best ball cleaners

[WAC4504]

Well I gotta tell ya then there are a lot of illegals in south west tennessee, and I'm willing to bet they're all over the country as well. Just a thought.

[Chubbz]

I found simple green at the local Ace hardware store for 6.99 a bottle.

[owlish]

I use just a rag on my Natural by Storm. I have a ball spinner and used an abralon 2000 pad on it then polished with Ebonite Factory Finish. Urethane balls should never be polished but I wanted to see how it would react and it reacts just like the polish wasn't on there.

[owlish]

Use a 50/50 mix of Simple Green and 91% alcohol. Alcohol won't clean deep enough and Simple Green will leave a film on the ball. But mixed together it will float out the deep oil and leave the surface squeaky clean. Both products are USBC approved. Really worked well on my Venom and it is reacting much more like new.

Oh yeah, it's pretty cheap too! 32oz Simple Green and two 16oz bottles of 91% alcohol = 64oz of ball cleaner for less than 8 dollars. Hope this helped.

I just made a cleaning cocktail of one part 91% alcohol and one part Green Works. Works very well, thx for the recipe!

owl

[emotap r]

I've used Simple Green was not that good. I'll use Orange Fast degreaser which also USBC approved apply generous amount and scrub it with magic sponge or micro fiber cloth after 10-20 games and resurface with an abralon pad after 150-200 games.

[owlish]

(snip)

which also USBC approved

(/snip)

Good idea, I wonder if Green Works is USBC approved... or that mixture I made. I suppose if both are good then it's okay to mix?

owl

[Strike Domination]

Yeah, it's USBC approved as long as the individual cleaners are approved.

[JAnderson]

Use a 50/50 mix of Simple Green and 91% alcohol. Alcohol won't clean deep enough and Simple Green will leave a film on the ball. But mixed together it will float out the deep oil and leave the surface squeaky clean. Both products are USBC approved.

Not only are they both approved, they are both approved for use during USBC sanctioned competition. Word of warning though: that rule doesn't apply to PBA competition which has its own rules in this area.

[averagebowler]

WHen should you take your ball to a pro shop to have it baked?

[JAnderson]

To my knowledge, Brunswick is the only ball company that officially advocates "baking" their equipment. However, whatever method you use to resurface, revitalize, or rejuvenate equipment, how often you need to do so depends on a large number of factors:

Do you remove the conditioner from your equipment after each shot?
Do you clean the conditioner from your equipment using some kind of ball cleaner before the ball goes into the bag at the end of the session? Are you religious about it?
How heavy are the conditions (volume) on which you bowl?
What type of conditioner is used where you bowl?

I've heard knowledgeable people say every 20 games, and I've heard knowledgeable people say every 80 games. Personally, I wait until there is a noticeable drop-off in performance with all other factors being equal.

That last part is important. If you're accustomed to bowling on a house shot and you took your favorite ball to the first night of your PBA experience league and tossed it on Shark, it's probably not the ball.