Has anyone had experiences with these. I steered away from these due to their Chinese origin but maybe I am wrong?
Same here. I got my pre asian NOS 7000 at an auction but found the 7500 at hookless. He makes both with nos swedish parts and it was well worth it.
I have several regular sized i7000's, and they all share the same flaw, because they were all born at the same time. I have 3 red i's, and 2 silver IC3's. In the past, and possibly today, suspect goods are sent to Canada, because the population base is small, and the complaints therefore minimal. The term is called dumping.
With the increase of drag by 2 more washers, for 5, (and the use of 3 carbon washers in the C3 models) and the rest of the reel unchanged, the spool axles bend, and causes the spool to gall against the frame. Abu's "fix" is to supply a new spool. Which just bends again. If they have changed the metallurgy of the spool axles, I would not know. I'll check with Mike's to see if they are experiencing lesser spool issues.
I'll guess that the iHSN will experience the same issues as the Taiwan-made Swedish design: the pinions will wear out in 2-3 years, instead of the 10-15 year life span of the regular Swedish model, and the frames may fail. Time will tell.
That sums it up nicely. Chinese ABU's are definitely suspect