Ball Cleaning Questions

Agile said:

Uhhh, that’s a cleaner. I’ve used it by hand on the other table I had in Lake Placid. The balls were not as slippery as the cleaner/polish I use in the Ballstar. It would be an interesting comparison to make. I would assume there is some polish in what you are using and most likely your home made cleaner does a better job than my hand cleaning did.

Another thing to try is the Ballstar cleaner/polish in your machine....

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I'm not a fan of the Ballstar solution. It leaves the balls very slippery. The Tiger product is the best I've found when using a machine.

Agile said:

This is true. And, Arimith claims that the Tournament balls have a special formulation that reduces burn marks. I think this formulation, the fact that the 860 cloth is 90% wool as opposed to synthetics which heat up more and the polish put on the cue ball by the Ballstar machine and polish itself are keeping the burn marks away.

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I have standard Simonis 860, Aramith Tournaments, Centennials, and Cyclops all of which were brand new at the same time as the cloth. My cloth is Simonis Green, I started seeing burn marks from breaking almost immediately, 6 years later I have tracks from kitchen to rack and light lines in all the rail grooves. I keep my pool balls in like new condition with my Diamond polisher and Aramith cleaner, I do not need to use the Aramith Restorer on my pool balls.
I am going to recover soon, I am pretty sure I am going to go with Tournament Blue this time but I am definitely going with 860HR next time unless there is a good reason I should not. I think that the darker colors show burn marks much quicker.

rexus31 said:

I'm not a fan of the Ballstar solution. It leaves the balls very slippery. The Tiger product is the best I've found when using a machine.

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Is there such a thing as too slippery?

I never really devoted too much thought to the matter but always presumed the less cling, the better.

Black-Balled said:

Is there such a thing as too slippery?

I never really devoted too much thought to the matter but always presumed the less cling, the better.

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Too slippery and throw doesn't take like it should.

rexus31 said:

Too slippery and throw doesn't take like it should.

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That was more my fault than that of the Ballstar or cleaner...

Mosens said:

Doing some research and would appreciate your input if you have a home table.....

1) How frequently do you clean your balls?
2) What cleaning/polishing products do you use?
3) What cleaning/polishing machine do you use (or by hand)?
4) If using a machine, are you happy with it (why/why not)?
5) If cleaning by hand, would you consider buying a machine (and which one)?
- BallStar
- Diamond
- Bludworth
- Porper
- other


Thanks

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1) Not as often as I should. Maybe once per month. The balls seems to stay cleaner when the humidity is down so in the summer I clean them more often.
2) I use Brillianize. It's a plastics cleaner (not specific to pool balls) which someone on AZB recommended years go. It's worked great so I stuck with it.
3) I have a homemade ball cleaner using a car buffer and bucket.
4) It's loud but it works good enough. I don't see the sense in spending $500 on ball cleaner. The balls aren't even worth that much lol.
5) n/a

Also, sometimes I intentionally play with dirty balls. All of the friction aspects of the shot are amplified which make you much more aware of them. I think it helps a lot during practice. It's kind of like the Filapinos that are used to playing in very humid conditions.

fastone371 said:

I have standard Simonis 860, Aramith Tournaments, Centennials, and Cyclops all of which were brand new at the same time as the cloth. My cloth is Simonis Green, I started seeing burn marks from breaking almost immediately, 6 years later I have tracks from kitchen to rack and light lines in all the rail grooves. I keep my pool balls in like new condition with my Diamond polisher and Aramith cleaner, I do not need to use the Aramith Restorer on my pool balls.
I am going to recover soon, I am pretty sure I am going to go with Tournament Blue this time but I am definitely going with 860HR next time unless there is a good reason I should not. I think that the darker colors show burn marks much quicker.

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I got my table done about 9 months ago with Tournament Blue Simonis 860HR and I have horrible burn marks. I don't use a break cloth because I thought HR was supposed to get less marks which is the reason I chose it.

As far as ball polisher, I have a Diamond double platter ball polisher that I use almost daily with my Aramith Tournament balls. lately I've been using a combo cleaner/polisher I got in a car wash kit from Costco (IBIZ). They come out pretty slippery