Penn 5500 spinning reels - The Hull Truth

The Arcadian · 11-18-2004, 04:52 PM

What is the boards opinion of the Penn 5500 Spinning Reel. I have one and have been very satisfied. I need to buy another but want to be assured I am getting top quality equipment
Thanks Guys

doughnut · 11-18-2004, 05:02 PM

They are good reels (for coffee grinders) for the money. I have one that I let all the people use who have problems with conventionals. Truth be told, I dont do much to it other than hose it off. It keeps going and going

Kid Stuff · 11-18-2004, 07:02 PM

There have been reports of problems with the reverse but it is a simple and cheap fix to replace the dog. I have a few 4500ss that get little care and work well.

jeff · 11-18-2004, 07:12 PM

personally I think the Slammers are better and more durable--no anti-reverse to break which is very common on the 5500 and is a fairly pointless feature...

kmacker69 · 11-19-2004, 10:06 AM

I've had a 4500, 5500, and a 6500 for about 5-6 years now. Never had a problem that wasn't caused by rough handeling. The 4500 and 5500 have been around the world with me and have never failed me. Are there better preforming reels out there? Most likely, but these are rugged, low maintenance, and the few times I've broken them (kickin', falling on top of them on rocky shores, and accidentely putting a 200 lbs cruise box on one) the parts to fix them were easily obtained. Except the cruise box time, that took a few weeks because the mail system where I was deployed was slow as snot and Penn isn't widely used in Japan for some reason... Haven't tried the slammers yet, but the ss have been everything I expected and more...

doyle007 · 11-19-2004, 02:41 PM

i've got one that i use in the surf here in NJ, so it gets wet pretty frequently. i usually rinse it in the kitchen sink when i'm finished with it, and then dry it. it's holding up great. there are a few small corrosion spots, but that's due to me not always rinsing it when it was new.

i had a problem with the bailing arm not wanting to close when i would turn the handle, but i got a new spring, and it seems to work fine. one thing that i do now is to manually close the bailing arm on all spinning rods. i read this somewhere, and it supposedly helps the reel to last longer. we'll see in about 10 years if it works or not.