AKIOS problems and solutions

[last cast lad]

Hi, just to let folks know in case it may be useful to others
I bought an AKIOS 656 CTM from my local tackle shop (lough swilly fly and angling centre), I was very happy with it from the start and to be fair its done lots of fishing but almost always was washed in warm soapy water though not often oiled as it seemed to march on faultlessly (like the hilux on top gear). However after about 18 months of this the anti reverse bearing began slipping (and severly reprimanding my knuckles for being so close to it ) So a proper strip down and thourogh clean was in order, however this revealed that the anti reverse bearing was disintegrating, with the rollers splitting A quick phonecall to akios was on the cards to source a new bearing and enquire what special care was required to prevent this, was I loading too much pressure on it with the drag, etc, The very kind gentleman their explained that initially they did experience this tendancy on an early batch and this could be one of them, and what age might the reel be, I explained it was now out of warranty and in any case I hadn't even bothered to fill out the warranty registration card (which was still in the origional box along with the schemetic for dismantling/rebuilding) At this he kindly gave me an address of their warranty/service centre and offfered to have it fixed free of charge if I would be happy to cover cost of sending it over to the UK.
Just today I received my nice shinney akios back by courier all fully rebuilt and ready to fish

[pete]

Can't fault that service. Have never heard of the Akios brand before, how do you find there stuff generally?

[AG]

all the first lot of akios 656 had a very poor anti reverse bearing fitted , they broke in no time , your seemed to last quite a bit , lets hope they have spent more money and installed better quality bearings

[last cast lad]

Can't fault that service. Have never heard of the Akios brand before, how do you find there stuff generally?

I'd rate them as a decent workhorse, seem to have pretty good build quality otherwise, My experience would put them up as a viable alternative to the penn 525, I usually fish these two reels and would find them comparible, though I,m sure others would have a more quantitive assessment.

[beachcaster]

have to say there service is second to none,guy who does all there work is pete coogan who done all abu work for them.the akios reel is built around the abu style but for me much better stuff in the reels.i own three shuttles and two akios 656ctm reels and have only had a problem with the speed of the reels when first used,but a few changes have now sorted this out.john

[AG]

ive opened a few akios 656 up and i would prefer the abu internals , the akios are a slight bit different , plus after seeing a few akios that have been fished with the outer coating on the end plates seems to be coming offf and makes them look very shoddy indeed ,