Customer Reviews

Zebco 33PL Platinum Series Spincast Reel

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

We bought 2 of these to replace our Zebco 33s (the Plastic crumbled away). These Platinums were advertised as "all Metal".. Not True.
They appear to have the same plastic part that fell apart in old reels.
Time will tell how they last. They do cast nicely.

I bought this reel because it was made of metal, and my wife has one and it has worked well.

Reel #1: Worked well and was smooth, although I was not able to cast as far as I could with my old Shakespeare. About 30 minutes into fishing I cast and the reel made a pop noise, I am not sure what happened, and I was not able to removed the cover. I could not reel line in or pull line out. I was not happy, but decided to give it another shot.

Reel #2: On the second cast when I was reeling the line in I noticed it was not working properly, I removed the cover, and noticed the line was going under the drum, and was wrapped all around under the drum. While I was working that line out whatever held the drum on broke, and everything came apart. Very disappointed.

It is possible that the line it came with is causing some of the problems, it is called Cajun line and it is stiffer than regular line, but they should have tested that before selling the reel with that line. I am going to have to buy another brand of reel now. I am by no means an expert, but have been fishing my whole life, and not had any problems like this. My regular reel is a cheep Shakespeare Ugly Cast and it has lasted for 7 years. I was hoping this would be a good reel, as I cannot find another metal one for comparable price.

I have owned an old 33 for more than forty years;still works,though the gears show some wear.So I bought a new Platinum 33.Two years old now and it is totally unusable.Has a click in the cover;I think it's the line pick-up pins?A small clip behind the line release button broke free.Line does't release properly;just a few feet at a time then hangs up.It's the last zebco I will buy.I'm considering a Diawa spincast. P.S. I lied, I did buy another Zebco 33(On E-Bay).A 1975 Zebco 33 sold at K-Mart,still had the store sticker on the original box.You can still buy good used Made In AMERICA reels that will still out last new made in China junk.

Should be zero stars. I used to get great results from the old Zebco reels. Since China took over, they are junk. A chain is no stronger than its weakest link. This reel may have metal gears and casts well when it works (if you replace the Cajun line), but it does not matter if the thumb button is all plastic and breaks after a couple uses. The last two did this to me with very little use. I will not buy another one. Waste of money.

line wraps around the post under the drum. Drag quit working...called zebco cust svc...won't
give me any idea how much it would cost to fix. Probably cheaper to buy another one.

very very disappointed. this lasted less than a year.

I BOUGHT 2 OF THE PLATINUM 33 BACK IN 2004 AND HAVE USED THEM ALOT!!! HAVENT HAD ANY PROBLEM WITH THEM AND HAVE DEFINITILY GOT MY MONEY OUT OF THEM AND THEN SOME. I HAD HEARD SOME REVIEWS ABOUT THE LINE THAT CAME ON THEM AND I WOULD AGREE ITS PROBABLY NOT THE BEST FISHING LINE ,BUT IF YOU CAN MAKE IT PAST THAT AND PUT SOME NEW LINE ON THEY WILL SERVE YOU WELL, AND ZEBCOS CUSTOMER SERVICE IS AWESOME ALMOST EVERY TIME I HAVE TALKED TO THEM ABOUT ORDERING A PART THEY HAVE GAVE IT TO ME FOR FREE.THE PLATINUM IS, AT LEAST FOR ME THE ABSOLUTE BEST IN ITS PRICE RANGE.

I tried this reel with yellow braided line. The drum attracted and started to build up with the coating / coloring of the line. This stopped the reel from casting more than 60 feet reliably. I have had to take it apart and clean the drum over and over hoping that the problem will eventually work itself out. Little luck so far. Seems this reel was only tested with the mono line that comes with it. Spare yourself the headache.