever making it to the forums other than the one time Alan relates. Of course Alan's experience is very real. We simply have no more evidence that any other SSV has any problem with it's pinion despite the many large fish they have landed. This is particularly true given the multi-step process of manufacturing the pinion and the batch nature etc. It is easy to have a one in a thousand problem or a batch problem.

Does this mean there is not one single other SSV with this problem? No. It does mean that there are so few that it is not a concern or we would hear about it as the forums are pretty much on fire whenever a single problem surfaces.

It's hard to communicate this succinctly and come across as objective as I am trying to be...All of us reviewers really just want to point you in the right direction and provide our brothers with good information that will let them make informed decisions on their own. What we do hopefully contributes to your knowledge. But it is never the be all and end all.

You have to take them with a grain of salt until hundreds of the reels are out there and have been used. Then we really get the full picture of what the reel is about for most users.

Case in point: Alan found a lot of problems with the Stella 2013 SW he reviewed. These problems did show up in similar size Stellas but not in others. Other users of the smaller Stellas are in possession of the world's finest spinning reel, but the reel doesn't make Alan's list at all due to the problems he found in the bigger one he reviewed. BTW Shimano confirmed that they had a problem per report.

He is being BRUTALLY honest and cannot make claims about the smaller sizes because he hasn't reviewed them so he leaves it off of his lists. But the fact remains that hundreds of the smaller sizes have been sold without any of the bearing receptacle tolerance issues that he found in the biggest size and people rave about their performance. Couldn't be happier.

If you took Alan's review as the be all and end all then the Stella is expensive junk. If you take it as simply what he found in early production where a particular size had a mold with poor tolerances and then wait and see how things shake out over time you get a clearer picture.

His review of the LT100 shows us that there *could be* a great budget reel out there. I will wait and see what the early adopters find before I jump in with both feet  .

I particularly will be following the drag cap (that will likely melt when a big tuna makes a run, early Saragosas had this problem), the anodizing that seems particularly poor and the line lay which may produce serious wind knot issues and make the reel unusable for popping with some line classes.


best

[maxpowers]

John,

What you are saying is true but at $100 and change, I am willing to be an early adopter on this reel only because my guts tell me that the quality will cheapen over time if the accountants have their way.  I am hoping to be wrong this time and the engineers win out on the Lethal 100 series.

[johndtuttle]

John,

What you are saying is true but at $100 and change, I am willing to be an early adopter on this reel only because my guts tell me that the quality will cheapen over time if the accountants have their way.  I am hoping to be wrong this time and the engineers win out on the Lethal 100 series.

Yes! Go for it!

Fish it hard and tell us what you find (photos welcome!).

I hate to sound like a negative Nancy. I just want people to jump in with their eyes wide open .

[maxpowers]

John,

What you are saying is true but at $100 and change, I am willing to be an early adopter on this reel only because my guts tell me that the quality will cheapen over time if the accountants have their way.  I am hoping to be wrong this time and the engineers win out on the Lethal 100 series.

Yes! Go for it!

Fish it hard and tell us what you find (photos welcome!).

I am hoping to have a chance to do so in a few weeks.  I will be heading out on a charter around mid may to fish bottom fish the first day and hopefully some Coronados Yellowtails the next day.  I may just fish the Lethal exclusively to test it.  Hopefully my Ugly Stik spin rod will be up to the task.

I hate to sound like a negative Nancy. I just want people to jump in with their eyes wide open .

[Three se7ens]

The stella will never be expensive junk(hopefully).  But according to the Alan Hawks review, the newest model did not live up to standards set by the prior stella and saltiga.  That's not to say its a bad reel, it's probably still better than anything most of us will fish with.  The bar was at an entirely different level for to stella than the fin nor.  


Statistically speaking, Alan Hawks reviews are a good comparison between reels he has tested, not a benchmark for how all reels will perform.  Durability won't be an issue for people who don't push reels hard, so a more refined reel is better for them, even if it does not have the brute strength of a less refined reel.

[johndtuttle]

I am hoping to have a chance to do so in a few weeks.  I will be heading out on a charter around mid may to fish bottom fish the first day and hopefully some Coronados Yellowtails the next day.  I may just fish the Lethal exclusively to test it.  Hopefully my Ugly Stik spin rod will be up to the task.

Well, those Ugly Stiks have a nice parabolic bend .

Looking forward to hearing of your success on some spring yellows at the Coronados.

[wallacewt]

does anybody disagree with anything that alan hawk has said?
cheers

[Three se7ens]

does anybody disagree with anything that alan hawk has said?
cheers

I've been following the lethal series since they were announced, as I really like my Sportfisher reels.  They aren't pretty or refined, but they are strong, inexpensive, and very easy to work on.  I had high hopes for the lethal series, especially when the specs of the 100 were released, but I was worried the execution wouldn't equal the sum of its parts(or specs).  But the review gave it even more praise than I had expected. 

I'm looking forward to abusing mine, and there are countless sharks in the 8' and up range that haunt the wrecks I fish offshore on which I could really push it.

[Reinaard van der Vossen]

Before this reel came popping up I would have happily selected a saragosa SW or a saltist or a Rica talisman tg8000 (although with the SS gears) because I do mot know yet whether a spinner is something I will be happy with for stronger pelagic fish and because i'm not certain I will not spent the 1000-1300 required for a stella or saltiga.

If I would have to fish it very often it might be a differnt story but I will only fish it a couple of days per year intermittant. It just needs to be ready to take on something bigger.

The fin nor seems to adress what I would have modified on a saltist/saragosa/talisman myself.

I won't forget it is a 135 buck reel and that smootness and longevity are not in the top league. The line lay issue I think I can solve.  When I do I will report back.

Nevertheless I think that affordable spinners that are sufficiently strong will find their way to the market. Whether this is one of them remains to be tested on a larger scale.

I hope I will have the opportunity to abuse it like I should

[Dr. Jekyll - AKA MeL B]

does anybody disagree with anything that alan hawk has said?
cheers

i odn't have enough experience with spinners to disagree with him. but at the end of the day first hand experience with anything is what counts, maybe it's just me.

[johndtuttle]

does anybody disagree with anything that alan hawk has said?
cheers

Not exactly and it would be ridiculous to disagree categorically as he rigorously documents all of his findings nor have any of us even examined let alone tested the reel in question.

What is being done is providing a additional word of caution that he himself puts in his post that is often glossed over by those less inclined.

The flaws he finds in the reel from manufacturing show a reel that should have never made it out of the factory. Shoddy anodizing on the spool that should be instantly returned for a replacement, shoddy molding on the crosswind block that may just be cosmetic but should never have gotten put in the reel in the first place and a drag cap that is going to have serious heat issues on serious fish (see melted drag caps on older model Saragosas) let alone the overall drag performance that he worries about in a long fight. Then there is the line lay that is also problematic.

This makes me concerned but I simply have to wait and see how the early adopters fare. I don't have the time to fish and test like I'd like. The LT100 is a big reel that can be used on big fish. Before I drink the koolaid I want to see it hold up to GTs and big Tuna.

Also, I think Alan would be the first to admit he holds "the big guys" to a higher standard than he does a relative underdog, Fin Nor, in this regard which should hardly be surprising given the vitriol I have seen posted by the big guy's representatives when he points out the actual facts of their product's shortcomings.

If a Daiwa, Penn or Shimano had the same issues though, I wonder if Alan would have been so forgiving?

[maxpowers]

does anybody disagree with anything that alan hawk has said?
cheers

Not exactly and it would be ridiculous to disagree categorically as he rigorously documents all of his findings nor have any of us even examined let alone tested the reel in question.

What is being done is providing a additional word of caution that he himself puts in his post that is often glossed over by those less inclined.

The flaws he finds in the reel from manufacturing show a reel that should have never made it out of the factory. Shoddy anodizing on the spool that should be instantly returned for a replacement, shoddy molding on the crosswind block that may just be cosmetic but should never have gotten put in the reel in the first place and a drag cap that is going to have serious heat issues on serious fish (see melted drag caps on older model Saragosas) let alone the overall drag performance that he worries about in a long fight. Then there is the line lay that is also problematic.

This makes me concerned but I simply have to wait and see how the early adopters fare. I don't have the time to fish and test like I'd like. The LT100 is a big reel that can be used on big fish. Before I drink the koolaid I want to see it hold up to GTs and big Tuna.

Also, I think Alan would be the first to admit he holds "the big guys" to a higher standard than he does a relative underdog, Fin Nor, in this regard which should hardly be surprising given the vitriol I have seen posted by the big guy's representatives when he points out the actual facts of their product's shortcomings.

If a Daiwa, Penn or Shimano had the same issues though, I wonder if Alan would have been so forgiving?

John,

I think the best selling point to me is that after more than 100 hours of use, which is about 15 to 20 fishing days, the reel still looked in fairly good conditionand is ready to handle another 100 hours of fishing without issues.  That is more than I will probably be able to use this reel in a couple of years of fishing.  As for what you pointed out,  yes it is disappointing to see those issues but at $100 I cannot fault the manufacturer too much especially since the issue does not affect performance (with the exception of the line lay).  If this reel had come in at $300+ I think AH would have been much more critical and probably would have been less enthusiastic about it.  Like I said if this reel perform well and is well received  I would not be surprised to see an after market spool, cap and washers etc, that addressed your concern.  Can't wait for my reel to get here next week.  I will take some pictures and video of it if I can.