Vacuuming Simonis

peppersauce said:

I was at my local pool room and the table I was going to play on was pretty dirty with chalk dust. I asked the counter man for a brush so I could clean the table before I got started and he told me they only vacuum the tables because brushing them is bad for the cloth.

I have never heard that before and have no idea where he got that. I've been brushing tables for a long time and that's how I've seen it done mostly. I have seen tables being vacuumed but they were also brushed.

Is there any truth to this? Where could he have gotten this idea?

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My 860 is nearly 3 years old. I will usually give it a vacuum about once a week or after it has seen over 10 or 12 hours of serious play. I used my Rainbow on it the other day after only 10 hours of use and you would be surprised how blue the water was from chalk... my "Masters chalk" is blue and my cloth is green.
With that being said... I think that getting the chalk back out of the cloth is very important as opposed to just brushing it in...

HOWEVER... I ALWAYS give it a proper brushing after the vacuum (in the direction of the break). Those who shoot on my table are surprised that it looks so great after so long with as much hard play as it gets.
My regular Wednesday night group are always commenting on how accurate and responsive the cloth is to taking english and draw, and how true the balls roll. Also the speed is perfect... fast but not too fast.

So I would show this guy that told you that the difference between a good pool table brush and a paint scraper, or teach him how to properly brush a table... cause he's nuts. But if there is no nap left on his cloth then a brush probably isn't going to help it all that much anyway... but if it's fairly clean it won't hurt it.

But I would say it is bad to brush a heavily used table before a good vacuum because it just grinds chalk and dust down into and under the fibers of the cloth where it will be trapped until the next time it is recovered.

I'd say that he got that idea because he waits too long to clean his tables, so all of that filthy dirt, chalk and grim are just too abrasive under a brush.

Brushing just drives the dirt/chalk dust down under the surface of the cloth. Brushing only makes the cloth LOOK clean, it remains just as dirty as it ever was.

Vacuuming (with the drapery nozzle) pulls the dirt/chalk dust up out of the cloth.

Damp Patting of the cloth will also pull the dirt/chalk dust off the surface of the cloth.

I vacuum regularly but brush rarely. Not because I think brushing damages the cloth; it just doesn't get it as clean as the vacuum.

diogenes

My 860 is nearly 3 years old. I will usually give it a vacuum about once a week or after it has seen over 10 or 12 hours of serious play. I used my Rainbow on it the other day after only 10 hours of use and you would be surprised how blue the water was from chalk... my "Masters chalk" is blue and my cloth is green.
With that being said... I think that getting the chalk back out of the cloth is very important as opposed to just brushing it in...

i do both brush and vacuum.

BUT i used blue chalk on my green cloth forever and my hands and shafts would get dirty blue.

somehow i bought a carton of blue chalk and was shipped green instead. well i was out of my old blue, so i decided to try the green, i had just cleaned the table and after a long secession, i noticed my hands were almost clean.

no more blue for me

When I managed Executive Billiards in White Plains, I vacuumed our Simonis covered tables regularly and it worked wonderfully in spite of the know-it-alls who told me this was wrong and was going to ruin the cloth, blah, blah, blah. Go For It!

All this being said, I would try your vacuum on a small portion of the cloth first. There seems to be a pretty wide variety of bristle coarseness & suction strength out there. Better safe than sorry. -Z-

DJSTEVEZ said:

When I managed Executive Billiards in White Plains, I vacuumed our Simonis covered tables regularly and it worked wonderfully in spite of the know-it-alls who told me this was wrong and was going to ruin the cloth, blah, blah, blah. Go For It!

All this being said, I would try your vacuum on a small portion of the cloth first. There seems to be a pretty wide variety of bristle coarseness & suction strength out there. Better safe than sorry. -Z-

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Amen Brother. Run a Shark Rotator on my 3 Diamonds 3x weekly, with 14 teams, Tourneys every other week and free pool Sundays, my Simonis lasts 2 years. I run X-1's over them after the vacuum. I would think brushing would just push the chalk through the cloth. When mine are recovered the top of the slate is always dust free. Brian.

I've used a shop-vac on my table for 15 years. Works great for cleaning the Simonis. :thumbup:

Did the counter-person offer to clean the table after your inquiry? Or lend you the vacuum cleaner? If not, I think he just said it to brush you off (pun intended).

Brushing is the traditional method. Vacuuming is labor saving, especially if you have 20+ tables to keep clean daily.

MitchAlsup said:

Brushing just drives the dirt/chalk dust down under the surface of the cloth. Brushing only makes the cloth LOOK clean, it remains just as dirty as it ever was.

Vacuuming (with the drapery nozzle) pulls the dirt/chalk dust up out of the cloth.

Damp Patting of the cloth will also pull the dirt/chalk dust off the surface of the cloth.

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Try taking a clean brush and brushing your table. Go outside and hit the brush with your hand and see how much chalk flies off the brush. The brush uses static to attract the chalk particles to the bristles.

I vacuum mine, too. Simonis 860 has been going
strong for 13 and a half years. You'd think I don't
play that much, having the same cloth on there
that long, but that's not the case. I was told that I
would need to replace it every 2 or 3 years, but
that's proved not to be true. I don't vacuum it as
much as I should, but I never use a brush. I have
a Rainbow vacuum cleaner with a perfectly flat
attachment that's about 6 inches wide. You add
water to a see through compartment on a Rainbow
vac and you catch what you vacuum in this said
compartment. You should see how blue it is when
I'm finished vacuuming the table...haha.

Horse Hair Attachment

I would recommend using horse hair vacuum brushes only. Less likely to cause any damage to cloth. Then I fine tune with x-1.

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