[Frichie79]

Since this year is flying, Im already thinking about christmas presents.

Going to hope some nice relative will buy me a fancy reel, prefereably with engravings

So Poll above, comments below.

Would like to hear which are the best and why. If I have missed any others, feel free to mention.

Some factors to consider:

Ease of use?
Weight?
Line Capacity...
Chance of problems, jamming, entanglement etc?

 

[Digger]

You've missed out Manta. Best balance of all of the above factors for me.

Digs.

 

[GordyP]

I like my Kent tooling reel:

Pros:
It will never disintegrate like crappy beaver reels
It has yet to jam or tangle in about 300 dives
Its shiny
Its shiny

Cons
Its weighs a lot.
Its a bit bulky

 

[12480]

Just picked up a second hand manta for Mrs me, it seems a good option, the handle springs could be a bit firmer, may have to tinker with that a little.

Me? Spools all the way, fool proof and cheap.....

 

[Richie]

I like my Kent tooling reel:

Pros:
It will never disintegrate like crappy beaver reels
It has yet to jam or tangle in about 300 dives
Its shiny
Its shiny

Cons
Its weighs a lot.
Its a bit bulky

As he says.
My real gripe is that when diving without gloves it takes the skin off my knuckles - and no I don't have fat hands

 

[Daniel Taylor]

Is there much difference between a finger spool and a Beaver reel?
Every Beaver that I've ever had has had the handle snap off and the spring go. Therefore I can only assume that they were always intended to be wound and held in place by hand

 

[Two Hats]

All depends what you are using it for.

If it's as a guideline (from the shot, through a wreck etc.) both the Manta and the Halcyon/Salvo/Diverites are good. Also depends if you want a side handle, or a normal handle.
For SMB deployment, I always used a 30m spool, but used to deploy from 21m, rather than the bottom. There are 45m spools, but I would be bored by the time I was finished winding that in.
Having seen the KT reels in the flesh, I wouldn't personally go for one of those. Whilst they are superbly engineered, they are far too heavy for my liking.

Beaver. I had one, and the clip parted company from the reel, costing me a reel

Think about what you are going to use it for mostly, and base your decision on that.

 

[Frichie79]

It would be for a guildline, I have a little finger spool for DSMBs.

Have held a KT reel in the flesh and while very solid (ie read weighed a ton) I found it too heavy and over complicated with mechanisms and locks.

I like the look of the CD ratchet reels, neat and compact, but Damn forgot about Manta also worth a test....where would the fit in the weight range. heavier than CDs and lighter than KTs?

 

[PeeBee]

I love my KT 75m reel, it's indestructable and you only ever need to buy once. I looked at the manta before I bought my KT and they are good pieces of kit but if you don't mind the weight the KT is the donkey's...

 

[James-S]

I've got a Custom Divers reel like this:

It's great for a DSMB, because you just twist a knob (snigger) and it is free, but I wouldn't imagine it would be the most practical reel for anything else, even like a SMB, because you would have to keep twisting the knob all the time instead of just pushing a lever or whatever.

 

[Frichie79]

I love my KT 75m reel, it's indestructable and you only ever need to buy once. I looked at the manta before I bought my KT and they are good pieces of kit but if you don't mind the weight the KT is the donkey's...

Unless you lose it in Scapa

 

[purple vonny]

I've got a few reels and a spool but the one I use most is my big old McMahon reel. It's great if you are new to to deploying SMBs too, lovely to wind in. I also like the little custom divers pocket ratchet reel but it'sa a bugger to wind in from depth because the handle is small.

 

[Baron015]

I recently got a KT 150m ratchet reel and I love it to bits.

Yes it is heavy but then so is everything else I am carrying - torch batt, camera, stages, suit inflate, so I don't really notice it once clipped on.

And it's really shiny. And I can definitely send it up from the bottom if I want/need to.

TB.

 

[Frichie79]

Ooh they even offering the best of both worlds

Manta Reel with KT SS spool....Niiiice

Diving Products - Ratchet Reels Bottom Right corner.

What I like about the Manta is the finger trigger mechanism

 

[Hodge_Close]

Manta with cave cam is a good reel.

 

[MatHendery]

MGE reel- impossible to jam

 

[Digger]

It would be for a guildline, I have a little finger spool for DSMBs.

Have held a KT reel in the flesh and while very solid (ie read weighed a ton) I found it too heavy and over complicated with mechanisms and locks.

I like the look of the CD ratchet reels, neat and compact, but Damn forgot about Manta also worth a test....where would the fit in the weight range. heavier than CDs and lighter than KTs?

Aaaah, now that is a different question.

If you want a reel for laying line, you won't do much better than a Kent Tooling friction reel with scooter handle. Well engineered, nice and simple, and available in a range of sizes for almost any application.

Get pink or bright green line on it as well, so you can see it in UK conditions.

The Manta suggestion only holds water for me as a line laying and DSMB reel - if you just want to lay line, get the KT friction.

Digs.

 

[Hodge_Close]

Aaaah, now that is a different question.

If you want a reel for laying line, you won't do much better than a Kent Tooling friction reel with scooter handle. Well engineered, nice and simple, and available in a range of sizes for almost any application.

Get pink or bright green line on it as well, so you can see it in UK conditions.

The Manta suggestion only holds water for me as a line laying and DSMB reel - if you just want to lay line, get the KT friction.

Digs.

+1

 

[Woz]

Unless you lose it in Scapa

By now I'm amazed there isn't a pile so big they have to mark it on charts as a shipping hazard. I have the following:

100m KT ratchet (well made but heavy)
150m OMS Cavern (excellent for line laying)
3 x 65m NAS reel (best of the plastic reels)
2 x 50m spool (one I use all the time for DSMBs)

Reels I have used in the past:
MGE (old one)
MGE (new one with random trigger. Yuk)
Beaver (dropped to bits)
McMahon (stupid thing locks if you press the trigger too far)
125m KT ratchet (languishing somewhere near SMS Dresden, Scapa)
Custom Divers (didn't like that knob thing at all)

I'm a spool convert. I think this year I've laid line with the OMS in shitty viz on the Aeolian Sky and fired blobs with my spool lots of times, especially after losing repeatedly at paper-scissors-stone in Shetland.

 

[12480]

you only ever need to buy once.

until you drop it, global warming has nothing to do with sea levels raising it is the amount of KT reels that have been dropped that is causing this particular phenomenon