Too expensive!

You can boil water and make your own steam for far less. I do not like the idea of this because steam like boiling water is 212 degrees. I think that is too hot.

I can answer that. I own one. I have not tried the dry heat devices. The sweat box no question removes oil. I see it in the water and I see feel it on the side when I dump the water out. This is not boiling water. It's a steamer. It creates heat and humidity inside the ball. I also believe it gets rid of dirt much better.

I would get a ball spinner first over any kind of oil extraction device. With the combination of the sweat box and a ball spinner after the ball is heated you can really remove the oil out.

Am I the only one who thinks that the personal revivors are simply food dehydrators that have been modified for use as bowling ball ovens? The size, shape, heating method, etc., fit dehydrators to a tee. In any event, I'm still leery. I have a good friend from USBC Equipment and Specs. who still claims that he doesn't subscribe to any method of heating bowling balls to remove dirt/oil because there is too much volatility when it comes to heating and cooling today's coverstocks. Instead, he goes with the hot-water bath because there is far less risk involved. I am curious about the ovens, but I am inclined to agree with him.

Am I the only one who thinks that the personal revivors are simply food dehydrators that have been modified for use as bowling ball ovens? The size, shape, heating method, etc., fit dehydrators to a tee. In any event, I'm still leery. I have a good friend from USBC Equipment and Specs. who still claims that he doesn't subscribe to any method of heating bowling balls to remove dirt/oil because there is too much volatility when it comes to heating and cooling today's coverstocks. Instead, he goes with the hot-water bath because there is far less risk involved. I am curious about the ovens, but I am inclined to agree with him.

No contradiction there at all.   

Okay, so someone wants to be a smart ass on a Friday; that's cool, Milo. Just do you, man. I thought it obvious that the statement he made and I shared was in reference to heating with an oven or other dry source, but I suppose I should've made the distinction clearer. My bad. Thank you for taking the time to point that out. 

Yea, I figured it was just an omission, but couldn't pass it up. 

If thermal fatigue is actually an issue, then water should be more damaging than heated air as it has a much higher specific heat value and would transfer energy into the ball at a much faster rate than air.

A hot water bath would probably vary in temperature(thereby increasing the volatility) more than a dry heat source as well, increasing the thermo-mechanical fatigue factor. Unless of course, the water bath had a constant heat source.


I suppose the argument could be made that water would transfer heat more evenly around the surface of the ball since it is in direct contact with the entire surface of the ball, but the air ovens all seem to have a fan that circulates the air around the ball.

Having said that, I have tried multiple methods. Hot water bath, covered bucket in the summer sun, trunk of a car on hot day, pro shop ball oven, dishwasher and currently use the Nu-Ball "Food dehydrator" ball oven. I've yet to have a ball crack from any of the aforementioned oil extraction methods. But I have had them crack in a controlled temperature environment just sitting on a shelf.

I have done several hot-water baths, and I even experimented with the dishwasher (w/o the heated drying cycle) a couple of times, and none of those balls have cracked. Sadly, I've lost two balls in the last three months, and those were just sitting on the shelf in my basement, which holds a constant temperature with vary little variance. Go figure, right?

Exactly. I think the balls that crack(not counting the ones we have seen pictures of that were "cooked" in a regular food oven), are due to issues during the manufacturing process. Possibly air bubbles or something else causes a weak spot that eventually fails under stress.