Do you boost your ESN rubber after factory tuning wears off?

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Boosted an old sheet of Rakza Z, just to see if I could get any more life out of it before replacing it. Didn't end up liking the result, it was a bit faster, but it lost it's high arc and control. The flatter trajectory and higher speed made it play significantly different than I was used too. The increased tension on the top sheet seemed to cause it to lose dwell time/grip, further reducing control/spin. Not saying that boosting is a bad idea for all esn rubbers, just that it did not go well with Rakza Z. It lasted quite a long time for me, and as the tackiness wore off a bit, the top sheet softened and grip increased, so it stayed usable late in its life. Boosting it turned it into a completely different rubber, I will not be doing it again.
 
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Boosted an old sheet of Rakza Z, just to see if I could get any more life out of it before replacing it. Didn't end up liking the result, it was a bit faster, but it lost it's high arc and control. The flatter trajectory and higher speed made it play significantly different than I was used too. The increased tension on the top sheet seemed to cause it to lose dwell time/grip, further reducing control/spin. Not saying that boosting is a bad idea for all esn rubbers, just that it did not go well with Rakza Z. It lasted quite a long time for me, and as the tackiness wore off a bit, the top sheet softened and grip increased, so it stayed usable late in its life. Boosting it turned it into a completely different rubber, I will not be doing it again.
That is interesting. I was always under the impression that booster increases the throw angle.
 
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That is interesting. I was always under the impression that booster increases the throw angle.

I think the higher tension on the top sheet meant it lost a lot of grippiness, and the ball didn't engage the sponge nearly as often/well. With the chinese rubbers I have boosted, I do agree that the throw angle is typically increased. Don't have any other experience with boosting esn rubbers.

 
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I don't think it will be anywhere close to 80%
just boosting it to fit the bat again is almost difficult lol

boosting the sponge might give you the bounce, but the top sheet after 30 hours of hard hitting a week, or 120 hours a month, would be dead.
no booster will bring it back.

It will be okay for primary school kids though

Wow, 120 hours a month!?!? That's 4 hours per day. Pretty tight schedule, even for a pro...
ABout the 80% - that's me , trying to be polite as usual

 
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I had a couple of Stiga DNA S/M and Andro Hexer Grip/Grip SFX and more similar rubbers. They shrunk like there's half a centimeter short all around the blade. And I tried to get them to fit the blade again with both Seamoon and TTRevolution booster, but it takes several layers, like 4-6, and then wait for the dome to settle. Sure it gets almost all the way size wise, but the rubber properties might be different than they were in the beginning.

First, the rubber is more worn out, and stretching the top sheet like this wont make the grip better either.

Second, I guess the "booster" used at the factory might work in a different way, and also is a mixed experience with the sponge being fresh and maybe more elastic. That could be hard to recreate with an ordinary booster.

These are just my thoughts, and no scientific facts at all :)
 
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Wow, 120 hours a month!?!? That's 4 hours per day. Pretty tight schedule, even for a pro...
ABout the 80% - that's me , trying to be polite as usual

well, I am using based on the Pro juniors in our team.
that is only "hitting" hours. They still have many hours doing physicals.

but yeah, if you don't go pro, you can use that hours as bench mark, maybe not over 1 month, but over 3 or 6 months, the topsheet would still become dead too (maybe last longer as the hitting isn't that hard)

 
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I’m generally interrested in equipment testing so I had to try boosting as well. My observations about boosting are: Boosting doesn’t make the rubber same as new with factory boosting (this is ofcourse abvious), boosting makes rubber a bit softer and bouncier, boosted rubber is not as springy as non-boosted rubber. So basically if you boost your rubber you change springyness to bouncyness. To me this is no go. Some players might like it but I rather loose some performence of the rubber rather than make it bouncy. I only tried to boost couple of esn rubbers so my experience is really limited and it will stay limited becouse I didn’t find anything positive with boosting. I used Falco tempo long booster.
 
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I’m generally interrested in equipment testing so I had to try boosting as well. My observations about boosting are: Boosting doesn’t make the rubber same as new with factory boosting (this is ofcourse abvious), boosting makes rubber a bit softer and bouncier, boosted rubber is not as springy as non-boosted rubber. So basically if you boost your rubber you change springyness to bouncyness. To me this is no go. Some players might like it but I rather loose some performence of the rubber rather than make it bouncy. I only tried to boost couple of esn rubbers so my experience is really limited and it will stay limited becouse I didn’t find anything positive with boosting. I used Falco tempo long booster.

There is a trick, only boost very hard rubbers.

 
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I certainly can play with ESN after the factory booster is gone, but I really hate the fact that I buy a rubber for what it is and after three weeks it turns into something different. Typical example is the MX-P. Reboosting doesn't bring back the initial performance although the top looks almost intacted

Kolev...

My offer still stands. Save those sheets of MX-P you hate on and Sergey the Tsos will pay full cost of shipping and be smiling the next 4 years when you pile up enough to ship.

Sergey just loves MX-P after it gets a month or two old. Plays just right. Not terrible reactive to incoming spin, not super bouncy, easy to wrap topsheet around ball for those catch and throw topspins. decent top end on the pounder shots, very good spin on slow and fast loops, easy to manage incoming spin for soft topspin defense or countering... list goes on for the reasons to use MX-P after tuner goes out.

Not everyone wants a rubber that is essentially a modern control oriented rubber with a good top end when you give it energy... but the Tsos is a different cat.
 
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All those things I just said about MX-P after tuner goes out... that is Aurus right outta the box... great control oriented rubber with offensive potential - you just keep landing shots.

So many players these days want the ultimate in power and are willing to examine the bottom sides of the hairs of a gnat's azz... all in a quest to get that 0,002 percent better performance... when a rubber that allows more consistency with your technique gives you double digit percentage boosts every damn time.
 
says Table tennis clown
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I’m generally interrested in equipment testing so I had to try boosting as well. My observations about boosting are: Boosting doesn’t make the rubber same as new with factory boosting (this is ofcourse abvious), boosting makes rubber a bit softer and bouncier, boosted rubber is not as springy as non-boosted rubber. So basically if you boost your rubber you change springyness to bouncyness. To me this is no go. Some players might like it but I rather loose some performence of the rubber rather than make it bouncy. I only tried to boost couple of esn rubbers so my experience is really limited and it will stay limited becouse I didn’t find anything positive with boosting. I used Falco tempo long booster.

What the heck is the difference between springyness and bounciness ????????

 
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Bouncy rubber gives you speed and spin with minimal effort but with less control. With springy rubber you have less speed and spin with minimal effort but you have a lot more control. When you loop or drive harder with springy rubber you don’t loose control but gain speed and spin vs bouncy rubber on hard loop/drives you loose control but you don’t gain as much speed and spin as you do with springy rubber.

By the way in future if you really want to get answers to your questions you should get rid of sarcastic multiple ? marks.

Cheers,
Tommi
 
says Table tennis clown
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Bouncy rubber gives you speed and spin with minimal effort but with less control. With springy rubber you have less speed and spin with minimal effort but you have a lot more control. When you loop or drive harder with springy rubber you don’t loose control but gain speed and spin vs bouncy rubber on hard loop/drives you loose control but you don’t gain as much speed and spin as you do with springy rubber.

By the way in future if you really want to get answers to your questions you should get rid of sarcastic multiple ? marks.

Cheers,
Tommi

Since when do multiple ????? represent sarcasm ????
I am not being sarcastic , this was a genuine question , and you know what ? After your thorough explanation of bounciness vs . springyness
I am not the wiser.Maybe you can have another go at it 😁

 
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After 4 months i boosted my rubbers with 1 layer of Seamoon. Here are my observations:
  • You need to start with a hard sponge, because the booster soften it. My rubbers are 52.5 and 47.5 degrees, and the result is likely 2 or 3 degree softer.
  • No increase in speed. Any increase is negated by the sponge being softer.
  • More spin! They are easier to play now, especialy my 52.5 degree FH rubber.
I like the result but they are not awesome as they used to be when new.
 
says Fair Play first
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[size=+2]Hi all,
Please be aware that ESN GmbH does not "tune" rubbers at all, and never they did so in the past.[/size] Instead, they adopted the unique rubber curing technology of high thermo pressure over 300 MPa.

Be happy.
 
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