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As the self professed king of baby oil boosters, I can say this much. The baby oil treatment is more of a physical treatment rather than chemical treatment as is my understanding. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but my assumption with paraffin oil is: the release of voc gasses resulting from the chemical reaction (caused when the PO, glue and sponge come into contact) permeates the sponge and causes it to expand and stretch(kind of like a balloon). However, the gasses escape eventually, the sponge returns back to its original size, but the sponge has been lightly damaged/dried out by the PO. After enough PO boost treatments, the sponge becomes unplayable. I believe (and I may be wrong) this is why PO boosting shortens the life of your rubber, but the results are great.
With baby oil, it has been my experience, that the oil itself is absorbed by the sponge, causing it to expand permenantly, and while there is an initial release of gases, it is the absorption of oil and not the absorption of gases that boosts the sponge. I'm incline to thing so, because in my experience rubbers boosted with baby oil never shrink back (and I have a few that stretch way to much and won't undome and stick to a paddle). While the performance is not as great as PO (or so i've heard), it is markedly better than without the BO treatment, in fact I have a H3 neo I've had on my paddle for nearly 3 years that is still tacky and still extremely lively that I don't need to replace!!!!!
With baby oil, it has been my experience, that the oil itself is absorbed by the sponge, causing it to expand permenantly, and while there is an initial release of gases, it is the absorption of oil and not the absorption of gases that boosts the sponge. I'm incline to thing so, because in my experience rubbers boosted with baby oil never shrink back (and I have a few that stretch way to much and won't undome and stick to a paddle). While the performance is not as great as PO (or so i've heard), it is markedly better than without the BO treatment, in fact I have a H3 neo I've had on my paddle for nearly 3 years that is still tacky and still extremely lively that I don't need to replace!!!!!
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