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.