storm high end balls

[nathaniel]

i heard that the storm high performance balls die out pretty quickly. within 30-60 games if not cleaned. seems pretty quickly to me. just wondering if it is worth it to go storm or hammer? thinking between the nano pearl or epidemic. i currently own the; jigsaw trap, marvel, lane #1 black panther.

[J Anderson]

Generally speaking the high end coverstocks, regardless of brand, need to be cleaned after each use as well as wiped off after every shot. The longer the oil sits on the ball, the deeper it sinks in.

[DanielMareina]

30-60 is not even close. Most high end balls will last 75 to 100 without resurfacing. The original virtual gravity was known for dying after 150 games, but i have that many on my nano with only one resurface, and it is still awesome. Generally speaking though, the more aggressive the cover stock, the more pourous it is. Pourous soaks up oil, therefore losing hook. If you want anything to last, you should clean the oil off after every night of bowling.

[tracy]

i clean my prodigy after every session (3-4 games) with ball cleaner and then i lightly polish it every 2-3 weeks and then deep clean it about every 11/2 months. i've been using this ball for about 2 years now and it's still re-acting like a new ball.

[littlelegs]

...and then there's the revivor oven too if a local pro shop has one. Brunswick even recommends using one from time to time. I've found a spell in that with a resurface returns a ball almost to new. I seem to resurface every 70 games or so with a revivor thrown into the mix every other time. It sorted out the problem with my (older) Taboo. I'd let it go a little too long without hitting the oven it seems.

[JerseyJim]

Generally speaking the high end coverstocks, regardless of brand, need to be cleaned after each use as well as wiped off after every shot. The longer the oil sits on the ball, the deeper it sinks in.

:-) Usually that isn't the case with Lane Master/Legend balls. I've extracted very little oil from their coverstocks. My Absolute Power has well over 400 games on it, the Terminator is over 200, and the Sure Strike is over 200 as well. Their resins don't soak up oil as quickly. The only bad thing is that the company is declaring bankruptcy.

[madapples]

I have a Nano and it needs an oil extraction/surface touch up every 40 games. Soaks up tons of oil and the surface can change after only 3 games.

[littlelegs]

Although the Taboo seems to need extraction more often, I left the Mania a little too long a few weeks back. It literally reached saturation point where wiping it with a towel still left a sheen of oil on the surface. Again though a few hours in the revivor and a re-surface and it was more or less as good as new. I do find however that the length between treatments gets a little shorter as the ball ages which I suppose only makes sense.

[ken74012]

Has anyone tried soaking the resin balls in real hot water and dawn detergent. with a good cleaning with 409 cleaner after soaking.

[DanielMareina]

Soaking the balls in water does work a little bit. I find that it only helps it for about 25 to 30 games though. The way to do it though, is sand the ball down to 220 grit. Then you soak the ball for 15 minutes in water that is a 50/50 mix of boiling hot and the hottest you can get out of the tap. This should be around 170 degrees. Take the ball out and wipe it off, then put it back in for 15 more minutes. When it comes out, I use storm Xtra clean and then sand it back to stock finish. I will warn you, this melts the wax they put in the writing on the ball, and that stuff is tough to get off!. Truthfully, it is a lot of work for very little length of time. We used an oven that could be set to 170 degrees, and that worked better, although you run the risk of cracking the ball.