Amazon Ball Cleaner - Any Good?

tableroll said:
U Tube has a home made one that I made. Easy to do using a car polisher. Can do 8 at a time. I use the green liquid Turtle Wax car polish. Works great.
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MitchAlsup said:
I clean my balls using a wet cloth with Mothers car polish (from years ago) and elbow grease.
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Automotive products are the worst thing you can use on pool balls. Especially quick detailer type products. Generally, they make the balls too slick.
 
skor said:
Not really; you don't need to put much power into it to remove chalk spots and then polish with a microfibre. I have the Aramith ball cleaner; I don't think that it does a much better job, but it does take more time and effort.

My set of balls are 20 years old, Brunswick Centennial, and by now they are quite banged up with dings from past usage in pool rooms with shitty pockets and return systems. The tables I play on today at the pool room have nice drop pockets, so it's safer for the balls. Maybe it's time for a new set, but for my level of play these days, I think my old set still works.
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Your set seems to have lost their shine, possibly from the use of the Magic Eraser. This is a set from the 70's cleaned in my ball polisher with a solution of 8 oz. 91% Isopropyl Alcohol to 3 tablespoons Aramith Ball Cleaner.

Hyatt Centennials 1 copy.jpg
 
rexus31 said:
Your set seems to have lost their shine, possibly from the use of the Magic Eraser. This is a set from the 70's cleaned in my ball polisher with a solution of 8 oz. 91% Isopropyl Alcohol to 3 tablespoons Aramith Ball Cleaner.

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I've used the magic eraser about 3 to 4 times and I doubt that that's the cause.
I understand that you sell a cleaning machine, not sure that your marketing technics here really work.
 
skor said:
16 balls is not that big of a difference, Can't see the need for a machine for a home use with one set of balls
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When you spend 4-5 hundred dollars for a top name brand set of pool balls and you want the balls to remain clean, glossy and handsome, you take care of your equipment, i.e., pool balls. Polishing 16 balls individually by hand is a tedious task. Now everyone should already know that polished pool balls exhibit a lot less throw. Nonetheless, for appearance sake, nothing looks better, IMO. And many readers own more than one set of pool balls and cue balls.

For example, I have 6 sets of pool balls and 3 of them are Brunswick Centennials. I rotate 2 sets of Centennials for
play and my 3rd set is brand new sitting on the shelf. The other 3 sets are different Aramith pool balls which I no longer
use much because I’m a big fan of Centennial pool balls. I also have a dozen or more different cue balls and 2 sets of Carom balls. So I really enjoy having a BallStar machine I bought almost 30 years ago. It works great and has only had one repair I had to perform which was replacing the power switch. Getting the part took well over a year because of parts unavailability so to be safe I bought 2 switches in case it ever needed replacement which seems pretty unlikely.

Anyway, back to cleaning pool balls. If your pool balls are only used at home, the need to polish is much less than if you
transport to pool halls. I strictly play Centennials so I have a set with me when I play pool so my pool balls need to be
cleaned more often since I play at pool halls. I like pool halls. The sounds, the ambience, comraderie, seeing different skills of players and of course, the regulars I’ve known for many years. My home table was great for practice but I always preferred pool halls because I’ve been playing in them for over 63 years. I don’t like playing with dirty pool balls.
 

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Bavafongoul said:
When you spend 4-5 hundred dollars for a top name brand set of pool balls and you want the balls to remain clean, glossy and handsome, you take care of your equipment, i.e., pool balls. Polishing 16 balls individually by hand is a tedious task. Now everyone should already know that polished pool balls exhibit a lot less throw. Nonetheless, for appearance sake, nothing looks better, IMO. And many readers own more than one set of pool balls and cue balls.

For example, I have 6 sets of pool balls and 3 of them are Brunswick Centennials. I rotate 2 sets of Centennials for
play and my 3rd set is brand new sitting on the shelf. The other 3 sets are different Aramith pool balls which I no longer
use much because I’m a big fan of Centennial pool balls. I also have a dozen or more different cue balls and 2 sets of Carom balls. So I really enjoy having a BallStar machine I bought almost 30 years ago. It works great and has only had one repair I had to perform which was replacing the power switch. Getting the part took well over a year because of parts unavailability so to be safe I bought 2 switches in case it ever needed replacement which seems pretty unlikely.

Anyway, back to cleaning pool balls. If you pool balls are only used at home, the need to polish is much less than if you
transport to pool halls. I strictly play Centennials so I have a set with me when I play pool so my pool balls need to be
cleaned more often since I play at pool halls. I like pool halls. The sounds, the ambience, comraderie, seeing different skills of players and of course, the regulars I’ve known for many years. My home table was great for practice but I always preferred pool halls because I’ve been playing in them for over 63 years. I don’t like playing with dirty pool balls.
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I don't have a home table. I take a set of balls to the pool room.
With the newer type of chalk, like the Taum V10, I don't feel the need to clean the balls that often.
I'll whipe them down before putting them back in the case with a microfiber cloth and they are good to go, and it's not that my pool hall is very clean...
I'll clean the balls when they look like they need it, which is about every 8 -10 sessions (every session is around 3 hours).
I've always used the Aramith ball cleaner solution, I've tried car wax products but they are not as good in my opinion.
Lately I've started to use the magic eraser which does a great job at removing dirt and then just water and buffing.
 
rexus31 said:
It's an abrasive. One time is enough.
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The jump and break cue do more damage, so does the playing cloth.
you don't need to grind it to get them clean, that's the beauty of it. works great for me.
 
skor said:
I found that using the Magic Eraser with a bit of water does a great job, I stopped using any cleaning products, just the eraser and then microfiber to dry and polish, take a few minutes to get the set nice and clean.
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Yeah that’s a no for me.. a tiny sprey of aramith cleaner and my $40 ball cleaner once a week does wonders.
 
rexus31 said:
Automotive products are the worst thing you can use on pool balls. Especially quick detailer type products. Generally, they make the balls too slick.
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Several years ago I put a single "dab" of said polish on a wash cloth. That same dab has been used more than 50 times × 16 balls (no new polish added), it is well worn, and broken down and no longer give an overly polished surface--just enough to cut the grime not enough to polish, and the wash cloth is nearly worn through.
 
Moe Szyslak said:
Anybody that has one - what is the size of the ball wells? From Amazon videos it looks like there is some space around pool balls even with the wool insert thingies in it.
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To answer your question: I just measured one of the cleaning "circles" on the 16-ball (pool ball) cleaning plate. Using digital calipers I saw a max diameter of 2.348".
 
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