KODA pool balls...Opinions please
- Thread starter hokietiger
- Start date
At the prices i've seen listed they are most likely polyester-resin balls. Poly balls play like crap compared to even the cheapest Phenolics.
This. It's easily worth the extra money for the Dynaspheres.
They are cheap, as are other cheap balls, and no comparison to higher end balls. They are finished with Marbelite, which is a surface coating generally used in flooring and swimming pools.
Only time any of those ball sets should be considered is if they are going to be used on some plywood $200 pool table for kids to play on.
There have been Chinese phenolic balls at similar prices. Looking briefly, I see that most cheap ball sets don't say exactly what they're made of, even if they do say "resin".
How does the playability of the polyester resin balls differ from phenolic?
Polyester balls are generally lighter than phenolic counterparts which can have an impact on how they play..
How about throw and draw?
No idea. I don't own a set or have access to a set to test.
Even "good" poly balls can be manufactured off balance, i.e., weight distribution throughout the sphere is notoriously uneven. I have a 13-ball from an American Heritage high end set that will roll off 1/4 of the width of the table in the length of the table.
Did you go to Tech?
Reduced by a small factor.
The sound from the hit is bad and energy transfer is bad.
Everything is reduced in performance and it chips easily.
I visited a pool room with multiple sets of the cheap stuff, takes a lot more effort for less effect.
I didnt measure it, just spent time shooting around.
Table time is $6 an hour.
Das Cue-Boot
Active member
The other characteristics I've seen are variations in weight and size. That is probably not strictly a function of the balls being polyester, but related to the reason they are polyester-- that the manufacturer is trying to cut costs at the expense of quality and just doing things cheaply. I had a starter set that I just donated to the local senior center where the balls were across the board lighter than the Aramith phenolics by about 7 grams, varied by as much as 8 grams per ball, and varied in diameter by as much as 0.004 inches.
