[GOTY]

Bought my first hardy and am curious about maintenance moving forward.

Its the new model, the wide spool, not sure if that matters or not.

How often do you guys grease it up? Clean it? Etc...

Also, I swapped out my running line and noticed that the backing was still wet the day after fishing, so I assume I should be drying that out more.

Thanks

 

[buff]

I think it does matter...

I clean, dry and lube my reels after every outing. I have some older Perfects, nothing close to new, (some are 80+ years old) and I do the "daily cleaning" with them as well. I fish rivers with tidal flow, so salt is my enemy. I use some old line winders to remove the lines and backing, and give them a swish in clean water. The rinsed backing dries overnight. The backing can retain moisture for a long time, and if it dries on the reel, any salt remains behind. So, over a period of time the amount of salt increases. Lots of old leaded reels show corrosion on the inside of the drum at the "backing mark". Corrosion is preventable!

 

[Hardyreels]

Hi,

I may be among a minority in saying this but if you don't dunk that fine reel into the water your problems will be few. I don't dunk and I don't get them full of sand and junk so I have had little trouble. I'm not saying that getting them wet is terrible but they are not like todays sealed drag reels. I have one that I've used for 3 years and when I had it apart this past November there was no need for anything other than putting it back together. So......... don't dunk your Perfect unless by accident.

 

[GOTY]

Hi,

I may be among a minority in saying this but if you don't dunk that fine reel into the water your problems will be few. I don't dunk and I don't get them full of sand and junk so I have had little trouble. I'm not saying that getting them wet is terrible but they are not like todays sealed drag reels. I have one that I've used for 3 years and when I had it apart this past November there was no need for anything other than putting it back together. So......... don't dunk your Perfect unless by accident.

Thanks for the info. I have a problem in that I'm always roping chromers, so each time I land a fish it naturally gets dunked.

 

[Onesunca]

Thanks for the info. I have a problem in that I'm always roping chromers, so each time I land a fish it naturally gets dunked.

"...always roping chromers...", I want more of mn44's problems with MY reels!

 

[Fish Tech]

I also recently acquired a new Hardy Perfect wide spool and plan on caring for it like I did for my Korean made Hardy Bougle which was built to extremely close tolerances .

I fish several days a week (in season) and frequently laid the rod & reel next to a fish in shallow water for a quick photo. After every day on the river I strip the head & part of the running line off the reel, dry it and apply dressing if needed. Then I wipe the reel off with a rag that I spray with WD-40.

Once a month I take the reel apart, wipe off all the old grease, dirt, etc. and apply fresh grease & oil as shown on the instruction sheet that comes with the reel.

Very low maintenance required IMO with these Hardy reels.

 

[Marcel]

I picked a new Perfect too...I plan to fish it and do nothing special (air dry) to it after a day on the water. Same as my Ables, Hatches, other Harty, have never had issues, never striped line or done any daily/monthly maintenance. Maybe check lube once a year.

For those of you who strip line to dry backing or regular clean & lube what damage or problems are you preventing? Maybe I need educating.