BallReviews
General Category => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: uwecbowler on February 12, 2016, 02:13:02 PM
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I'm looking for opinions on a durable spare ball. I throw plastic at 95% of my leaves, with the only exceptions being the 2-8 & 3-9 combinations. I have a black Storm Ice currently and it seems to be literally falling apart. Granted I bought the ball used but the thumb seems to be chipping out after ever shot. There are several deep gouges in the ball as well. The ball seems to be "soft" and chips/gouges easily.
Usually I stick to the Storm/Roto Grip family, but plastic is plastic. I'm open to any suggestions. Has anyone tried the Pyramid Path for bowlingball.com? I figure it might be with the shot at about $45 shipped.
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I use Motiv's Arctic Sniper and it is holding up very well. It's a urethane blend, so if you are looking for plastic, then it's not the ball for you. But it can take a lot of punishment as I have probably a 1000+ games on mine.
On the downside, it's a bit expensive for a spare ball.
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Black ice spare is poop. I owned it twice and didn't last long, thumb chipped away easy. Granted I use a slug, which is part of the reason why the area cracks, but I've owned other spare balls that didn't have that issue so quickly. I go through spare balls due to the cracking thumb hole/area.
I have a C300 that I've used a lot this season and "thump" the ball more often than before. So far no scars are seen and the ball is holding up pretty good.
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Prior had a T-Zone & WD, both were plastic that easily chipped and developed spider cracks. Bought a Storm Polar Ice (urethane) two years ago with the pancake weight block (no core). It's the blue/black cover. The current version is called the Mix. The best spare ball I have ever owned. It's construction is very durable and rolls straight and true for spares and if the lanes really dry out it will work as a strike ball. I call it my dual purpose ball.
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Brunswick T-zone
That's what I have, and I thrown it quite a bit now. No sign of tear on it yet.
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My T-Zone is impossible to kill. 3 years, bowling 2x a week minimum. No cracks, just keep polishing it.
Had an Ice Storm previously but it cracked quickly and often.
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If you want durability find an old rubber ball and plug and redrill it.
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Can't go wrong with a Storm Mix...very durable
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Can't go wrong with a Storm Mix...very durable
Urethane is very durable. But for many of us it still hooks too much. Even throwing it straighter, but not straight.
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I have an ebonite maxim. Got a ton of games on it looks brand new and handles my 20 MPh throw at spares just fine! No blemishes at all!
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I have an ebonite maxim. Got a ton of games on it looks brand new and handles my 20 MPh throw at spares just fine! No blemishes at all!
I picked up a maxim this year for my spare ball. and it has no blemishes either. looks the exact same as the day I picked it up from the pro-shop.
I second this option. but as the OP said; plastic is plastic
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Can't go wrong with a Storm Mix...very durable
cant use the mix; urethane balls would hook too much and I would miss corner pins because of it
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Can't go wrong with a Storm Mix...very durable
cant use the mix; urethane balls would hook too much and I would miss corner pins because of it
The Mix isn't a normal urethane or reactive urethane that you see with balls like the Pitch Black. The Mix series is barely more than a plastic ball
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If you want durability find an old rubber ball and plug and redrill it.
+1
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There are some rubber ones currently on eBay.
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If you want durability find an old rubber ball and plug and redrill it.
+1
I wonder if some of us could deal mentally with how straight a rubber ball will go on today's oil??
We say we'd like our spare ball to go straight, but I think we rarely mean as perfectly straight as rubber would go. I know I would have a hard time dealing with it. I suppose over time one could adapt to almost anything.
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i flatten out my hand and do everything possible to make the ball go perfectly straight even with urethane and plastic so i would welcome that.
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Rubber isn't much different than plastic. Most old rubber balls aren't that shiny. Bust the surface a little if it makes you feel better, just don't wear a white shirt when you do.
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the NEW Hammer spare balls have some wild cool graphics - called the "TOUGH" series
arent exactly cheap for a spare ball ($99)
but have a 3 year warranty
http://www.hammerbowling.com/products/balls
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the NEW Hammer spare balls have some wild cool graphics - called the "TOUGH" series
arent exactly cheap for a spare ball ($99)
but have a 3 year warranty
http://www.hammerbowling.com/products/balls
I was looking into this a few months back when I was shopping for a replacement spare ball and I read someplace where Hammer's 3 year warranty doesn't apply to their polyester spare balls. I can't find exactly where I read that (it might have been in a hard copy flier at the pro shop), but I know that I did see it and that's what caused me to give up on them as an option and just go to a pancake core urethane ball instead.
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i had mine replaced as it cracked around my thumb insert
could have been the frequent buyer discount at the shop, but I thought it was covered
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You are correct, warranty doesn't cover these
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Well, I pulled the trigger and went with the Brunswick T-Zone Hot Lava. Let's see how that holds up.
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My driller told me that spare balls are prone to cracking if you install a thumb slug.
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Iif you can find one....go with the Ebonite Clear Wolf. I still throw mine that I bought in 1996. I have another in the closet waiting for when this one decides to split in half, lol. Literally all I ever had to do to it is plug and redrill the thumb hole a time or two cause it cracked around the edge of it. Since I have gone to a switch grip in it, even that minor cracking hasn't bothered me and it's still going strong. It's definitely not as "clear" as it used to be, lol, but it still works great. Check Ebay, there may still be some floating around.
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I use the Storm Mix. Any color. They are a Hybrid Polyester and Urethane. Slides like plastic and remains very durable.