Adding Heating to a Billiard

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puma122

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hello All,

Apologies if this has been covered before. Does anyone have experience adding a heating system to a non heated Billiard Table? Is it effective to do, or not worth it? Ideas on cost? A good table guy\woodworker able to easily pull this off, or need special experience?

I believe our table was at one time a snooker table, converted to a billiard table. It's a brunswick, with the ashtray's at every corner. (So, thinking it's at least 40 years old) Great rails, awesome cloth. It plays pretty good, would play great if heated. I was just curious. Wanted to throw it out there to the pool hall owner and would appreciate any info I can gather here.

Thanks in advance.
 
A solution?

s-l500.jpg Take a look!
 
Check your local warehouse hardware store for strips of gutter heater (more common on the east coast than the west) Use window screen material to hold it up to the slate between the crossbraces. Easy job.
 
... in any case watch out for the electricity bill afterwards :D
Also you might want to cover your table with some 10cm thick styropor afterwards (when not playing) so it does not lose too much heat to the room.
Thermostate is a must and don't set too high.

Have fun!
 
In my view I wouldn't over-estimate the value of adding heat to slate per se. The rubber cushion carom profile. The cloth that will accentuate the roll and help elongate the angles. The balls that are clean and not degraded below 61.5 mm. That said, heat can make a positive difference not only in reducing humidity but "energizing" the rubber. Good luck.
 
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Steve is exactly right. In a home environment, heating is a waste of money unless the table is in a garage or other unheated area of the house. european tables generally are heated because the rooms are cold during the day (they don't waste energy the way we do). The correct rubber (and angle), tight clean cloth, and clean balls have far more to do with the play of a table than heat. Save your money and buy a custom cue (commercial comment)!
 
The heat is on

88 DEGREES!______These photos are the stimp test results showing the distance the balls traveled after hitting one rail. [long way] A cold table is usually one-half to one diamond shorter. The ball weight is in ounces. STIMP A.jpg

STIMPB.jpg
 
Heating a Brunswick carom table

I have added heating to the Brunswick Medalist in my icon. I am pleased with it and have come to find playing on a heated table is much nicer than playing on a cold one. I have read good reviews of the new Royal Pro cloth that is supposed to play as fast cold as traditional heated tables, but have not any experience with it. That said, a warm slate is more pleasant to play on, in my opinion.

FWIW, here's how I did it on my table.

The method I finally settled on was to drill holes in the frame members about 4-5" below the bottom of the slate surface, into which I inserted dowels which hold up a "heating panel" in each section - 6 sections in all. By removing the dowels, I can drop the panels down for inspection. Panels are Masonite type stuff.

The panels are wired with Nichrome heater wire, can't recall exact gauge, but I used the right gauge and length to end up with 500 watts of heating for the table if turned on full power. I used cement board, like is used behind ceramic tile, to make the pieces that the Nichrome wire goes back and forth between, standing the pieces off about 1 1/2" and putting high temp mineral wool insulation that I got from a friend underneath. I used a thermocouple-controlled PID heater relay.

I keep the table around 86 -88 unless company is coming, then I turn it up a few degrees to low 90s. Around here, electricity is about 15 cents/kw-hr. If the table used full power 24 hours a day, it would cost about $50/mo, but I think $25 is probably more realistic for what it actually draws.

This approach is essentially what I saw in an opened-up Verhoeven, so I duplicated it as best I could with the space available in the frame of the Brunswick to make these hot air boxes. Perhaps overkill? Well, hey! I'm an engineer...it's what we do! It works for me.

I attached a pic of how I did the wiring, hope it helps. If you burn down your house, ....

Good luck with it if you decide to give it a go.

Best regards,

mac
 

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Excellent. Thank you all for your input. It's not my table, it's at a pool hall near my place. It sounds like it may not be worth the expense and hassle of trying to convince the owner to go this route. That new cloth however is interesting...worth pushing for next time the table is recovered!

Thanks again all.
 
puma122.....don't forget about the new Kilby cue....:)
 

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I have a 9ft pro am in my shop. I dont want to heat the shop all the time so Im looking for ways to keep my table warm.. I used to keep my olhausen warm with a small space heater underneath it. The problem with the pro am is there is now direct path for the heat to get to the slate from underneath. There is like 3 layers of spaced out plywood between the floor and the slate so it would never get warm with a space heater.

Do you think an electric blanket on top would be ok.
 
One 40 watt bulb costs about 35 to 40 dollars a year, on 24/7.
....one of these under the table would make a great difference eventually
 
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