Centenials or aramith's

[3kushn]

The standard Aramith set is crap. I have a set. From day one they barely have any kind of luster to them. Even on a home table, which gets considerably less play than a pool hall table, they wear down quick and get dull. They stain easier too. But you can't complain because they're very inexpensive.

Contrary to what many people do or think, you shouldn't have to, nor should you wax balls. It's actually prohibited by the WPA rules for a reason. It might give you temporary good play, but it wears off and the extremes in play are worse than non-waxed balls. You go from really slick spin madness to dull no action. It's better to just use the Centennials or Super Pros. All they need is a wipe down or an occasional washing with water/soap. They don't need any kind of motorized polishing, compounds, waxing, buffing or any of that until they get really worn and that takes a while even in a pool hall. The fanatical polishing and buffing of these balls by some people probably does more to wear them down than anything else. I don't do that buff them once a week nonsense, yet my balls are clean. I hate skids and I like them shiny and clean just line anyone else. I shake my head when I hear someone elaborate about how they buff them every other day. For a new set of SP's or Centennials to need that even with a good amount of home play would take quite a while. I could bang away with mine for over a year without a wipe down and they'll still be better condition than the balls in 95% of pool halls. Anyhow, rant over.


I use the standard Aramiths only for guests (who launch balls from the table sometimes) and for jump practice (when I launch balls off the table).


I've visited pool rooms that have the standard Aramith set for the bangers, and use Super Pros for tournaments, leagues or when players want to match up. Probably not a bad idea. Let the bangers tear up the cheap balls, which they will. While the Super Pros and Centennials have a superior luster and finish to them that also lasts longer and plays better, I have not found them to be more resistant to chipping or deep scratches.

Since others have quoted Saluc your post prompted me to do as well.

Why it is so important to have clean billiard balls on your tables and why you should always use the proper agent to clean them.

1. Keep the exact same playing features of the billiard balls from game to game, from table to table.
When spin or English is applied to the cue ball, it is partially transferred to the object ball. The importance of the transfer depends on many variables. One of them is the friction coefficient. This friction coefficient depends on the cleanliness of the billiard balls. The only way to keep this friction coefficient constant is to:

Keep the billiard balls perfectly clean
Clean the billiard balls regularly with the proper agent
Always use the same agent to clean billiard balls
2. Reduce cloth wear off.
Clean billiard balls are smoother than dirty billiard balls. It is obvious that clean billiard balls will wear out the cloth less than dirty billiard balls !

3. Increase your pleasure to play.
Clean billiard balls on the tables obviously increase the pleasure to play!

I'm one of those fanatics that keep my set polished. By polished I do not mean waxed. I agree with you that wax is a no no. But there are exceptions and thats when the table hasn't been cleaned for 40 hours of play.

I've played with newly cleaned shiny balls on a dirty pool hall table and in about an hour they look like 5 year old house balls.

 

[Fatboy]

i recently got my own set of Aramith Tournament balls with the measle cue ball, and i really like them alot.

i was just wondering for a pool hall, which balls would be best over time !

Thanks
Steve

I think the tournment balls would be the best, they dont mark up the table with white spots as much-just like they claim, they play better than Centannials(I never thought I wold say that), they are the best balls I ever used. I know cost on Centennials are about $150, I dont know about the Aramith Tournment balls cost-probably around the same.

 

[greyghost]

The centennials. Better visuals during play, and more points to use for aiming.