Rubber durability, loss of tackiness, grip, speed, bubbling etc

IB66 · Sep 26, 2020

Hi everyone,

Whilst reading a lot of threads there’s been many references to the durability of rubbers, so I thought a thread just for durability would be good.

could be one out there already, apologies if there is !!

Durability, covers many subjects as well though!! Fragility, reaction to glues and boosters, bubbling, separation of sponge and top sheet. Brittleness, speed, spin, tackiness, general quality control from the manufacturers, price - long life/performance, decrease of performance, which some may actually prefer because it suits them better!!

As players and more importantly consumers, what do we consider a reasonable life span for a rubber? what drop in performance is acceptable until a new sheet is required? And how to recognise when to change. (This can be difficult to ‘see’ for yourself) What should we expect?

As amateur players we read reviews, these are generally for new, straight out of the pack rubbers, Pro’s changes rubbers very frequently, because they get them free issue, we don’t. So really it would be good to get some feedback over time as well. The sort of ‘living with’ review you see in car magazines!!!

well, I’ve sort of kicked off !!!

let’s see what everyone has to say!!!!

CLV · Sep 26, 2020

I recently started playing again after 20 years hiatus. As a kid i could train 4 times a week, play competition and tournements with the same pair of rubbers for a whole season. Now i play 2 times a week and need to change them every 4 months.

IB66 · Sep 26, 2020

CLV said:
I recently started playing again after 20 years hiatus. As a kid i could train 4 times a week, play competition and tournements with the same pair of rubbers for a whole season. Now i play 2 times a week and need to change them every 4 months.

I’m in the same boat, started playing again after 30yrs out!!
i feel the same as yourself, the quality of rubber durability has certainly decreased!! On the other hand the base attributes of rubbers seam to have increased, faster, more spin, better control etc
so is this because the modern rubbers have to have a shorter lifespan to achieve more? Or is it because the manufacturers want to be able to sell more? Designing in a shorter lifespan?
its probably a mixture of both!!

hopefully, if people start posting on this thread we’ll see which rubbers perform well over time, and which ones don’t.

Which rubbers are you currently using, or have used?

IB66 · Sep 26, 2020

Issues found with some rubbers

Tibhar FXS - edge of rubber broke away, pimple by pimple around the whole edge of the bat. From 1st use onwards.
DHS H3 Neo provincial red sheets, top sheet and sponge started to de-bond at edges, also quite delicate, slightest knock on table seemed to cause damage.

lodro · Sep 26, 2020

IB66 said:
Issues found with some rubbers

Tibhar FXS - edge of rubber broke away, pimple by pimple around the whole edge of the bat. From 1st use onwards.
DHS H3 Neo provincial red sheets, top sheet and sponge started to de-bond at edges, also quite delicate, slightest knock on table seemed to cause damage.

Just wondering if both these rubbers have been bought locally in an approved dealer TT-shop or have been bought from china , where , as we know a lot of fakes are sold.
I am asking this because I do have both of the rubbers you mention and only fitted them to the blades quite recently so wonder if i have to look forward to the same problems you are having with them.

btw do you clean the rubbers just using water or are you using some "special cleaners" ?

Good thread

Sedis · Sep 27, 2020

A couple of rubbers that have had good durability:

Donic Bluefire JP series. I had a Bluefire JP03 that I used for most of a season, passed on to a junior at our club and it still looked practically new after a further year.

Mizuno Q5 - top sheet seems extremely durable in terms of wear and overall performance seems very stable, does chip as easily as anything else though, so no more durable in that respect.

Sedis · Sep 27, 2020

IB66 said:
Issues found with some rubbers

Tibhar FXS - edge of rubber broke away, pimple by pimple around the whole edge of the bat. From 1st use onwards.

I found Tibhar EL-S to chip very easily around the edge. No such issues with EL-P or MX-P.

IB66 · Sep 27, 2020

lodro said:
Just wondering if both these rubbers have been bought locally in an approved dealer TT-shop or have been bought from china , where , as we know a lot of fakes are sold.
I am asking this because I do have both of the rubbers you mention and only fitted them to the blades quite recently so wonder if i have to look forward to the same problems you are having with them.

btw do you clean the rubbers just using water or are you using some "special cleaners" ?

Good thread

Both rubbers were bought from a local dealer/shop, very good reputation.
I clean with water / moist sponge during matches / training, then maybe once a week with a rubber cleaner

CLV · Sep 27, 2020

I started with the el-p rubbers. They are not durable at all in my opinion. They got worn out after two months of playing. Then came the lockdown. And they were even worse after 2 months of not playing.

IB66 · Sep 27, 2020

CLV said:
I started with the el-p rubbers. They are not durable at all in my opinion. They got worn out after two months of playing. Then came the lockdown. And they were even worse after 2 months of not playing.

Thats one of the things I’ve heard about the Evo series, but I have MXS and MXP as well, they were still okay after 3 months, but I stopped playing with them. However I think performance was starting to drop off.

CLV · Sep 27, 2020

I've been playing DHS provincial and joola dynaryz acc after. They are much more durable

IB66 · Sep 27, 2020

CLV said:
I've been playing DHS provincial and joola dynaryz acc after. They are much more durable

what sort of lifespan are you getting from the dynayrz? Or are you the 1st sheet?

CLV · Sep 27, 2020

IB66 said:
what sort of lifespan are you getting from the dynayrz? Or are you the 1st sheet?p

I'm on the first sheet since june. Been playing 2 or 3 times a week for about 2 hrs.

IB66 · Sep 27, 2020

With regard to boosting rubbers and factory pre-tuned rubbers

1) Is the boosting reducing overall durability / lifespan compared to un-boosted ?
2) Do certain boosters work better on certain rubber combos? Sponge types?
3) Is boosting likely to increase the likelihood of ‘bubbling’?
4) Pre-tuned / factory boosted rubbers, which manufacturers products are more prone to ‘bubbling’? Poor quality?

In general

Are there any products that are considered ‘DON’T BUY’ because of really bad performance, quality control, known defects, such as bubbling, de-bonding of sponge and rubber etc

IB66 · Sep 27, 2020

CLV said:
I'm on the first sheet since june. Been playing 2 or 3 times a week for about 2 hrs.

so 4 months in, about 17 weeks, let’s say 15 weeks @ 4hrs/ week = about 60hrs + both sheets still performing well!!

CLV · Sep 27, 2020

IB66 said:
so 4 months in, about 17 weeks, let’s say 15 weeks @ 4hrs/ week = about 60hrs + both sheets still performing well!!

Sounds about right.

fanoftt · Oct 2, 2020

Hurricane neo, orange, provincial
Few days of playing, 2 thin seamoon layers

tt_beginner · Oct 2, 2020

what causes this bubbling

yogi_bear · Oct 2, 2020

tt_beginner said:
what causes this bubbling

Topsheet n sponge separation due to weakening of glue either due to poor quality or external factor such as boosters.

tt_beginner · Oct 2, 2020

yogi_bear said:
Topsheet n sponge separation due to weakening of glue either due to poor quality or external factor such as boosters.

this can't be repaired?

Rubber durability, loss of tackiness, grip, speed, bubbling etc

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