Lots of salt.

[jurelometer]

this level of failure is probably due to a couple of things.  one, the spool was not initially treated with grease.  i don't use car wax. when i comes to salt water corrosion resistance, i'd trust the engineers at yamaha marine before i'd trust the guys that make turtle wax.  the second is that the braid was spooled on way too loose, allowing salt to slide in on the side.  and third, it is possible but not for sure, that the salt attacked the entire spool surface and found some weak spots in the anodizing.  i am no expert on metal coatings, but the possibility of weak spots in the surface coating might explain the appearance of corrosion in some areas and not others. 

i dunno.  all i know for sure is that i've just gotta fix these things in short time alloted and get them back on the water. 

Not going to argue with you about what works well enough when the reel needs to respooled in a short amount of time, but  I am not completely convinced on the rest of the logic.

Why not grease your boat instead of waxing it? Grease and wax have different properties, and therefore different use cases.

Let's first look at the corrosion.  Agree that it it is going to be saltwater related. 

I took an anodizing class but never pulled the trigger on making a setup, but my understanding is that while anodizing makes a thicker aluminum oxide layer that resists corrosion, it also causes large pores to form in the surface layer. After dyeing (anodized parts are colored by dye getting in the pores), the pores are sealed by a hot water soak, causing some sort of aluminum oxide crystals to form and swell up.  But sealing is never perfect.  The spool corrosion in the photo is consistent with the saltwater getting past the anodized layer through leaky pores. The corrosion can then spread underneath the anodize nearby with no oxygen available to allow the aluminum to heal, and you end up with those corrosion pits.

Grease will get into the deeper pores of a pitted spool and probably stay put. It will also stay put on the spool surface near the arbor if the line stays on the spool.  But for the line that leaves the spool, braid will do a pretty good job of scrubbing off grease and carrying it away.

A proper wax that hardens well (like pure carnauba) will also do a good job a sealing an undamaged spool, but you need to apply several coats and polish it a bit, which can be impractical for a professional reel repair scenario. It will do a better job of sticking to the spool surface than grease.  But  it may be difficult to get a good wax coating on a heavily pitted spool surface.

There are spray on ceramic waxes for cars now, and that might be worth trying on a new spool, even as a first layer if you are still inclined to grease it afterward. Application is very fast.

Braid is really good at holding onto to salt.  The voids and waxy coatings trap salt crystals and inhibit water contact.  Even with a good soak in warm fresh water, my braid will often taste a bit salty.  I still believe in using the best solvent for flushing salt out (warm fresh water), and the more water and the longer the contact time, the greater the dilution, and therefore the more salt is carried away. Next step is to make sure that the reel dries out fully, as moisture  plays a big role in saltwater corrosion. 

Agree with Boon on storing a wet and salty reel.  And one of the worst things you can do to a saltwater reel is put it away even slightly damp in one of those neoprene covers that hold in moisture. To be safe,  I never store a reel in one. 

Respectfully, as of now I am still on Team Wax, at least for an undamaged spool...


-J

[oldmanjoe]

 Some may cringe but ,I will spray paint a spool with color or just clear lacquer for protection .

[jurelometer]

Some may cringe but ,I will spray paint a spool with color or just clear lacquer for protection .

No cringe here.  I am thinking about a nice powder coat.  It would pretty much prevent the saltwater corosion problem.  Keeping the inside of the spool anodized is more of a cosmetic thing. Nobody wants their  shiny gold anodized reel to not be uniform gold and shiny. A clear coat on top of the fresh anodize would keep it pretty close...

If I did product development at a reel company, I would propose to clear coat the inside of the spool, and give a techno-babblespeak acronym. Then ask for a raise.

-J

[oc1]

Maybe it all comes down to what the fisherman is willing to pay.  If anodized aluminum is not sufficient, then better materials and processes must be used. I don't know what those materials and processes would be, but if technology can build a deep sea submersible, then it can build a better fishing reel.  So, who would spend many times more for a reel that is already expensive in exchange for the promise of better corrosion resistance?

Then again, maybe it would something as simple as polyurea-encased spools.

[jurelometer]

Maybe it all comes down to what the fisherman is willing to pay.  If anodized aluminum is not sufficient, then better materials and processes must be used. I don't know what those materials and processes would be, but if technology can build a deep sea submersible, then it can build a better fishing reel.  So, who would spend many times more for a reel that is already expensive in exchange for the promise of better corrosion resistance?

Then again, maybe it would something as simple as polyurea-encased spools.

I think the consumer is actually prefers the more  expensive anodized finish over  more durable paint options. A shiny colored anodized finish is considered a mark of a premium reel.

Type III anodizing is much harder and more corrosion resistant than the type II we see on most reels, which means that it also does not dye as deeply/uniformly, so the only colors available are things like matte black, bronze, grey. People want bright shiny colorful reels, not to mention that the type III process is more expensive.

Or do what they do on some submersibles and make the whole thing out of titanium- there are a few titanium fly reels out there, and they are crazy expensive.  Can't imagine machining out a 50W spool from a big plug of titanium.

Or go with paint.  Urethane based powder coating would be highly protective, and the colors and surface finish are varied and spectacular.  But the same thing that makes powder coating protective (it is not super hard, so it stretches instead of chips) also makes it more prone to light surface scratching. 

Also the inside of some of aluminum sideplates can have metal on metal sliding surfaces, where paint would not be appropriate.

  The most obvious thing to do is to just clearcoat the only inside of the spool where it gets covered with line.  I am guessing that urethane/polyurethane powder would be the ticket, but it could be some other finish.

-J

[Ron Jones]

I agree with J,
Anodizing is pretty, and that's all that matters. Far more than how well the reel catches fish. Maintenance, what's that? If it pits like that, buy a new one.

The reel manufacturers rely on this model.

The Man

[boon]

I know this will sound crazy to some of you, but I de-spool my good reels after every use. I soak the line on the plastic spool in salt-x and then let it dry. I have a spare line for each reel if I need to use it again before the original line dries.

Probably the optimum way to keep things clean. But impractical if you're fishing several times a week.

[jurelometer]

I know this will sound crazy to some of you, but I de-spool my good reels after every use. I soak the line on the plastic spool in salt-x and then let it dry. I have a spare line for each reel if I need to use it again before the original line dries.

Probably the optimum way to keep things clean. But impractical if you're fishing several times a week.

This use of Salt-X a bit confusing to me.  Can someone enlighten me?

My understanding:

The actual sodium chloride (salt) solvent for these desalting products is the water that you mix with it.  The stronger the polarity of the solution, the better the salt solvent, and plain fresh water comes out on top on the polarity tables that I looked at. Nothing better.

These products do some other stuff that is probably not useful for desalting your line.  If my faulty memory serves me right, it is stuff like increasing the surface tension so it sticks longer when you hose it on to vertical surfaces like the side of your boat trailer.  Some claim passivation (a bit of acid to dissolve loose bits of iron on the surface of stainless steel), and also leaving a protective anti-corrosion film for metal surfaces.

I don't see how any of this as an improvement over plain warm water for desalting line.

I do agree that desalting the line off the spool is the gold standard in terms of reel maintenance.  I have some ideas on optimizing this, but don't want to get too far off track. Maybe another thread? 

-J

[oc1]

My impression is that the Salt-X is a surfactant that reduces the surface tension so water can soak everything and carry the salt away.  Applying a surfactant to line is too complicated for me to imagine.  Do you get soapy line?

[JasonGotaProblem]

I imagine creating an "optimum reel rinse" colorless odorless nontoxic safe for the environment! Available in bulk sizes!

But It'll be just a jug of distilled water with fancy packaging.

[ourford]

I know this will sound crazy to some of you, but I de-spool my good reels after every use. I soak the line on the plastic spool in salt-x and then let it dry. I have a spare line for each reel if I need to use it again before the original line dries.

Probably the optimum way to keep things clean. But impractical if you're fishing several times a week.

This use of Salt-X a bit confusing to me.  Can someone enlighten me?

My understanding:

The actual sodium chloride (salt) solvent for these desalting products is the water that you mix with it.  The stronger the polarity of the solution, the better the salt solvent, and plain fresh water comes out on top on the polarity tables that I looked at. Nothing better.

These products do some other stuff that is probably not useful for desalting your line.  If my faulty memory serves me right, it is stuff like increasing the surface tension so it sticks longer when you hose it on to vertical surfaces like the side of your boat trailer.  Some claim passivation (a bit of acid to dissolve loose bits of iron on the surface of stainless steel), and also leaving a protective anti-corrosion film for metal surfaces.

I don't see how any of this as an improvement over plain warm water for desalting line.

I do agree that desalting the line off the spool is the gold standard in terms of reel maintenance.  I have some ideas on optimizing this, but don't want to get too far off track. Maybe another thread? 

-J

I used plain distilled water for years until a neighbor gave me a couple gallons of salt-x. Since I haven't had problems with either, I can't really say one is better.

[ourford]

I know this will sound crazy to some of you, but I de-spool my good reels after every use. I soak the line on the plastic spool in salt-x and then let it dry. I have a spare line for each reel if I need to use it again before the original line dries.

Probably the optimum way to keep things clean. But impractical if you're fishing several times a week.

If you're in your 70's and have no place to go and all day to get there.....

[jurelometer]

My impression is that the Salt-X is a surfactant that reduces the surface tension so water can soak everything and carry the salt away.  Applying a surfactant to line is too complicated for me to imagine.  Do you get soapy line?

Ahh.  My poor memory strikes again.  Thanks for catching this.  It turns out to be a bit more complicated, but my conclusion remains unchanged.   Modifying surface tension should not  matter when you are soaking something.

The product literature for Salt-Away is pretty much devoid of any useful information on how it works.  They sell this stuff like snake oil and disparage tap water because it has a bit of chlorine in it ( even though they tell you to mix their product with tap water    ). I just found a couple studies by government agencies on the cost effectiveness of various de-salting products.  So I think it works more like this:

Some desalting products contain a foaming agent to help improve the water contact time on vertical surfaces.  These products also contain surfactants for the protective coating (for metals) left behind, but I guess it could help get water into some hooks and crannies as well. I think that these type of products might help a bit if you are spraying on metal reel parts if they are the right type of metal, but I am still in the "nope" camp for soaking the line to desalt it.

Here is the slide show for one of the studies:

https://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Planning/SPR/Research/Training/Documents/2014_Presentations/134718SaltNeutResultsPres.pdf


The explanation  in chemistry texts on how it takes several molecules of water to surround, rip apart, and isolate a single sodium chloride ion pair is really enlightening on why it takes some time and moving water to dissolve a salt crystal that has formed wedged into irregularities on a surface or has formed into a film.  But too much  to get into here, and I am not a chemist.  Worth a read, if you are interested.

-J

[Gfish]

Interesting. Thanks for the references, Dave. Maybe getting nit-picky, but the tax paying public outta know how there $ is spent and is it spent on effective products. IMO,... naw, too tempting...🤫.

We had foam used in our BLM & Forest Service fire trucks. Seemed to work well on burning wood. Maybe it had something to do with breaking the water's surface tension.