How often do you get a new ball?

[Blomer]

Fairly new to bowling, about a year and a half. Just curious how often you get a new ball and when. When I started in Sept/October of 2013. I bought my first ball. Then this past summer I bought 3, a spare ball, Optimus and Hy Road solid. Now in 2015 I won one on here and then bought one Friday when I got the one I won drilled. I'll probably be set for a while, but maybe not. I think my arsenal is pretty solid but just maybe something will catch my eye. On the other hand, I see guys in my league bowl with balls they have had for years.

[jab5325]

Once I build my arsenal back up, I plan to buy a new one every 3-4 years--that's what I always did previously. I'm buying more now because I need to build it back up.

There are guys in my league who get at least 1-2 balls per year, and there's others who still use old Columbia White Dots and the original Blue Hammers.

My tournament partner averages 210 with a 10-year old Ebonite, and two years ago, he averaged 221 with the same ball.

[vdubtx]

For me, it depends on how many games I am putting on the balls and how they are reacting on the lanes after a certain point where neither a de-oil or a resurface will bring it back to life. Have had several balls go dead before. I can usually squeeze 400-600 games from a ball since I keep up with cleaning and touching up surfaces pretty regularly. Hadn't been able to touch up surfaces too much in the past 8 months living in temporary housing and then finally moving into a new home and dealing with getting stuff situated etc. Soon though will be able to get back to a regimen of touching surface up every few weeks at home.

[Amyers]

A lot of this depends on how much you bowl and what kind of bowling you do. If you are just a once a week bowler in a single house you could get by with two regular balls and a spare ball and keep them for years and never be at a disadvantage. If you bowl in multiple houses and multiple times a week that number you need goes up. If you are going to bowl competitively in tournaments and competitions that number goes up again. I can realistically see having 10 balls for a big tournament bowler, for the guys that bowl in a couple of different houses 4-6 would most likely do, lastly for the once a week guy 1-2 is perfectly adequate.

As far as how often to replace it varies from type of ball to how often you use it. To be honest most of us who are really into the game have more balls and go through them faster than we have to but the new shiny ones on the shelves always look so nice . I have a lot of friends who have 20 plus balls, I'm not there yet but my whole family bowls wife and 2 daughters I'm getting ready to build a rack in my garage to hold them.

[RobLV1]

There are three basic reasons for buying a new bowling ball: to replace something that has worn out, to take advantage of new technology, or just because you want to try something different. Once you get a basic understanding of the components of modern balls, you can easily tell if a ball embraces some new technology or not. If you are using a ball that is seven or eight years old, it is safe to say that a new ball will have some technological advances. If you want to replace a ball that has worked for you in the past with something similar, if you do your homework, you can usually do it easily.

An example: One of the most popular balls that Storm has made in the past several years is the Frantic. It was mid-range ball featuring the Hybrid R2S cover material, and a symmetrical core with a low rg of 2.53 and a differential of .044. If you loved your Frantic, but it has lost some of its former glory, a little research will show you that the new Storm Rocket utilizes the same Hybrid R2S cover material, and though the symmetrical core is slightly different, the low rg of 2.54 and differential of .046 are very similar.

Take the time to learn the basics of bowling balls and I think that you will find that you will make fewer purchases that are much more effective.

[foreverincamo]

Sometimes it's just fun to try a new ball....Or 6. Told my wife I'm getting the Rhino Gold Vintage. She just sighed. Too funny

[swingset]

Agree it's very subjective, but for me bowling 2 or 3 nights a week I tend to retire a ball every year or so, add another about the same schedule. At any given time, I have 8-9 floating around including a couple spare balls.

I buy a lot of NOS balls of ebay or gently used ones, as it's a good way to build or keep an arsenal going without spending too much, I don't think balls have changed in any significant way in the last 10 years...so newer is mostly about color & name to me.

[rv driver]

Agree it's very subjective, but for me bowling 2 or 3 nights a week I tend to retire a ball every year or so, add another about the same schedule. At any given time, I have 8-9 floating around including a couple spare balls.

I buy a lot of NOS balls of ebay or gently used ones, as it's a good way to build or keep an arsenal going without spending too much, I don't think balls have changed in any significant way in the last 10 years...so newer is mostly about color & name to me.

My PSO rolled his eyes and stated that, for most bowlers, it's all about color and brand; that most bowlers will never realize the subtle performance differences between balls.

[jab5325]

Sometimes it's just fun to try a new ball....Or 6. Told my wife I'm getting the Rhino Gold Vintage. She just sighed. Too funny

I've made a deal with my wife: For every dollar I spend on bowling balls/equipment, she can spend an equal amount on shoes.

[Aslan]

I buy a lot of NOS balls of ebay or gently used ones, as it's a good way to build or keep an arsenal going without spending too much,

I've seen no real advantage in buying used. Most balls on Ebay cost at least $30 and another $25 to ship. Thats $55 for a used ball...minimum. More popular balls you could pay closer to $75 + $25 shipping. Comparatively, you can get first quality, brand NIB balls that were released last year for like $79 with free shipping.

I don't think balls have changed in any significant way in the last 10 years...so newer is mostly about color & name to me.

My PSO rolled his eyes and stated that, for most bowlers, it's all about color and brand; that most bowlers will never realize the subtle performance differences between balls.

Agreed and agreed.

One of the most popular balls that Storm has made in the past several years is the Frantic. It was mid-range ball featuring the Hybrid R2S cover material, and a symmetrical core with a low rg of 2.53 and a differential of .044. If you loved your Frantic, but it has lost some of its former glory, a little research will show you that the new Storm Rocket utilizes the same Hybrid R2S cover material, and though the symmetrical core is slightly different, the low rg of 2.54 and differential of .046 are very similar.

Interesting. I didn't know the Frantic was one of their more popular releases. But, now that I think about it...I bought mine at the tail end of it's popularity.

For me, it depends on how many games I am putting on the balls and how they are reacting on the lanes after a certain point where neither a de-oil or a resurface will bring it back to life. Have had several balls go dead before. I can usually squeeze 400-600 games from a ball since I keep up with cleaning and touching up surfaces pretty regularly.

Agreed. I simply make my decisions based on games. It's difficult with my low rev release to tell when a ball has "died" so I just start an arsenal from scratch at X # of games and then when I've hit Y # of games I do a wholesale switch. I've only retired one ball, and that was my Storm Frantic after bowling about 1000 games. The problem is; once you become an "arsenal bowler"...not all those games are using that particular ball. I probably only bowled about 300 games with the Frantic over that 1000 games of bowling. Vdub's # of 400-600 is probably a good estimate...but if you have an "arsenal"...then you might extend that out a bit to take into account that you're not ALWAYS throwing that one ball.

I plan to replace my current arsenal when my game count hits roughly 2000 games. I think last I checked I was at somewhere in the high 1600s. As to actual games on each ball....currently:

Bullet Train: 109
Rhythm: 378+
Slingshot: 160+
Encounter (A): 113
Encounter (N): 137

If everything works out perfectly, by the time I hit 2000...each ball will have 400-600 games on it. However I'm skeptical that the Encounters will reach 400. Thus far they just haven't really worked out. And starting in November I switched systems so I now progress differently through the balls than I used to...which is going to add many more games to the Bullet Train and Rhythm than it will to the Encounters and Slingshot. My rev rate just isn't high enough right now to really get much use out of the Pearls (Encounters and Slingshot). On dry conditions, they work very well, but I don't see dry conditions very often.

All that being said....I've heard 400-600 games or 1 year as benchmarks. But as was stated below, I've also seen quite a few guys throwing VIBES and VIVIDS...throwing 600+ series...and they probably won't get a new ball until their's either gets stolen or cracks.