Which poly ball should you choose?

There was a talk from international umpires that the nittaku premium breaks easily more than dhs d40+, dunno if this is true

If international umpires have that observation, most probably its true.
For me all seamed balls have great problems with the durability and the shape. Plus that all seamed chinese balls of any brand are prodused in different factories and every parcel differs in quality. If you buy a big quantity for a longer period you will not feel that, but if you buy balls every month it gets very obvious. Such are the observations of players in the club. I got rid of the seamed balls 2 years ago, I don't like to buy 12 balls every month, 6 to go to the basket because of the shape and siv to be crushed in no time. For me 6 seamless do cover almost a year.

langel said:

For me all seamed balls have great problems with the durability and the shape.

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The XSF seamless threestar ball is great in many ways, but durability is not among these. I haven’t seen any seamless ball that is likely to survive a blade edge hit. An expensive hit, about €1.5.

I’ve had good batches of the DHS D40+, but also abysmal ones. The good ones were round, consistent, with a good bounce and reasonable spin.

Due to the inconsistencies we encountered we moved to the Stiga Perform 40+ threestar. Quite like the good batches of DHS balls, and so far (knock on wood) consistently so.

killiegradge said:

I play in a room with white walls so its great to have the choice of some quality orange balls.
Are Tibhar and Nittaku Orange available anywhere in the UK?

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Not that I've seen yet. I've ordered some orange DHS from AliExpress, should hopefully be here in the next 2-3 decades.

yogi_bear said:

There was a talk from international umpires that the nittaku premium breaks easily more than dhs d40+, dunno if this is true

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Definitely true in my experience unless things have changed. New ABS balls from DHS and DFish were far more durable than NP40+.

langel said:

If international umpires have that observation, most probably its true.
For me all seamed balls have great problems with the durability and the shape. Plus that all seamed chinese balls of any brand are prodused in different factories and every parcel differs in quality. If you buy a big quantity for a longer period you will not feel that, but if you buy balls every month it gets very obvious. Such are the observations of players in the club. I got rid of the seamed balls 2 years ago, I don't like to buy 12 balls every month, 6 to go to the basket because of the shape and siv to be crushed in no time. For me 6 seamless do cover almost a year.

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If your reference is 2 years ago, you are way behind.

My club use Kingnik *** seamless balls for match play and I really like them, I was surprised. They feel a bit lighter and spinnier than my recollection of Joola Flash, which is strange: shouldn't these be the same?
Not sure about durability, I did break one of their no-star counterparts with an edge-hit during training. But the surface seems to hold its own better, in "regular" play, than Nittaku P and Butterfly G40+ (no, really...), not sure yet in comparison with DHS abs which have been my go to, as for many people. Anyhow, absolutely perfect roundness on the KN I had and I feel I could happily play with nothing else (curiosity apart).

NextLevel said:

If your reference is 2 years ago, you are way behind.

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No, my reference is up to date, but every update shows the same.

Ioiettino said:

My club use Kingnik *** seamless balls for match play and I really like them, I was surprised. They feel a bit lighter and spinnier than my recollection of Joola Flash, which is strange: shouldn't these be the same?

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No, Kingnik are seamless (XSF seamless are one of brands coming out of Kingnik factory) while Joola Flash are 1st generation DHS plastic balls ("cell-free") which break easily.

langel said:

No, my reference is up to date, but every update shows the same.

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Maybe in your neck of the woods. The New DHS and DFish balls ABS balls are more durable than the seamless balls. This has been true for over a year now.

JST said:

No, Kingnik are seamless (XSF seamless are one of brands coming out of Kingnik factory) while Joola Flash are 1st generation DHS plastic balls ("cell-free") which break easily.

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No, Joola Flash are seamless, and a later composition than Kingnik. They're a bit harder, less flighty than the original XSF seamless. Similar to Xiom and Yinhe S40+ seamless balls, a bit closer to ABS seamed in characteristics but different enough to be a pain.

About the durability of seamless - the newer ones (like Joola Flash) are a bit better IMO but they really suffer with sharp impacts - top edges being the main issue. In my neck of the woods they last longer with lower level play because people just aren't hitting that hard. Our best league player is a power looping maniac who does a lot of multiball and he can get through a LOT of seamless balls in a week. Our lowest-level team are very passive and gentle in comparison and could probably use one ball all season if you pushed them.

AndySmith said:

No, Joola Flash are seamless...

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Sorry, you are right. Interestingly I felt them always as clones of crappy balls such as Stiga Optimum or DHS 40+: they break almost every second match. Definitely not like Xushaofa or other brands from Kingnik factory. But I haven't paid enough attention that Flash has no seam, my fault.

Thanks, Andy, the different generations explains it.

Also, I am wondering if recent batches could have improved? Again it's only been a couple of match sessions and my humble best at blasting through the ball may not reach the heights, but they have hardly shown signs of wear.
I'll try and report on them after a while, it's just the one box for our team of three.

Im using Poly ball Double Fish V40+ ABS Ball with Seam. Its very consistent, roundness is very good. My team mate also liked this ball, cheap also. But sometimes we also used DHS D40+, this ball used in many local tournament.

JST said:

Sorry, you are right. Interestingly I felt them always as clones of crappy balls such as Stiga Optimum or DHS 40+: they break almost every second match. Definitely not like Xushaofa or other brands from Kingnik factory. But I haven't paid enough attention that Flash has no seam, my fault.

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NP mate. Joola had an early ball (the Super P, iirc) that looked like their rebadged DHS first-gen (like the optimum), and that was as bad as all chinese seamed balls were back then. Hopefully those days are behind us now and the awful balls are being left behind as we move forward. Just need to get rid of the G40+ now and things will be much better.

Ioiettino said:

Thanks, Andy, the different generations explains it.

Also, I am wondering if recent batches could have improved? Again it's only been a couple of match sessions and my humble best at blasting through the ball may not reach the heights, but they have hardly shown signs of wear.
I'll try and report on them after a while, it's just the one box for our team of three.

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It's hard to say really - I do think that the overall landscape has improved a lot since the early days - seamless don't bounce quite so high and are harder/more resistant to breaks, ABS seamed balls are close to Nittaku Premium. There is less variation between the most popular balls. People do report that they have better or worse batches of D40+, and I suppose there will always be some variation (and perhaps fakes appearing on the market), so anything's possible.

I find it much easier to adapt between Joola Flash and D40+ (the two most common balls I see each week these days) than I did with XSF and the first-gen seamed. It's also possible that I'm just getting used to the way things are I suppose. Adapting to the need to adapt.

I tend to ask people about their preferences when I meet them and I still get all sorts of responses. Anti and LP players seem to dislike Nittaku Premium and ABS (and some seem to like the original generation seamed, for some reason), spin-based players like seamless, hitters/drivers like Nittaku Premium and ABS. But it's not by any means consistent and people just like what they like. Some even like the G40+, and there's only one good response to that.

AndySmith said:

NP mate. Joola had an early ball (the Super P, iirc) that looked like their rebadged DHS first-gen (like the optimum), and that was as bad as all chinese seamed balls were back then. Hopefully those days are behind us now and the awful balls are being left behind as we move forward. Just need to get rid of the G40+ now and things will be much better.



It's hard to say really - I do think that the overall landscape has improved a lot since the early days - seamless don't bounce quite so high and are harder/more resistant to breaks, ABS seamed balls are close to Nittaku Premium. There is less variation between the most popular balls. People do report that they have better or worse batches of D40+, and I suppose there will always be some variation (and perhaps fakes appearing on the market), so anything's possible.

I find it much easier to adapt between Joola Flash and D40+ (the two most common balls I see each week these days) than I did with XSF and the first-gen seamed. It's also possible that I'm just getting used to the way things are I suppose. Adapting to the need to adapt.

I tend to ask people about their preferences when I meet them and I still get all sorts of responses. Anti and LP players seem to dislike Nittaku Premium and ABS (and some seem to like the original generation seamed, for some reason), spin-based players like seamless, hitters/drivers like Nittaku Premium and ABS. But it's not by any means consistent and people just like what they like. Some even like the G40+, and there's only one good response to that.

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Ahah, cheers for that.

Happy days!!!
I played with orange Cornilleau abs balls this evening, I hadn't realised how much I missed that colour!

These are the ones (probably available for cheaper somewhere):
https://fr.cornilleau.com/balle-de-ping-pong/1618-p-ball-x72-blanche.html

I won't do a full review as I was playing in the club from my teenage days and had to get used to the old Cornilleau 650 tables again (also no direct comparison with popular alternatives and did mostly matchplay), but after an hour with the god awful Butterfly Easy 40+, this was heaven and my consistency went up instantly by a fair margin. Not that I'd hate the BE per se, but the ridiculous wobble on every single one I tried makes it hard to judge any other factors. In comparison, the two Cornilleau (1*) I had were nearing perfection from that standpoint. Will try more on Sunday morning, to see if these were the exception.
I had the feeling they might be - very - slightly softer than DHS D40+, but again it is hard to say without direct comparison. Spin was certainly good, and again the consistency was easily above expectations, which is the first thing I'd ask of any ball.

I'll try and get more in depth and direct comparisons (bounce test, etc) in a couple of days, but that good old (okay, slightly pale and also dusty for the first twenty minutes) orange colour on its own felt fantastic on first impressions. Always liked them more than white in the celluloid days, I must say.

Any opinions on the pink 3 star butterfly ball and the others? Mine friend, which is a defender refuse to play with this ball since he say he do not get as much spin as with other balls. Do you guys think this is true? I do not notice much difference, as long as the ball is round but then i do not rely as much on spin. My friend likes the Stiga Perform 3 star ball.

Do you mean G40+? If yes, ask Andy about them, ahah.

I played with them again recently for a few hours each time, and I didn't mind them as much as I used to, at first. They don't feel like any other plastic balls. Light (almost flimsy) and okay spin out of the box, at least the consistency was alright up to that point but I had to readjust quite a bit after using abs balls (for example, the DHS D40+ feel a lot more direct, in comparison - I couldn't get the G to dig properly into the sponge for some time and kept overshooting the table, due to trying too hard to get that feeling back). Not something one couldn't get used to, but the main and worst issue is that in no time the surface wears out and they become very shiny, at which point they feel yet flimsier, harder to grip and a proper headache if you are using a number of balls at the same time, as they will all start to feel different due to individual levels of wear. Factor in the price, and these are better relegated to history, in my opinion.

Bounce test with a used D40+ *** shows the Cornilleau bounces slightly higher (not much in it, mostly visible after the third bounce following a 50cm drop) and the behaviour is overall similar. A few wobbly ones, not nearly as bad as the Butterfly Easy but I guess consistent with the 1* rating.
The dusty surface is annoying when using a full new box for multi-ball, we had to wipe our rubbers very often. Of course, this will get better after a while. The surface may also wear faster than the DHS, but I am not sure whether this is an impression due to the colour of the balls.
Still recommendable overall as training balls (which is obviously what they are designed for), for the relative affordability, good consistency in this range, comparable behaviour to abs alternatives and of course the orange colour, for those who who miss it.