Had mine for a year and so did a friend (bought at the same time). Within the first month had a grinding in the ball bearings. I don't do any beach fishing at all so i assumed that i got salt inside of it and cleaned it to no avail. A week later my friend's reel started doing the same. Now both of these reels were thoroughly cleaned after each use. Luckily another friend of ours knew a Daiwa rep., and we got all of the internals replace for free. Upon receiving it the worked great.....for about a month again..... I went as far as to replace the "sealed" ball bearings inside with ceramic ones i bought online, which did help, but has not totally absolved the issue with their crappy bearings grinding and locking up.

I use this reel to surf fish. I hooked up to a 3 ft bonnet head shark and while fighting him the gears were popping. I don't know if it's because of the plastic housing but anything with some weight causes the gears to skip and grind.

The reel has a very weak plastic used for reel foot. If you catch a fish 20lb or above, the whole reel will flex at the reel foot. crap

good reel with tons of drag, only down side is the minor flex in the reel seat but that doesn't bother me. really wish there was a braid spool for this one.

purchased the 4000 size for inshore saltwater fishing.I installed it on a star steller lite 7 foot 10-20 lb line rating rod. The reel foot is so thin it is moving inside the reel seat.I do not want to go any lighter on the rod because it won't match properly.My only option is to install some tape or other material to tighten it up,something i do not want to do after spending 215 dollars.