Daiwa Certate 4000:You gotta be kidding me!!

[aquaholik]

!!! While dreaming of pulling large snook from area bridges, I finally settled on 30lb braid instead of 50lb braid for better castability. I packed the line really tight and I guessed I must have reeled down to hard. The handle knob came off the handle!!!!!!!!!!. What was more aggrevating was the cheap piece of thin walled plastic design to hold the knob to the handle. Un*******believeable for a $400 reel. I will post better pictures when I get home. Thank god I got it from Cabelas.

[aquaholik]

[Hammer]

Youve got evry right to expect better from a $400 dollar reel. Id be pretty pissed off too. Maybe this is an oppurtunity to upgrade the handle knob ?(even though the existing handle looks pretty good, the big wooden one looks solid)

JT tuning handles

[aquaholik]

It's the design that bothers me. More than a third of the knob rest on that thin plastic sleeve. Grab the knob accidentally too far from the handle and crank down hard and you broke that sleeve. Pop the knob out and you will see what I mean. The daiwa label is attached to that thin sleeve. Pop that out and you can slide the knob out. That is no way to design the knob so that is removable. Use a screw for crying out loud if you want to make the knob removeable. If I want a replacement, a handle upgrade is necessary but not if it use the same mechanism to hold the knob in.

[Hammer]

Yeah your absolutely right. You cant have a load bearing part being plastic. Not like Daiwa to show such a poor design in such a high market reel.

[aquaholik]

You cant have a load bearing part being plastic.

Exactly the sentence I was looking for!!!. 18lb of drag and less than a pound of force is all that is required to break that thin sleeve holding the knob. Hello..... this is the handle that turns the reel!!!!!!!!

This can be easily corrected using aluminum sleeve instead of plastic sleeve.

[Ben R]

bad times, did you return it?

[aquaholik]

Yes, Cabelas shipped it out free and picked it up for free via UPS. After examining it more carefully, I see that the screw holds the sleeve in place but 2/3 of the "T" of the knob rest on the 2/3 of that sleeve and there is nothing but air on that part of the sleeve. Look carefully at the picture and you will see what I mean. I requested a refund because if I accidentally bang that knob, that sleeve will break again since there is nothing supporting it. That is not acceptable in a $400 reel!!!

[Mangomut]

That's unbelievable Lee. I was about to order 2500 Custom. But after this I might reconsider. I wonder if the machined handle has the aluminum or ss sleeve

[aquaholik]

I would say get a 3500HD when they become available unless you are set on a 2500 size. The machine handle might have a different way of fastening the knob on. I have the 2500 that you can try. I only spooled 10lb test spiderwire stealth on it, so drag isn't an issue even though it is butter smooth.

[Reno Reeler]

[font=Trebuchet MS]Ouch! I hope Daiwa does a redesign as a result of your problem.[/font]