Yeah , I dont get the whole  "salt water in the bearings " thing  . My rods sit in the holder at the back of the boat ....taking all the spray  and I have never had corrosion in bearings  or anywhere else .....oh only once ...cheap $50-ish Killwell overhead reals ( 2 of ) and all the chrome fell off after the 1st outing and the **** metal went all white powdery .

If a reel has salt on it I run them under a warm tap and actually try to get water in under the spool  and leave them to dry . 

reels are ( Shimano ) Tekota's  7 & 800 ,   and a corvalus , couple of baitrunners ,  a Penn gt320 , and a couple of Abu's ....nothing  flash . The Abu's are the only ones less than 10 years old .

Shame about the Freams ... they look to be zaccery what Id buy ....the 2500  would do me nicely .

Best bang for buck quality real you can buy, imho.

So I thought I might have a look at the Freams especially given that they can be sourced at a good price online. I have suspected that the seals might be somewhat over hyped and its not good to hear the horror stories regards trying to get spares etc.

I recently got myself a Stradic 5000fk which feels great so might look at sticking with Shimano and get a 3000.

Decisions, decisions.....

For the $$$ you cannot look past the  Stradic FK had mine nearly 2 years no problems what so ever. Only real issue I have is drag, its far too much for a small reel but will try crabontex soon.