I have a love/hatre relationship with my Penn 4400's. I love the fact that the drag is smooth and powerful and that the reels are easy to maintain. I love the fact that any shop in the US has parts for it right there.
I hate the fact that the drag washer against the brass of the spool catches salt which corrodes the spool if you don't wash it religiously by removing the drag at least every few trips and cleaning out the spool. I hate the fact that 4400's will cause line to loop over the drag knob if you don't watch carefully when you are lobbing an easy cast into the wind.
On the other hand I fish a lot and catch a lot of fish on spinning reels; 80% of those spin fish are caught on either of my penn 4400's which I have had for 4 and 5 years respectively. They have each had parts replaced; once has been upgraded in the factory by Penn for a design defect in the anti-reverse, one sounds like a coffe grinder at times, but the suckers keep on trucking. If I hook a serious fish ont hem I have complete confidence the reel won't fail me.