How to deal with high humidity and rubbers getting slippery.

[Haito]

Ave,
I have deja vu I already did start this thread once.

Yesterday I was playing with new rubbers. Back to full tacky fest. And the issue with slippery over time has reared its ugly head. Any ways you combat this? I kept washing and drying my hands every couple of points. Has anyone tried using some water repellant sprays or something? (I know its illegal, I do not care as much, I do not participate in competitions much) I mean the hygrophobic sprays you use on your car windshield or something.

 

[Archosaurus]

Sweat a lot from your hands then breathe on the rubber and wipe it off with sweat every few points. I feel like it will promote dust to gather and seems to keep the performance more constant. Granted I don't know if this would work in S.E.A where it's actually humid.

 

[Reaper]

me being on the caribbean, my advice is to keep a small microfiber cloth, the ones for car cleaning, keep it under the table and wipe the rubber and your hand with it often.

 

[lodro]

Has anyone tried using some water repellant sprays

🤣
🤣 🤣 I got some of this spray and will try it out when we get into the hot season here.

 

[mocker88]

I don't think the spray will work wonders, sorry. But you need to get the ball to sink deeper in the rubber, so try using a bit softer rubber or a rubber with more elasticity in the top sheet. And clean it every 10 minutes with a good cleaner.

 

[ttarc]

I don't think the spray will work wonders, sorry. But you need to get the ball to sink deeper in the rubber, so try using a bit softer rubber or a rubber with more elasticity in the top sheet. And clean it every 10 minutes with a good cleaner.

Hit harder. That's what I try to do When you happen to have to play with any kind of orange balls regardless the manufacturer in such conditions and your game somewhat relies on variation just start ranting or replace the balls or color some white balls or just relax and get a beer scnr

 

[Haito]

Experiment 18.09
I used the revolution rejuvenator an hour or so before practice. The problem did not occur at all today.

Temp 18 degrees
Humidity 80%
On the hall.

Will repeat.

 

[ajtatosmano2]

Experiment 18.09
I used the revolution rejuvenator an hour or so before practice. The problem did not occur at all today.

Temp 18 degrees
Humidity 80%
On the hall.

Will repeat.

Be vary that it will shorten the lifespan of your rubbers.

 

[Haito]

Be vary that it will shorten the lifespan of your rubbers.

Interesting. I thought that rejuvenator renews the rubbers. Either way. If those rubbers last 3 months with my schedule, I will be extremely happy.

 

[Archosaurus]

Interesting. I thought that rejuvenator renews the rubbers. Either way. If those rubbers last 3 months with my schedule, I will be extremely happy.

They have soaping and foaming agents that degrade the rubber. There is no way to regenerate the performance of rubber in any way. Once it's broken down it's broken down. You can do literally nothing with anything to get any of it back. At most you can soften the compound to bring it back closer to design specs when it gets older and harder, and you can basically boost it with some chemicals to get a temporary performance gain.

What you can do is remove mechanical limiting factors like debris, which is what the cleaners are for. They're not actually for maintenance IMO but more-so for using before a session and in the middle of it. I would never use one at the end of one which is what people do and end up replacing their rubbers a bit prematurely.

I clean mine with just tap water (demineralized is better, but I swap often so it makes no difference, the mechanical wear is much higher) and I'll rub the topsheet with some hand soap and water when it gets especially grimy after a few months.

 

[ajtatosmano2]

Interesting. I thought that rejuvenator renews the rubbers. Either way. If those rubbers last 3 months with my schedule, I will be extremely happy.

I felt like the topsheet got softer after a while and couldn't hold the ball as well...so I had to apply the rejuvenator again and again to keep the performance, but the worse it got. I would say if you use it with restraint it should be fine. I've had it when I still used Xiom Vega Pro both sides, maybe it depends a rubber as well.

 

[mocker88]

Experiment 18.09
I used the revolution rejuvenator an hour or so before practice. The problem did not occur at all today.

Temp 18 degrees
Humidity 80%
On the hall.

Will repeat.

Nice. That was a new invention. I'll try that myself when it's much humidity. Now it starts to get better in our hall though.

 

[Haito]

Nice. That was a new invention. I'll try that myself when it's much humidity. Now it starts to get better in our hall though.

Experiment 2 19.09
I did not use the rejuvenator. Performance was slightly worse towards end of the training.
Humidity 75%
Temp 19 degrees.

 

[lodro]

just relax and get a beer scnr

This is always good advise 😆
Another one would be from the late great Frank Zappa: " I know when i am licked - all over " 🤣

 

[merlin el mago]

Use pips

 

[Tyce]

Best thing you can do for rubber is to prevent as much drying out as possible.
Use plastic sheets, make sure they're as tightly on as possible.
Do not use any form of soap unless you spilled something on it.
For dust and debris, blow it off first, then breathe and wipe lightly. I blow on balls when I pick them up especially from little dusty corners. Wiping with a towel doesn't give you the precision control over the pressure you're using. Only wipe damp areas, if it dries up, breathe again.

As for the original question, I like to wipe my bat off with my hands, and I get the impression that the skin oils help in getting the moisture off easier. I use my shirt to get the excess moisture off but only after I thoroughly clean off any debris. That gets me through the day even with H3.
Also, cold rubber is shit.

 

[Archosaurus]

Do not use any form of soap unless you spilled something on it.

I'd agree with this 99% of the time but occasionally there will just be some kind of deep-seated grime that can only come off with soap and some friction. It's just a balance of when you're wearing out the rubber more than you're restoring its performance by removing the grime. Grippy rubber models tend to not need it ever.