Ceramic hybrid bearings

[NZMatt]

OK, I know that lots of questions  have been asked about these, and I have spent hours looking over the forum to try and answer the main question I have at the moment, hoping someone can help with this.

One theme I see is that ceramic bearings should be run dry - does this apply to the hybrids. If I buy some they will be used in saltwater (and kayaking so likely to get soaked), and I wouldn't want the race to start corroding. This is part the reason why I like the thought of the ceramics - the lack of corrosion potential should enhance their life. I do maintain my reels after a trip, but realistically this job sometimes gets missed - which results in a breakdown of the reel at an earlier interval than planned.

Starting to wonder whether I would be better to just buy stainless steel, and thoughts about this would be useful also.

Cheers
Matt

[alantani]

i'd just go with plain stainless at half the price.  plan on having to re-clean and re-lube them regularly.  if you're not casting, maybe pack them with grease.  the problem with the commonly available ceramic bearings is that the cages and races are still stainless steel and they still rust. 

[NZMatt]

The next question then is what ABEC rating would you go for?

I have read all sorts of thoughts on this as well, I would be interested to know what people normally replace their stock bearings with.

It is for a baitcaster reel (Shimano Curado 200e7) that I use primarily to softbait fish with - lots of casting involved.

Cheers - and thanks for the prompt reply Alan

Matt

[alantani]

abec 5 or 7 is fine.  there is very little difference for this application.

[jaypeegee]

abec 5 or 7 is fine.  there is very little difference for this application.

Do the concerns of viscous braking due to the finer tolerances on the ABEC 7 rated bearings bear out in real life?

[alantani]

not really.  bearings in a fishing reel are moving at tens or hundreds of revolutions per minute, not tens or hundreds of thousands.  i think it's more a matter of perceived "smoothness" rather than function. 

[jaypeegee]

not really.  bearings in a fishing reel are moving at tens or hundreds of revolutions per minute, not tens or hundreds of thousands.  i think it's more a matter of perceived "smoothness" rather than function. 

Would the revolution speed still be counted in hundreds or thousands for the first stage of a long cast - 100Mtr or greater?
Not to distort the OP's question context - Just so I understand the cost to return ratio better

[philaroman]

as I understand, an ABEC rating denotes the maximum RPMs at which a bearing will perform as designed...  I don't remember the exact numbers -- I think ABEC-3 is well over 20,000 RPMs (close to 400 revs/sec.) which is plenty...  so you go up to ABEC-5, just to insure manufacturing quality. anything higher is just a marketing ploy.

[0119]

I have the hybrid bb's in all my jazzed up Ambassadeurs.  I also use them heavily in kayaking in salty waters. I'm happy with their resistance to the elements and my reels with those bb's are better performers than I am a distance caster.  I never run them dry, I don't even run the full on ceramic orange seals dry.  For real world fishing and with an utter disinterest in over thinking the engineering or technical aspect, I find them just fine to use fishing, oiled.

[Jeri]

Hi Jaypeegee,

Not wishing to hijack Matt's thread on ceramic bearings – but we did some calculations on spool speeds when considering the larger reels (Finnor OHC30) that we use and 14' surf rods.

Though we did the calculation based on human timings, we got times for sinker flight for a 150 metre cast of between 4-5 seconds, then working out a 'best estimate' for the line off the spool to achieve that cast, we ended up with some 'average speeds' for the reel spools as 15,000 – 18,000 rpm, while that 'average speed' could be pushed up another third to say 20,000+ rpm, gave us an adequate insight into just what we require of a distance casting reel.

Never did do the timing to achieve short distances like 100 metres, so can't help you there.

Back to ceramic bearings - in our quite harsh conditions here, we have used reels with both SS and ceramic hybrid, and there is actually no significant difference, except the noise of dry ceramics. Well maintained SS ABEC 5 bearings with a good high speed oil, are just as effective for distances achieved.

Another factor to consider is the obvious: "there are bearings, and there are bearings" – where they were manufactured has a lot to do with end quality. Some Chinese factories are now boasting that they are using Japanese ceramic balls – then it is all down to the quality of the races, and assembly.


Hope that helps.


Cheers from sunny Africa


Jeri

[NZMatt]

Thanks for the hijacking guys, it has pointed me to even more information about this. Not sure whether that is a good thing or bad thing  spent even more hours reading up about this than I intended.

I have compromised with two sets of bearings for different reels. One with ceramics and the other stainless. Will see later what I prefer.

Thanks