Scubapro Reel

[Kristen]

I saw on Divernet that this got a good panning ! Personally, I think this is undeserved. I have never had any problems with my scubapro reel and it is adapted for left handers (like me!). The spool and winder may be a bit small (but then I am never in a hurry to complete my ascent up the line!) but I have found this to be a compact and robust reel.

I thought someone may find an opposing view helpful....

[nickb]

I've had a few of these and get on with them OK. They're no good if you can't wind in with your left hand though as they are not designed to work the other way round.

Be careful if you buy a second-hand one: the reel is made in two parts and the in earlier models were glued together and this could come apart. They've since fixed this by screwing the two halves together.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by nickb

I've had a few of these and get on with them OK. They're no good if you can't wind in with your left hand though as they are not designed to work the other way round.

Be careful if you buy a second-hand one: the reel is made in two parts and the in earlier models were glued together and this could come apart. They've since fixed this by screwing the two halves together.

Any ideas on how to fix the 2 halves together?

Cheers, Paul

[Woz]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Any ideas on how to fix the 2 halves together?

Cheers, Paul

Screws?

[nickb]

Originally Posted by Woz

Screws?

Exactly

I clamped the two halves together and drilled a small tapping hole on either side and screwed in two stainless grub screws.

Scubapro's solution was a little more elegant, with long set-screws going in axially, but it amounted to the same thing.

For those interested here's the story that led to the fix being made:

The problem manifested itself on a drift dive with Tricky a few years back. I had deployed my DSMB at the beginning of the dive and throughout was experiencing difficulty when reeling the line in as the depth varied. The reel seemed to be tightening up and I had to keep loosening off the friction wheel to compensate. I had noticed this happen on earlier dives but thought that it must be due to the line swelling when wet.

When I started to surface this problem continued and got worse. As I loosened off the friction wheel further, the whole thing fell apart in my hands and I was forced to reel-in by wrapping the line around the handle as I surfaced.

When I got home, I took the reel apart to find out what had happened and discovered that the reel was made in two parts, which clearly should have been glued together. These two halves had come apart. As I’d been using the reel, the action of winding line onto it has forced the two halves further apart, which meant that it got tighter to wind in, leading me to loosen off the friction wheel so much that it was barely holding the reel on at all. In the end I unscrewed it completely.

To be fair to Scubapro, I contacted them about the problem and they offered to replace the reel, but I'd already fixed it by then.

[Little Pete]

Sounds a little like the spool dislike that floated around in the Divernet tests a while back.

I think one or two people use spools without problems as well....divernet eh