Zach Trevino explains why your ball DOESN'T HOOK anymore.
Related Links
Storm | Why your ball DOESN’T HOOK anymore
Related Posts
The Bowling News Network – Including Bowling News Articles – Bowling News Stories and Other Ten Pin Bowling News!
Really nice video. Wish they would have taken the balls and resurfaced and cleaned them. Then throw another shot to really show the effect of what a good clean and resurface does.
Collin Bradley exactly
When a ball is that abused with no maintenance such as not using a shammy while bowling or a cleaner after each session it’s not going to make a difference honestly.
Could have done just two Code X’s and maintained one and not the other to show how much better it is.
@CJ G. This is what a bowling ball deep clean is made for. Look into the bowling “detox” machine made by jayhawk bowling company. It worked wonders when I first switched from urethane to reactive resin.
As a former bowling ball designer for 4 different brands. I can tell you that bowling balls losing performance from being bowled is a issue every bowling ball manufacturer faces. I did countless testing on why bowling balls lose performance, and what Storm is showing you is 100% spot on. If you don’t take care of your ball. You will lose performance. They didn’t have to spend money and time on making this video. This obviously isn’t a sales piece. It is them showing you what happens when you don’t take care of your ball, and them encouraging you to do so. I think what they are doing here is really good education for the bowler, and that, is good for bowling. Nice work!
@déjá bowler oooooooo still soooooo scared. Shaking in my boots now lolololol
Detox is essential.
I have to detox my Physix every 50 or so games. It becomes more obvious if it is a leftover heavy oil sport pattern from a tournament the previous night.
Isaac Anderson you should use an approved bowling ball cleaner
I always used the hot water bath method. No soap, no chemicals, to pull the oil out of the ball. I have found that that, combined with extreme cleaning/surfacing as needed after every use of the ball, really keeps it up. I takes a few 5 gallon buckets of about 137-140 degree water, multiple wipe down/drains of the water, and a few hours, but you can get the oil out.
@Tyler Stine yeah but like it could make your bowling ball crack and that would suck.
Please make a follow up video. I have 2 balls I’m struggling to keep from turning into a spare ball, with the disappearing hook. I put them in hot soapy water, that helped. And sanded them. They are better but still not quite there yet.
@machine thesun If you get one, make sure to get a ball cup to set the ball on so that it’s not resting on just that one point on the bottom of the tank. I also use dish soap that’s geared towards degreasing plus some rubbing alcohol. I have found that mixture works well.
I clean my bowling balls at home on the night of each league.
I use a 12-1 ratio of 91% isopropyl to concentrated Simple Green.
I wipe with a saturated paper towel on all sides of the ball and repeat with a new saturated towel until no dirt or oil is seen on the towel.
Then I finish with a paper towel with just 70% isopropyl to get any Simple Green residue off.
The result is my balls have zero oil in them and still react like new.
I have a Dark Legend Solid with over 100 games on it and just for kicks I had my PSO put it in his oven for an hour.
Not a drop of oil came out of it.
A 12-1 ratio of 91% isopropyl to concentrated Simple Green is all you need.
Expensive ball cleaners are not needed.
@nordattack is there a video out there that shows this type of cleaning? I have no idea how to get the oil out of my ball
@Michael Mosher Jr No videos that I am aware of, but the process I describe above is simple you can get the supplies at Walmart and do it yourself.
If your ball has a ton of oil in it now you can take it to a bowling pro shop and have them put it in their oven to extract all the oil and then you can ask them to clean it and refinish it.
Then buy your supplies and keep the ball clean by cleaning it yourself after each bowling session.
Once you get in a routine your balls will last for many years.
Also always keep you balls in the house in a controlled environment, if you leave them in the trunk of your car they will crack and break from the temperature changes.
@nordattack thank u very much I learned not to leave in car or closet from when I was growing up and my dads ball cracked
yes it does help to clean and surface your bowling balls but ive owned some that i cleaned after ever set and sanded every 6 games! and right now that ball is dead. it seems any cover designed to absorb a lot of oil is going to die no matter what you do, including oil extraction.
the ball that died was a gamebreaker 2.
I heard from a pretty reputable PSO that Storm balls die faster than any other brand.
Even with cleaning and care he said don’t expect better than a year or so of performance out of them.
i believe it. but the fastest ball to die for me was an ebonite gamebreaker 2. 1 winter season and it was dead. i usually get at least winter and summer league and many times 2 years of use with good maintenance. only 1 season with maintenance is just ridiculous
sad because it had my favorite ball reaction ever. might try motiv next time. i like smoother reacting stuff
I agree I clean my ball after each night and only get a year out of a ball. Even after oil extraction the ball will be good for a couple nights then dies
Wow lotta harsh comments here for a video intended to help the consumer.. Storm foam cleaner is fantastic. Always clean dull surface every 6 games and shiny every 10-12 games, and I have only had 2 pieces “die” and neither one was a storm. Took those 2 and soaked them in scalding hot water for about an hour, changing the water halfway. No soaps, just water. Both came back to life and rolling like they did day 1.
I think this video makes the perfect point on how the lack of ball maintenance affects ball reaction. It would have been nice to see if it would have been possible to bring the ball reaction back to it’s original reaction (numbers) and what was done to do that.
I’d like to point out that, if you are comparing those 2 Soniq shots to each other, please note that your slide position at the foul line is four boards different, not to mention that you had much less leverage and actually bailed on your latter shot, balance-wise. The CodeX delivery is 2 boards on the approach as well. I am totally agreeing with balls’ surface textures changing to conform to the lane surface (app. 4500-5000 grit on synthetics) and yes, they will change much quicker once the surface has been “broken”. Cleaning is good, but no high end, porous sponge is going to maintain it’s box condition performance/texture beyond about 40 games. Doing a test over a few weeks will, in my opinion, offer much less a variable than 8 months as well. It’s disappointing that you didn’t actually use a tactile digital surface scanner during this test instead. The greater the initial surface texture, the greater the surface variation until it becomes stable at the lane surface texture. A dull, textured, solid, strong chemical cover ball will always experience a major change dynamically over a full season, much more than a mid range hybrid cover. A top shelf 2000 grit solid unpolished cover will change much more than a 4000 grit mid level pearl UNTIL IT BREAKS DOWN and becomes the lane surface texture. I really do wish the industry would stop promoting hook-in-a-box $250 balls that become $150 mid-range performance balls in a very short period of time. So what’s my point? In my shop, I have stopped pushing high end balls to bowlers who are hoping to get more than one season out of a ball and encourage them to NOT use their “driver” unless absolutely necessary. Save those first 40 games worth of premium performance! Yes, clean them often to maintain tackiness and keep dust and oil from building up and clogging the pores. If you want a dull, matte finish, resurface the ball often, especially after that first 50 games and the older it is, the more often it needs it and the fewer games it will take until it’s once again 4500 grit. I personally hit mine with 1500 grit in my Haus every 12 games or so after the initial surface break to keep a dull ball dull. Just my $0.02 share from being a PSO for over 30 years and yes, I am a proud V.I.P. participant. I applaud your video to encourage cleaning and maintaining the covers.
I think your claim that balls performance lasts only 40 games is an exaggeration. The only thing i have seen balls lose after 40 games, is that initial pin action of the fresh coverstock. Not any hooking performance. (if wiped and cleaned that is).
Zach, did you pick the music? Was that your vamping? On a side note, that explanation is spot on. Every sport I know takes regular maintenance to keep equipment working well. If the bowler likes the ball more and more without the TLC, fine. Just don’t expect the ball to be the same ball it started out to be even 10 games later. Since there are so many variables in bowling (lane conditions, bowler, other equipment being used), having 1 item not a variable (bowler’s own ball), it reduces by 1 the possibilities for the difference in ball reaction from week to week or event to event.
Got a resin ball that I have probably over a thousand games on. Cleaned it after every session with rubbing alcohol. About 2000 games after getting it it lost almost all its hook. I literally was hooking more with a plastic ball than my resin ball. Had the ball resurfaced and the it did no good. Tried multiple cleaners and still no improvement. Finally I saw a video about soaking your ball in hot tap water and dish soap, soaked the ball for about 5 hours occasionally replacing the water to keep it hot, and I could literally see the coagulated oil in the water from where the heat was drawing the oil out of the ball. I then dumped the water out before removing the ball, dried the ball off with a towel and the following night my ball was back to performing like new. I now soak my resin bowling balls about every 50-100 games and it still performs great. Only drawback I have seen is I occasionally have to check my inserts and reglue them because the hot water and heat loosens up the superglue. For those wondering it is an old Ebonite Predator bowling ball from 2001. Still use it to this day and still performs great.
Fyrchkn manufacturers should just keep this in mind, and make the finger imprents resistable for that water
I don’t have nearly as much experience with this, but I can tell you that something like Dawn dish detergent is an excellent degreaser. It is excellent at breaking down oils and allowing them to be easily rinsed away. If my assumption is correct that the degradation in performance we’re worried about results largely from a buildup of oil in the pores of a ball, and what is essentially a gummed-up surface, then something like you describe makes perfect sense. A good dish soap works well as a surfactant and dispersant, while being relatively mild and presumably quite safe on the surface of a ball.
I don’t think I’ll soak my next ball for five hours at a time, but I will certainly try Dawn, and maybe a short soak. I’ve also heard good things about rubbing alcohol, sometimes mixed with Simple Green.
UMepher these resin balls are like sponges when it comes to oil. If you ever leave it somewhere hot you will find your ball go from dry to covered in oil pretty quickly. The idea behind what I do is the hot tap water draws the oil out while to detergent helps pull it off the ball and float it to the surface. I clean my ball regularly with rubbing alcohol for nightly maintenace, but without the heat, the alcohol will never get the oil deep inside the ball out. Like I said this is something I only do every 100 games or so or when I find the ball isn’t performing like it should.
best way to keep your insert from coming out and reglueing. just duct tape them enough so the holes are covered but doesnt cover a ton of pores in the coverstock
I take an alternate view. When a bowling ball is new it is stronger, and during that initial period you have to take that into account and adjust as it weakens (on top of adjusting for lane conditions). But after the break-in period the ball will stabilize and weaken at a rate slow enough to appear to not change from week to week. I buy my balls based on how they will behave after break-in, not when new. I throw a fast stroker shot and for my style most modern balls are too strong. My absolute favorite is the Storm Marvel Pearl, but only after it is weakens. Storm has come up newer balls using the same technology, but they are even stronger than the Marvel Pearl so they don’t work as well for me. I do clean my ball between use and it appears to remain consistent over many games. The key is bowlers need to get a ball that has the proper amount of hook after break-in, for their style of bowling. Bowlers will be disappointed if they standardize on the hook offered by brand new balls unless they buy a lot of new bowling balls.
Do you have evidence or anything to back up this “weakening” theory? I think what you are talking about amounts to oil/grime buildup, or wear to the original finish, which can be renewed or altered. You’re right that each bowler needs to find a ball suited to their traits and style, of course. A lot of newer bowlers ask what the “best” ball is, and often buy the most expensive ball they can afford or base a purchase on whatever marketing looks cool to them, rather than a ball that is appropriate for them. A stroker such as yourself certainly doesn’t want the same ball as some wild cranker or a lower-speed tweener like me, and some people don’t understand that. There are just so many choices these days, which is very nice, but the overload of names and specs can be overwhelming to even an experienced bowler.
@UMepher Todays’ bowling balls wear out and lose performance, mainly through oil absorption. If they didn’t, the ball manufacturers would go out of business.
This is a very informative video it might explain why we start moving to the right I try to compensate for the ball and the closer you play to the dry part of the lane the more temperamental the lane gets
The question I have is why do some straight balls over time become hook balls
I would like to try putting my aged Marvel S into a waterproof bag, set it in hot water for a couple of hours to open surface pores and thin/melt the oil residue buildup, then while hot, put onto a high RPM ball spinner. Wipe off with alcohol then spin again.
I would like to see the same two balls change in reaction over 150 games with recommended maintenance every three games. How much change would appear then?
In my experience, with good maintenance, the balls still lose power after lots of use.
I think that could just be normal wear and tear honestly my old hammer nail busted after it “died” it didn’t hit for a bit before
I bowl in 2 leagues , each league we bowl in for the season is 35 weeks = 105 games x 2 = 210 games , plus practice balls ( warming up ) say 8-10 balls per league . In the past I tried all the things posted in here, refinish was the best, then soak in hot water with Dawn dish soap for about 3 hours, ( I use duct tape to cover the holes. ) then rinse, changed water and Dawn again. Helped out but not too much. I throw a 3/4 roll and was told your track over time wears .( ball out of round ) To make a long story short I get a new ball every 2 years, and I do have a spare ball which is plastic and the plastic ball will last me 3-4 years.
This was a fairly interesting video, I think it would have been far more informative if you had say, reasonably maintained it, like cleaning it every 3-4 games. Maybe skip the re-polishing/sanding because I think a typical bowler who has purchased a custom ball will usually at least clean their ball. Then shown us the results in difference of ball reaction from game 1 to game 100, 150, 200, 300? etc. Another cool idea would be throwing a new ball to show reaction, then placing the ball in a bucket of lane oil and letting it soak thoroughly for a day or however long it would take to be completely oil logged, then showing how horribly reaction is diminished.
Ultimately, a bowling ball will lose performance regardless of what you do. Ball maintenance does prolong a balls performance, but it will eventually become oil soaked and begin to hydroplane and get squirrely on not freshly stripped backends (aka inconsistent reaction and breakpoint) any carrydown, good luck. Baking a ball is the only thing that will remotely ‘restore’ hook potential// hook consistency once carrydown starts occurring.
The unfortunate thing is that after your initial 100-150 games of great out of box reaction, even de-oiling the ball via baking doesn’t really restore performance for any meaningful period of time. A rejuvenated ball will roll well for 30-45 games before it starts falling into it’s old patterns of being oil soaked and reading/rolling inconsistently again. (Your ball starts out one shade of color, then after absorbing oil, it darkens. Once the oil is removed, it’s still that darkened color, meaning not all the oil was truly removed). The real issue is pro-shops charge 20-40 bucks to rejuvenate/resurface your ball and as I said, the period of games the ball ends up being good for (30-45) doesn’t end up being a very good value, it’s pretty much better to consider a new ball or taking baking it into your own hands.
I have a Storm bite that’s four years old.. it’s the best ball in my bag.. you take good care of your bowling ball they will still react like new 🎳🎳🎳🎳
i maintain my surface each session got a homemade ball spinner and pads i had a defiant soul was like 7 years old at the time shot a 300 game with it so yes even old balls keeping surface maintained does infact keep performance high just most (not all) dont spend the time and wonder why.
Can you say why a ball ( NOVA in question) that right out of the box worked great and after about 30 games or so dosen’t seem to react anymore like it did out of the box and this is with 2 different balls and 2 different players with the recommended cleaning any help would be appreciated thank you
So I clean all the balls I use every time I play. I also occasionally hit them with an abralon pad to get them back to a “box finish”. My phaze 2 handled this well for a season but now it hooks a lot less despite following suggested maintenance practices regularly. Why?