Lidl reels - quality

Regular Joined: Jul 26, 2009 Posts: 343 Location: Surrey

Well it's that Lidl fishing tackle time of year again, with a range of inexpensive goodies. I've been wondering about the FS reels and their quality. Reading previous posts the general view is they are not so good, with the occasional opposite view. As to manufacturer, China obviously; my best guess is Weihai/Lucky fishing tackle, who presumably clone other designs. The question is whether the innards are substandard.

Any views, especially from those of you with longish experience of Lidl reels.

Regular Joined: Jul 29, 2008 Posts: 403 Location: Jedburgh

wouldn't have a clue about the quality of the reels mate but was thinking of getting myself one of the baitrunners for £12.99 for a laugh just to see if its any good and if it is i certainly wont complain at that price.

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 8:32 pm

Lidl and quality ... not two words that go together I don't think ... unless you add poor to the sentence.

There's an old adage about if something looks too good to be true it probably is ... it comes to mind when I see Lidl selling tents for a fiver etc

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 10:22 am

i got 1 of the £5 spinning reels last year to pair with my 7ft spinning rod for use on the kayak and occasionally light spinning from the rocks.
my last 1 was a £50 daiwa which i kindly donated to Davey Jones's locker when i capsized my yak angry

so i didnt want to waste too much money if i could.
and so far ive had no problems with it (to be fair though it did have very little use).
the only quibble ive got with it is that the spool is a bit wobbly and doesnt feel like it will cope with anything too big.
but for a fiver you cant expect it to be made of gold can you big grin

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 10:31 am

never bought any fishin gear from lidl
but the old saying works for me
you get what you pay for

if you are out for cheap gear on a tight budget, then its gonna be ok hopefully

JOLIROGER is probably the best person to ask
you are certain to find him in the local poundshop looking for gear rolling on the floor

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 11:04 am

what does everyone think about thier accesories though, particularly thier accessory and tackle packs??

Regular Joined: Jul 26, 2009 Posts: 343 Location: Surrey

The equation between price and value is more difficult to assess these days. I don't think everything from Lidl is automatically cheap and nasty, but very cheap reels do make you want to look very closely. Reels are far better than they used to be, and relatively a lot cheaper (the Daiwa BF5500 can be had for £25 with line, and these are well rated be a few here).

However, there is a limit to reducing price and maintaining quality. Certainly Chinese clones of expensive watches have poor internals and don't last (or even work properly), and this may be true of reels. Clunky works and poor line lay, for example, will make a reel pretty much useless, so any more experiences of Lidl reels would be interesting to hear about.

As for their accessories, I've bought a few and they seem okay. Even had a lot of hooks from them, and these are okay too, if not top quality. The main drawback with the tackle packs is they contain a lot of stuff you don't want, so you have to be choosy. Still, the plastic boxes they come in are quite handy.

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 12:03 pm

the tackle bag is good quality, I got one a couple of years ago... very useful bit of kit. I was stuffed full of plastic boxes that would cost the price of the bag if you bought elsewhere.
I got a couple of their cheap reels, perfectly good for float fishing and spinning....they cost a fiver each....I doubt if the Diawa will be 5 times better or last 5 times longer.

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 3:08 pm

tensenervoushaddock wrote:

I doubt if the Diawa will be 5 times better or last 5 times longer.

Possibly not (though to be honest, I think it probably will!) ... but the Daiwa will have a spares backup if you should break something - i doubt you will ever get any such backup from the Lidl reels.

I'd be the first to agree that you don't have to buy the top of the range to get a good product but there's a limit and a fiver a reel is way, way below that limit - when you pay a price for a product some of that cash goes into features that won't be included in the box, such as customer support and spares supply.

These cheap reels might seem like a bargain but they are actaully a very clever form of low end marketing ... the profit margins for the retailers are extremely good percentage wise (thats why they sell them) and that just goes to show how low the manufacturing costs are. Given that they will be manufactured in China, transported to the UK (with import duty to pay - currently 7.5% I think) and are then sold off at £5 retail .... I doubt they actually cost more than £1 to £1.50 to produce originally - what sort of quality do you think you will get for that I wonder?

The idea behind the whole strategy is that the retail price is so cheap that few people expect them to last and consequently their expectations are not disappointed when the reels die very quickly... for that reason and the low cost, very few punters ever ask for their money back and many continue to buy the same types of product again and again, perpetuating the whole saga.

The proof of the pudding of course is what value you put on a good fish, possibly a once in a life time fish ..... because with one on the end the poor quality of this kind of stuff will show itself - me if i'm ever lucky enough to have (another) double figure Bass on the end of my line i'm fairly confident that the reel giving out will be one less thing I have to worry about. catching fish can be difficult enough at times, I see no point in adding to the difficulties by paying money for scrap made to look pretty.

Regular Joined: Jul 29, 2008 Posts: 403 Location: Jedburgh

i bought a pair of the waders from there last year and have no complaints about them......do just what they said on the tin and pretty strong...slipped on the rocks and more and no tears on them as yet...yes you get what you pay for but cheap isnt always nasty........bet a lot of you would buy a T-shirt from a market stall for a fiver rather than pay for a quality one at say £15-£20 but you know the cheap one will lose its shape after 2 or 3 washes but you would stilll buy another.....come on am i right?

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 5:01 pm

fishhunter wrote:

i bought a pair of the waders from there last year and have no complaints about them......do just what they said on the tin and pretty strong...slipped on the rocks and more and no tears on them as yet...yes you get what you pay for but cheap isnt always nasty........bet a lot of you would buy a T-shirt from a market stall for a fiver rather than pay for a quality one at say £15-£20 but you know the cheap one will lose its shape after 2 or 3 washes but you would stilll buy another.....come on am i right?

i posted a poll on the general forum on just this subject ... asking if people take cheap kit back to the shop or bin it, but for some reason fishing tackle is no longer fishing related in some people's eyes suprise

i was interested to know if those companies that sell cheap stuff really are winning out of the strategy that if tackle is cheap enough nobody will bother to bring it back for a refund when it breaks.

to be honest even as a moderator myself i do wonder about this site i really do?

Regular Joined: Jul 29, 2008 Posts: 403 Location: Jedburgh

What are you on about?

never been back for another pair so yes cheap is good sometimes.....and i think it is about time some of the mods on this site take a seat put up their tired legs light a pipe in front of the fireplace and relax.......sometimes you lot are just so uptight

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 6:08 pm

Tend to agree with fishunter, we all know that you gets wot you pays for , etc., but it's not always true. My mate and I bought one of their beach tents a couple of years ago - not exactly storm proof but then we don't go fishing in storms so ideal to handle the odd light shower and a bt of drizzle. It is still in use so £10 well spent in my view.
Would I use one of their reels for chucking 5 oz sinkers out 100+ yds, no of course not but the little lad who wants to catch a few roach in the local pond would be well pleased I suspect.

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 6:22 pm

one thing i did notice on visiting thier website is that they give a 3 yr warranty with the reels.. it might be that there is little chance of people claiming on that warranty but i expect that there is something to be said for it.

something else that is notible, i am new to fishing but i know a hll of a lot about mountain bikes and similar principles apply if you think of a bike as a reel.

you can buy two bikes from different manufacturers, not aware that the two are produced by the same company. pay 100 pounds for one and 1000 pounds for the other, its the same frame, the only difference between the two is the quality of the additional parts.

graham

Regular Joined: Jul 26, 2009 Posts: 343 Location: Surrey

Lidl are actually pretty good at accepting returns, and if the reels have a 3-yr warranty, that's at least food for thought.

And as GS says, price and value do not always go together. These days the most expensive stuff can have a big chunk of marketing in the price.

Disappointed that reelwizard's poll seems to have been taken down - I just spent time writing a long post. Can we not discuss these things here?