ruined my super aramith's today

trob

trob

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Well it's a boring snowy day so I thought I'd take the chance to clean my equipment today before I spent my day playing pool. Normally I just use water and a cotton shirt but because I have some black marks on them from the new drop pockets I installed I decided to use a household cleaner. No the whiter areas on the stripes have a discolored yellowish sploches on them damn.. funny thing is this morning i made an offer on a set of centenials that got accepted lol anyway...If anybody wants a set of super aramith pro's real cheap give me a yell. lol I never in a million years thought a household cleaner would harm a set super aramith pro's
 
trob said:
Well it's a boring snowy day so I thought I'd take the chance to clean my equipment today before I spent my day playing pool. Normally I just use water and a cotton shirt but because I have some black marks on them from the new drop pockets I installed I decided to use a household cleaner. No the whiter areas on the stripes have a discolored yellowish sploches on them damn.. funny thing is this morning i made an offer on a set of centenials that got accepted lol anyway...If anybody wants a set of super aramith pro's real cheap give me a yell. lol I never in a million years thought a household cleaner would harm a set super aramith pro's
Click to expand...

Which cleaner was it? I use Windex once in a while on mine - never had a problem.

Chris
 
trob said:
Well it's a boring snowy day so I thought I'd take the chance to clean my equipment today before I spent my day playing pool. Normally I just use water and a cotton shirt but because I have some black marks on them from the new drop pockets I installed I decided to use a household cleaner. No the whiter areas on the stripes have a discolored yellowish sploches on them damn.. funny thing is this morning i made an offer on a set of centenials that got accepted lol anyway...If anybody wants a set of super aramith pro's real cheap give me a yell. lol I never in a million years thought a household cleaner would harm a set super aramith pro's
Click to expand...

Can you post the info on what cleaner you used and maybe some pictures to show what happened?

I noticed you called dibs on the balls, I was looking at them also.

I dont have a table yet but I want to get a nice set of balls in advance. The way my house is set up its long and narrow so I have to get a bigger house to have a table.
 
I did something similar. I used floor wax remover on a set of Centennials and thought that nothing would remove the yellow color in the balls. Tried everything I could think of for about one year. Nothing seemed to work.

Then I used Aramith ball cleaner in my new mechanical ball polisher. I put a drop on each ball and spun for about two minutes and then wiped off the cleaner with a towel. Repeated about five to ten times and the yellow stains came out. The balls diameters did not reduce as measured by a caliper.

I don't think it matters what machine you use. I do think that Aramith cleaner and several applications will remove the yellow stains.

After about two repetions I noticed that the stains were starting to come out. That is why I continued repeating. I don't really remember how many times I repeated but it was several times over two or three days.

I also bought a new set of balls and use my old Centennials as a backup set. Someone noted that it is a good idea to change the set of balls after using for a few hours. In this way it is not necessary to stop and clean the balls after a few hours of use. Now I clean both sets the next day.

In addition I have learned that it is best to let a set of balls sit for 30 minutes (two hours is better) after cleaning. If you don't wait a bit the wax doesn't harden and you get some whithish spots in the balls from not so dry ball collisions.

Hope that helps.

BTW I suspect, but don't know, that most older sets of balls could be restored in this way. Anyone looking for a good cheap mechanical ball cleaner should see MrEightball. He sells them now and he posts here on the forum.
 
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Comet

I know that from personal experience that Comet can create stains on phenolic pool balls.

I remember the stains being reddish rather than yellowish, but it could be due to the brand.

Best of luck in the removal, I do remember the ball polisher and floorwax remover taking most of the stain out.

If JoeW had success getting all the stain out w/ Aramith cleaner, then I'd follow suit.
 
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trob said:
Well it's a boring snowy day so I thought I'd take the chance to clean my equipment today before I spent my day playing pool. Normally I just use water and a cotton shirt but because I have some black marks on them from the new drop pockets I installed I decided to use a household cleaner. No the whiter areas on the stripes have a discolored yellowish sploches on them damn.. funny thing is this morning i made an offer on a set of centenials that got accepted lol anyway...If anybody wants a set of super aramith pro's real cheap give me a yell. lol I never in a million years thought a household cleaner would harm a set super aramith pro's
Click to expand...

I tried dishwasher detergent straight from the bottle to clean an older set of centennials that were already yellowed. The ball that was experimented with turned a darker shade of yellow:frown:, probbaly from the chlorine bleach reacting with the phenolic. But like Joe said, Aramith makes a ball cleaner and also a product called ball restorer. Both products remove the yellow but the restorer removes it more rapidly. However it does take repeated applications.
 
D_Lewis said:
Can you post the info on what cleaner you used and maybe some pictures to show what happened?

I noticed you called dibs on the balls, I was looking at them also.

I dont have a table yet but I want to get a nice set of balls in advance. The way my house is set up its long and narrow so I have to get a bigger house to have a table.
Click to expand...

dude, pool balls are way too big to use as anal beads. stop using the pool table excuse and cut it out.


:grin-square:
 
trob said:
Well it's a boring snowy day so I thought I'd take the chance to clean my equipment today before I spent my day playing pool. Normally I just use water and a cotton shirt but because I have some black marks on them from the new drop pockets I installed I decided to use a household cleaner. No the whiter areas on the stripes have a discolored yellowish sploches on them damn.. funny thing is this morning i made an offer on a set of centenials that got accepted lol anyway...If anybody wants a set of super aramith pro's real cheap give me a yell. lol I never in a million years thought a household cleaner would harm a set super aramith pro's
Click to expand...

You might want to try rubbing them with white vinegar. I remember on our old white ceramic tile, the only thing that would take out dye stains and hard water rust stains was white vinegar - the stuff really worked and it was about the only thing that worked.

Chris
 
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Just got down from cleaning my balls. Again. My girlfriend says I do it way too much.

Anyway, I read on one of the posts that Brillianize was the way to go. Guess what, it is THE WAY TO GO. I also have the Pro Aramith.

I use a ball cleaner made up following the directions on these forums and they come out perfect. Easy. Ready to play. No static.

I tried the Aramith cleaner and to me... it just made a mess. Probably good to polish with when they are scratched, etc. get out the yellow - but for everyday cleaning?

http://www.brillianize.com/
 
I used simple green on mine and they cleaned up nice(even removed the dark spots on the balls)from my pockets(diamond table)Then used mothers car wax on them and they play like new.
 
JoeW said:
I did something similar. I used floor wax remover on a set of Centennials and thought that nothing would remove the yellow color in the balls. Tried everything I could think of for about one year. Nothing seemed to work.

Then I used Aramith ball cleaner in my new mechanical ball polisher. I put a drop on each ball and spun for about two minutes and then wiped off the cleaner with a towel. Repeated about five to ten times and the yellow stains came out. The balls diameters did not reduce as measured by a caliper.

I don't think it matters what machine you use. I do think that Aramith cleaner and several applications will remove the yellow stains.

After about two repetions I noticed that the stains were starting to come out. That is why I continued repeating. I don't really remember how many times I repeated but it was several times over two or three days.

I also bought a new set of balls and use my old Centennials as a backup set. Someone noted that it is a good idea to change the set of balls after using for a few hours. In this way it is not necessary to stop and clean the balls after a few hours of use. Now I clean both sets the next day.

In addition I have learned that it is best to let a set of balls sit for 30 minutes (two hours is better) after cleaning. If you don't wait a bit the wax doesn't harden and you get some whithish spots in the balls from not so dry ball collisions.

Hope that helps.

BTW I suspect, but don't know, that most older sets of balls could be restored in this way. Anyone looking for a good cheap mechanical ball cleaner should see MrEightball. He sells them now and he posts here on the forum.
Click to expand...

http://www.abctables.com/ballcleaner.htm
 
pocketpared said:
RKC advised me not to use any cleaner containing ammonia.
Click to expand...

He told me that plain hand sanitizer was best for cleaning the black marks off balls. And use Mop & Glow (or Kiwi liquid black polish) on your pockets to correct this problem of having the leather dye transfer to the balls. I'm going to try both methods. I hate having to clean all the balls so often.
 
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