Thread: 30lb braid breaking at 8lb

I recently purchased some 2nd reels and wanted to know for sure what their line strengths were, some had mono and others with braid. I first measured the line and compared those measurements with online charts, I also decide to check lines from new pre-spooled reels. Then I rigged a strength tester using a small chain block hang from the garage roof, large fish scales attached to the bottom of the chain block and a 20kg weight to hold the line test pieces in place. The mono lines on all the 2nd hand reels broke more or less at the strengths the online charts stated. The reels with braid however broke far below the rated strength, according to the charts. What I believed to be 30 and 20lb braid broke around 8lb, some of the braid look a little old but one reel had brand new braid which had never been used. Is it normal for braid to break that far below what it should?

Some of the new reels I tested were three new Okuma Revenger reels, the RV30 with advertised 12lb mono, RV55 with 20lb and RV80 with 30lb. No, the 12lb line broke at 8lb, the 20lb broke at 16 and the 30lb broke at 22lb. These results were quite disappointing.

The lines on the new Shimano IX and Fishtech reels I have broke at their advertised strength. Good.