I fish trions, curados and many oldschool abus. I have never had a reel lock up on me. I never let a reel get submerged either.

here's the simple explanation to why steelheaders have reel problems.

these reels are meant to be fished by bass/walleye guys.

there seems to be NOT A REEL DESIGNED FOR STEELHEADERS! steelheaders are forced to use reels not designed for cold wet weather. steelheaders seem to be the ONLY group of fisherman to drop their reel/pole on purpose into the river for a pic.

new reels should not lock up or need any sort of upgrades period. over yearrrrrrrs of use and abuse yea things will wear and need some parts replaced.

I had a reel maintenance contact back east. he told me that he did hundreds of reels for the region bass/walleye guys every winter. he said it was customary to replace the wear tear parts. once the lakes back east freeze over those guys nolonger use the reels so they would just have them serviced. he was shocked to hear about our big heavy rivers out here.

out here guys fish their reels hard all year long on very big fish in very harsh conditions. so reels out here get put through the ringer.

as for why the problems in new reels are occurring, my guess is mass production in hokey foreign countries where the QA may be very poor.

just MHO.