Description
With ball bearings you get what you pay for. Fischer Angling has tested all our ceramic reel bearings and believe we have found the highest quality ceramic bearings on the market. This means we’ve looked at a ton of fishing reel bearings from different manufacturers, different countries and from different industries. With Fischer Angling ceramic reel bearings you’ll be confident that you are getting quality bearings at a fair price.
The biggest question everyone has is: are ceramic reel bearings worth it? This question needs to be answered in a couple parts. The first part is how you use your fishing reels. If you rarely wash your reels and don’t have a care about casting distance or how smooth your casts are then the answer is no. If you maintain your reels religiously and want a smoother longer cast then the answer is absolutely they make a huge difference and are worth it. The second part to this answer is focused on longevity. Is it important for you to have bearings that are extremely durable and which will last upwards of 10 times longer than a traditional stainless bearing. If you’ve answered both those questions as yes then you might want to try our ceramic reel bearings.
I install ceramic bearings in all my personal casting fishing reels. I install them at the spool level which means I’ll sometimes install 2-3 bearings per reel. I typically don’t install them in the handles or any internal part not associated with the spool. The reason for this is because I’m looking for a cast that is super smooth and gives me extra distance. If you’re looking for an even smoother performing reel then you can upgrade all your bearings to ceramic but that gets expensive and might not be worth the cost.
Fishing Reel Bearing Basics
Bearing Outer Components
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- Outer Race
- Inner Race
- Shied retainer
- Shield
Bearing Internal Components
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- Balls
- Cage
ABEC Ratings
There are many bearing manufacturers out there who make all types of claims about their high standards and the quality of their bearings. How do you really trust these claims? Because of these discrepancies bearing manufacturers have established standards for quality control and precision of their bearings. The three main rating bodies are as follows:
- Annular Bearing Engineering Committee or Council (ABEC) is a US organization.
- The International Standards Organization (ISO) is an international organization.
- National Standards Organization (DIN) is a German organization.
Here in the US we use the term ABEC for our bearings and many manufacturers importing their bearings must adhere to these standards. The higher the ABEC rating the higher the bearing quality. The following are the ABC Ratings
ABEC 1, ABEC 3, ABEC 5, ABEC 7, ABEC 9.
ABEC 7 bearings are the highest level of bearing for a fishing reel that is affordable. ABEC 9 bearings were originally created for governmental organizations like NASA and the Department of Defense. If you’re finding ABEC 9 bearings for a fishing reel they are more than likely being misrepresented only because these are so rare and so expensive that they make no sense in using in a fishing reel. All Fischer Angling ceramic bearings are ABEC 7 ceramic hybrids.
Ceramic vs. Stainless
Ceramic reel bearings come in a couple types; full ceramic and ceramic hybrids. A full ceramic bearing has a ceramic outer and inner race while a ceramic hybrid will have a stainless outer and inner race. Both have ceramic balls.
Stainless bearings will have all stainless components including the inner and outer race as well as the balls.
Ceramic bearings hold up better to corrosion than a traditional stainless bearing. Ceramic bearings are lighter however this is such a small difference that it’s hardly worth mentioning. But the main difference is the ceramic ball itself. A ceramic ball produces much less friction than its stainless counterpart. This in turn gives allows the ceramic bearing to spin faster which then allows for your spool to spin faster. That is where you get the added smoothness and distance with ceramic reel bearings.
We hope that this was helpful and that you’ll choose us for your fishing reel repair and maintenance services.