Brand new, curled tensor rubbers?

OhWell · Oct 27, 2017

Vega Pro curled out of the box??

Hey all,

One of two (new) Xiom Vega Pro rubbers I bought was curled when I unwrapped the package and took it out. The other was pretty much flat. It was curled in the opposite direction from a boosted rubber, with the sponge side being smaller than the top sheet side. I'm guessing what's going on is that the sponge on the curled one has shrank since it was first joined with the top sheet, whereas the flat one hasn't.

Does this mean that the curled rubber is somehow older stock than the flat one? What about the tension effect? (I know this often happens after tensors have been on the blade a while, but it was like that fresh out of the package..)

(I wouldn't have thought much about this except that the curled rubber started coming off the blade - glued with finezip..)

OhWell · Oct 29, 2017

I didn’t take a picture when I opened it, but this is after 4 days on the blade (used WBG). It’s a little more curled now, but not by much.

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UpSideDownCarl · Oct 29, 2017

How did it feel when it was on the blade? Did it play differently than the other rubber?

Did you buy from a reliable source? I would think about contacting them, show them to see if you can get it replaced.

OhWell · Oct 29, 2017

UpSideDownCarl said:
How did it feel when it was on the blade? Did it play differently than the other rubber?

Did you buy from a reliable source? I would think about contacting them, show them to see if you can get it replaced.

It feels less lively than the other one. The sound is also different - more muted.

It’s curled enough that it started coming off the blade. I just put a layer of Falco Long on it to make it flatter.

I got it from megaspin, whereas the one that was flat is from TT11.

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UpSideDownCarl · Oct 29, 2017

Interesting. I would send the photo to MegaSpin and explain. Include the information about how it did not feel as good as the one that was not curled, "noticeably worse" and that the reverse curl was big enough that it would not stay on the blade.

But boosting will probably work.

flash · Oct 29, 2017

I have got new sheets of rubbers like that and I believe it is because they are old sheets and the oil in the sponge has dried out. I just put a layer of FTL on the sponge or what ever it takes to flatten the rubber back out. I think all of the ESN rubbers even some of the earlier ones are boosted from the factory to some extent.

6Finger · Oct 29, 2017

This happened to me too, 3 times in fact, interestingly I had problems with red rubbers only.
Black ones would curl but not significantly, 3rd time I got them from a 2nd dealer and same thing again.
Red ones would curl so badly that they would unglue from the blade same day, black ones only slightly, about 50% of whats on your picture.
I did send an email with pictures to Xiom after 3rd one to ask them do they find it normal to get 3 bad rubbers in a row from 2 different dealers in Croatia but NEVER got an answer.
To be honest 2nd dealer did offer me to exchange the rubber since I warned him about the problem when I was buying rubbers, I decided to try out Omega V pro and those stay flat but very much like MX-P those shrink quire badly and topsheet is much more plasticky and nearly not as durable as topsheet of Vega Pro.

Those reverse domed red rubbers play dead and unglue in the 2nd day max and its such a shame because black ones are really great rubbers.
Being very disappointed with xiom for no support at all and losing a bunch of money giving one pair away and selling other two for a fraction of a price, not to mention numerous bottles of glue spent while trying to make red rubber stick on blade I AM FAIRLY CERTAIN ILL NEVER BUY THEIR PRODUCTS AGAIN.

EDIT:

After some digging through my email I found email that I sent them, here is a picture, its less than a week old rubber.

langel · Oct 29, 2017

I think that you should return the curled Vega Pro rubber Before unwrapping the package, or at least before gluing it.
If the rubber has been so curled and with so strong tension that could not stay glued on the blade, it should be very visible on the package itself.

6Finger · Oct 29, 2017

It can't be seen on the package because paper/cardboard is stiff enough to keep it straight. Rubber wasn't so dramatically domed out of package just a bit less than on the picture from 1st post.

OhWell · Oct 29, 2017

langel said:
I think that you should return the curled Vega Pro rubber Before unwrapping the package, or at least before gluing it.
If the rubber has been so curled and with so strong tension that could not stay glued on the blade, it should be very visible on the package itself.

Frankly I not expect anything like this, so I have no idea if there were signs of something off prior to unwrapping and didn’t look for any. I should have stopped when I saw the rubber after unwrapping.

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OhWell · Oct 29, 2017

^ One layer of Falco, overnight. I didn’t expect that much of an improvement from a single layer. Makes me wonder if another reason why booster is banned is that it straight up extends the life of factory booster rubbers.

I will contact megaspin and keep you folks posted. Needless to say their response will determine whether I ever order from them again.

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OhWell · Oct 29, 2017

6Finger said:
This happened to me too, 3 times in fact, interestingly I had problems with red rubbers only.
Black ones would curl but not significantly, 3rd time I got them from a 2nd dealer and same thing again.

View attachment 14512

This is very interesting. Given that we experienced this with different color of rubber it seems likely that it’s not a problem with the red rubbers specifically.

Also, given that these are produced by ESN I wonder if it’s a design/manufacturing/qc problem with the Vega Pro, or if it’s just an issue with stock sitting on shelves for too long. At this point my guess is that manufacturing side it’s just as reliable as other time tested ESN rubbers. So it looks like a sitting on shelves prior to sales problem, which might just be the fault of dealers.

In your expense do brands with ESN rubbers other than Xiom respond better to customer complaints? (I honestly don’t know..)

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6Finger · Oct 29, 2017

I had same experience with Yasaka Rakza 7 also red, but I only bought one of those.

OhWell · Oct 29, 2017

6Finger said:
I had same experience with Yasaka Rakza 7 also red, but I only bought one of those.

Do you recall who the dealer was for each of the faulty rubbers?

suds79 · Oct 29, 2017

That sucks man.

Clearly I think you're somehow dealing with issues in an old rubber vs a new one and whenever ordering, who knows what you're getting. A roll of the dice.

Tensor rubbers man. SMH.

Does anybody know of new rubbers, which high quality sponges that are not factory tuned where this wouldn't happen? I mean so many of us can tune ourselves with Falco.

Seems to me the selection is always either new, high quality sponge, factory tuned ESN rubber or Chinese tacky rubbers, of which I love those type of topsheets but all have firm, stiff and overall seemingly poorer quality sponges.

I mean the sponge quality difference in my MXP vs any Chinese tacky rubber I've ever tried (and its been several) is pretty big. I wouldn't even care if it wasn't boosted. I just like the feel it gives.

NextLevel · Oct 29, 2017

My game isn't precise enough to care about these things. As long as the topsheet is fresh and the rubber adheres to the blade, I just loop the heck out of the ball. Vega PRo and other 2nd gen tensors are going at a great price these days. Loving Tibhar Genius now...

OhWell · Oct 29, 2017

NextLevel said:
My game isn't precise enough to care about these things. As long as the topsheet is fresh and the rubber adheres to the blade, I just loop the heck out of the ball. Vega PRo and other 2nd gen tensors are going at a great price these days. Loving Tibhar Genius now...

From having seen your videos, if yours isn't mine is at least 50x farther from precise enough.. Now that it's flat enough to stay on the blade I'm not that worried about performance. It's not like it didn't play well even with the evaporated factory boost.

Even though it's not like my game really needs it, I am curious about this occasion to see how Falco performs with Vega Pro compared with the factory boost on the other rubber. I should get a neat almost direct comparison. Seeing how dramatically the rubber flattened with just a single layer, a little FLT just might be a great fit for keeping the XVP's performance more constant after the factory boost evaporates.

That said I will still contact the dealer to see how they respond: I still want to know if this is common given how they manage their inventory..

6Finger · Oct 29, 2017

OhWell said:
Do you recall who the dealer was for each of the faulty rubbers?

Ofc I do, they play stupid when you ask them about it..... Croatia is quite a poor country and rubbers are a bit cheaper here then in rest of Europe, otherwise ppl wouldn't buy them due to such a low standard. Aftermath is that we get these inferior quality rubbers, is it that its old stock or worse rubbers right from the start idk but this is the result.

langel · Oct 29, 2017

Bulgaria is a more poor country and TT prices are even cheaper

http://tennisdiscount.eu/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_10&products_id=621

but I've experianced such problems with tenths of couples of Xiom rubbers.

And I'm absolutely firm on this - there is no such thing like "evaporated booster" on Xiom tensors. The organic component in the ESN tensors is incirporated in the sponge material substance, its not added inbetween it, like usual booster additives.
I have plenty of Xiom rubbers, some used and old on shelf, and have never experienced curling or extra shrinking problem. Tomorrow I'll look for a Vega Asia rubber I've used before 6 months and may take a picture.

OhWell · Oct 29, 2017

langel said:
Bulgaria is a more poor country and TT prices are even cheaper

http://tennisdiscount.eu/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_10&products_id=621

but I've experianced such problems with tenths of couples of Xiom rubbers.

And I'm absolutely firm on this - there is no such thing like "evaporated booster" on Xiom tensors. The organic component in the ESN tensors is incirporated in the sponge material substance, its not added inbetween it, like usual booster additives.
I have plenty of Xiom rubbers, some used and old on shelf, and have never experienced curling or extra shrinking problem. Tomorrow I'll look for a Vega Asia rubber I've used before 6 months and may take a picture.

What’s your take on the likely cause of the curling?

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Brand new, curled tensor rubbers?

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