My Best Oil for Reels — Just Works, and No Drama

[foakes]

While there are hundreds of oils out there today — and many are excellent — this has for nearly 20 years, and continues to be — my go-to oil on a daily basis.

WRL191S

It was developed as a lubricant and protection for Wire Rope (cable) applications in heavy industrial environments where cold, water, salt water, and corrosion were major issues.

In Canada, and other outdoor industrial applications — they were using 300' of 3/8" cable on winches for mining, logging, and heavy equipment uses.  Freezing, water, salt, and lubrication not staying in place — was causing the cables to rust from the inside out.

This product penetrated into the cable, stayed in place, and lubricated as well as protected the integrity of the cable.

It is now used and approved on a 24/7 basis by many major firms, worldwide.  Railroads, mining, logging, crane operators, aviation, and more.

It has been approved and tested extensively for NASA, National Parks, the Military, and even food service industries.

For marine, fishing, firearms, tools, or anything around our lives — it just works.  Stays in place, doing its job — until you decide to relube — then it just evacuates easily with a good cleaner like lacquer thinner, or similar.

It also mixes well with Yamaha Marine, Penn, or Cal's grease.

Alan turned me on to Yamaha Marine grease a few years ago.  He said that he figured if they used it for the outdrives on boats in the salt — it would certainly protect and lube our reels very well.  And he was right.

I drop my cleaned bearings into this for 10 minutes — remove, pat dry with a paper towel — then inject grease into the bearing — it mixes and performs perfectly — plus protects the expensive bearings.

This 191WRLS is inexpensive, works, and is a pleasure to use.

I will crack open a reel after applying this stuff 3 or 4 years earlier — and find it still in place and working well.  No corrosion, no stickiness, no evaporation, no issues, and it just cleans right out.

Best,

Fred

[RowdyW]

Fred, where can it be purchased & what size containers? Is it available on the East Coast?        Rudy

[festus]

Rudy, I've never seen of it in the southeastern states, but found a link it can be ordered.  http://www.jaymors.com/buy/

Fred, what was that red grease used in my Microlite 265?

[RowdyW]

That's pretty expensive stuff. I guess it's in such large conrainers because you need it alot & often.    I think I'll stay with the oils I've been using. I'm not having any problems with them, but then again I'm not abusive with my equipment.

[foakes]

It can be mailed anywhere, Rudy — Festus posted the link where I get mine from.

I use around 2 gallons a year — maybe a little less.  A drop or two goes a long way.

I think they sell it in as little as 1 ounce — but you can check with them.

Chester — the red stuff in your DQ Microlite is actually a mix of Cal's Purple Universal Drag Grease and WRL191S.  Cal Sheets and his son recommend using Cal's for all parts of a salt water reel.  But since I prefer to use Yamaha Marine for the Salt Reels — and Cal's Tan for their drags — that is always blue.

On freshwater reels, particularly Microlites and mid size spinners — the mix of Cal's purple and WRL191S seems to work very capably and well.

The reason for Cal's Purple — it is a formula designed for very cold climate fishing — where Cal's Tan can become too stiff in the cold.  It is a little thinner, and mixes well — while staying in place to protect the function and longevity of gears and bearings.

Cal's is much more expensive than Yamaha Marine — but I use it a lot — because the reels that come off the bench never need an excuse that way.

I know this seems weird — but it really makes a rough reel, new reel, or an old reel — smooth and quiet — while offering protection and great performance.

Best,

Fred

[foakes]

That's pretty expensive stuff. I guess it's in such large conrainers because you need it alot & often.    I think I'll stay with the oils I've been using. I'm not having any problems with them, but then again I'm not abusive with my equipment.

Yeah, it could seem expensive, Rudy —

It is not for everybody...

But $81 for a gallon seems like a bargain for me — considering it will do around 500 or more reels. 

Compared to  CX or TSI321 — which are also excellent — it is a good value, IMO.

We just need to find what we are happy with — and the result we wish to obtain.

Most oils are good.  And any oil is better than no oil.  This is just something that I felt was worth sharing for certain members on our site.

Best,

Fred

[Alto Mare]

Biodegradable and resists corrosion... two words you don't see often on the same sentence, or a container

[nelz]

Hey Fred, how does the 191s compare to CorrosionX performance-wise, (price considerations aside)?

[foakes]

CX, TSI321, and WRL191S — are all comparable.

Prices are not that different.

I just like some of the feature points about the WRL191S.

They are all good.

Best,

Fred

[oc1]

So, walking past the lubricant section in the hardware store two words catch my eye.... gum and sludge.  Hey, I have sludge!.  At least I have the thick emulsion stuff that slows down spool bushings.  So I get a bottle.



Some was transferred to a smaller container I keep on the canoe and before heading out some is injected into each bushing of the old Langley knuckle-buster.  The bushing oil ports have been drilled out to accept the oiler tip and I give it a good squirt thinking it will flush the crud out.  The reel casts fine; as well as can be expected.  

So, next trip, I do the same thing with the same result.  Been doing that same routine each outing since about Thanksgiving.  Sometimes some gray/black sludge drips out of the housing from all the oil.  Typically, I would have had to break the reel down for a good cleaning by now.  I hate cleaning reels and don't do it until it starts losing casting distance.  Maybe there is a surprise in there.  Maybe not.  But, it's working.
-steve

[nelz]

That's funny Steve, because the original 3-In-1 is notorious for creating gum and sludge, lol. 

[oc1]

That's funny Steve, because the original 3-In-1 is notorious for creating gum and sludge, lol. 

Yeah, I've used the original... way back and again just recently for kicks.  I could stand it if the viscosity was not so thick.  Coincidentally, that little Shakespeare oil can came to me with "3-1" painted on the side in red nail polish.  I wanted to leave the nail polish but it came off while dissolving the dried oil inside.

-steve

[Pierce]

Normally after I service my car sure there will be a little bit of left over, Castrol 5W-30, good for 15,000 miles 

Used this oil for years in ball bearing, no issue at all.

[Ron Jones]

We used WRL on the boat for some of the wire ropes used in rigging weapons. I always thought it would be good in a reel. It seems to adhere well without having an excessive viscocity,  and it keeps the ropes from binding or heating up.
Actually didn't know you could buy it OTC.
Ron Jones

[steelfish]

thanks Fred for the heads up.


I started oiling my reels with some basic oil from "fishing brands" like penn, berkley, mustad, etc that you can find in wallyword and fishing stores, then I learned a bit more about reel repair and heard about "Black market oil" and started using it with good results, but then I found alantani site and read about Corrosion X which it was/is a lot better so, I switched to CX, I had no complaints with that oil (which I still have some 1oz bottles) but there was a new oil recommendation with lots of benefits, tsi301 and tsi321 oil, so, later I switched from corrosion X to TSi321 and Im still using it on every reel.

now this WRL191S oil seems like a nice option too BUT since the new trend is to use or consume only enviromental safe products, this oil showed by Fred seems like better option if you want to jump on that trend.
now we can advertise to use "when possible" enviromental safe products on our reel cleaning service.

maybe its time to jump to the enviromentalist train.    specially because of its non-toxic quality, that quality really puts it above others reels for indoor/home use when you dont have a proper reel reapair shop and do you reel cleaning inside your home, like me.