Valley Top Cat, any reviews?

Mikiemopa

Mikiemopa

pechauer dealer
Silver Member
Was wondering if any of you have anything to say about this new table compared to the diamond smart table. The local club sold there two diamonds because everything but the top of the table was junk, not much since of keeping a table the club cant make money off. They are talking about buying a new one(just one) because they were told the problems have been fixed. The biggest problem was getting somebody to work on them. The other club i play at have the new valley regular barbox, but with procut rails and tour edition cloth. they play great and imagine this, no problems.
 
I like the Top Cat. It's nowhere near as nice to play on as a Diamond, but they're a step up from the normal Valley bar tables.
 
Well , the two tables at my local club, the balls get stuck alot, the balls dont come out where they are suppose too, and the coin op is always broke, been fixed several times by the diamond rep that comes around once every six months. So yes JUNK. What would u call a $5000 product that is designed to take in money , but cant bc it always broke, the you cant even get the money back you paid for it and for all the maintenece it needs.
 
Mikiemopa said:
Well , the two tables at my local club, the balls get stuck alot, the balls dont come out where they are suppose too, and the coin op is always broke, been fixed several times by the diamond rep that comes around once every six months. So yes JUNK. What would u call a $5000 product that is designed to take in money , but cant bc it always broke, the you cant even get the money back you paid for it and for all the maintenece it needs.
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The Valley tables are prone to the same problems.
 
I agree they all have problems, but the club has 2 diamonds and two older valleys, never seem to have problems with the valleys taking money, or losing balls, but the diamond play alot better, they have still chosen to get rid of the diamonds. Im just trying to find out if the top cat are worth the more money they cost.
 
Mikiemopa said:
I agree they all have problems, but the club has 2 diamonds and two older valleys, never seem to have problems with the valleys taking money, or losing balls, but the diamond play alot better, they have still chosen to get rid of the diamonds. Im just trying to find out if the top cat are worth the more money they cost.
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I'm not familiar with the costs. Aren't they almost the same price as the Diamonds?
 
easy-e said:
The Valley tables are prone to the same problems.
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I have played on many in out of over 150 tables I have seen or played on I have had 1, exactly 1, that had a coin problem and that one you just needed to really push it in to get it to work. The entire system had been replaced and it still did it so.....

With that said, Valley tables are the most popular around here and thus they are a dime a dozen to have fixed or find parts for. Re-felting a breeze. Replacing the entire ball return, no problem. Replacing the entire coin-op system, 10 mins. There is a reason that they are so popular and much cheaper to own and operate.
 
Well i dont know whats wrong with these two, diamonds has fixed them several time, still keep breaking, they most of made a change over the years with the coin op, because they say the new table wont do it, the biggest problem is getting someone to work on them.
 
easy-e said:
I'm not asking about the old school valleys, I mean the new models. I'm looking at a top cat right now for $5,999.00.
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No offense but....You must be on drugs to consider paying that for a valley over a diamond. There's no comparison. The new valley is better, but it still sucks compared to a diamond.
 
Mikiemopa said:
I agree they all have problems, but the club has 2 diamonds and two older valleys, never seem to have problems with the valleys taking money, or losing balls, but the diamond play alot better, they have still chosen to get rid of the diamonds. Im just trying to find out if the top cat are worth the more money they cost.
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Diamonds apparently have the tightest coin slots too.
 
PocketPooler said:
No offense but....You must be on drugs to consider paying that for a valley over a diamond. There's no comparison. The new valley is better, but it still sucks compared to a diamond.
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I agree 100%, I would never buy a valley over a Diamond. To me it's not even close. I was just comparing prices.
 
Mikiemopa said:
Was wondering if any of you have anything to say about this new table compared to the diamond smart table. The local club sold there two diamonds because everything but the top of the table was junk, not much since of keeping a table the club cant make money off. They are talking about buying a new one(just one) because they were told the problems have been fixed. The biggest problem was getting somebody to work on them. The other club i play at have the new valley regular barbox, but with procut rails and tour edition cloth. they play great and imagine this, no problems.
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The playability of the Top Cat is virtually identical to any other well-maintained Valley. The extra cost is mostly in the electronics. If you are in a pool hall that does not care if the price of a game changes hour to hour or day to day, then you will be wasting your money on a Top Cat.
 
Heres how the diamonds look most of the time. Just to be clear, i think they play great, but if the owner cant make any money off it, why buy it
 

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They have two problems. First is lack of thorough maintenance from the rep, though their schedule may have been known. Second is an apparent complete lack of maintenance from the owner. I've never received official training and ive been able to come up with fixes for nearly everything on mine. RKC gave me all of the other info i needed.

It sounds like the cable is the problem if they're leaving the coin door off. Not sure why they'd ever leave the sensor door off, unless a ball is getting stuck, in which case the housing/track may be off a little or the switch wire has been tweaked.

If the coin mech is sticking, it's in need of grease or shaving. If the balls aren't dropping, it's likely that the cable has loosened or a ball chain broke. Both can be fixed with relative ease if you know how.

That's my slightly experienced take on it anyhow. If you can find out more information on the problems, i would be happy to help out on what needs to be done. Pm with info/pics or post in the mechanics section and im sure you'll find your answers.
 
I honestly never look into the problem, all i know is from club people who say that they have been fixed and broke again, and they have a hard time getting a diamond rep to come work on them, none of the local amusement company will work on them. So they have i believe sold the tables to buy one new one. Not sure where they are getting it from. As far as that little door being off, i believe it is a balls getting stuck issue. I dont play on that table bc most of the rails are dead, and i get tired of looking for balls. The other one has new rails and cloth, plays like a home table where all the balls come down to the end, but the cueball which is a 50/50 shot of going where its suppose to. They just leave a cup there to put the 50cents in.
 
Sounds like they're just being lazy about the tables. That's unfortunate that they'd be willing to plunk down that much money, go through all of the hassle of replacing, selling and buying, but don't want to fiddle with the table themselves. I wonder if the rails are even bolted tight enough. Oh well.
 
Mikiemopa said:
Was wondering if any of you have anything to say about this new table compared to the diamond smart table. The local club sold there two diamonds because everything but the top of the table was junk, not much since of keeping a table the club cant make money off. They are talking about buying a new one(just one) because they were told the problems have been fixed. The biggest problem was getting somebody to work on them. The other club i play at have the new valley regular barbox, but with procut rails and tour edition cloth. they play great and imagine this, no problems.
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I don't know who's worked on those Diamond tables, but I can assure you there is no such thing as a Diamond table that can't be fixed to work correctly, but I can say there are a lot of problems created by customers that feel they can fix the tables that have no idea what they're doing because they don't ask for help from the right resources.
 
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