My experience with Chinese rubbers

[enoxzr]

Hi everyone!

Since I recently went on a spree buying several Chinese rubbers to try out, I thought I'd write about my experiences with them, hopefully to be informative for you guys!
I am an amateur player, playing for 1.5 year again, after a 12 year hiatus. I play a generally attacking style, on both sides. In general to my level I have a good service, below average service return & short play, decent forehand and good backhand.

My main blade is a Butterfly Balsa Carbo X7 22 and eager to try a Yinhe T11s soon, with a spare Stuor Long V clone I use on the side. I have played around with short pips as BH, but reverted back to inverted rubber as it suited my playing style more.

I will note on which blade I tested the rubber together with the hardness and color of the rubber with each test.

Rubbers tested:
Loki Rxton 3 (Blue and Pink)
Yinhe Jupiter III Asia 38 Red
Loki Rxton 3 Pro
Friendship Bloom Power 45 Red

Rubbers in use:
Butterfly Balsa Carbo X7 2022 - current main blade
FH: Friendship Bloom Power 45 black
BH: Yinhe Moon 12 Blue Mid Hard

Andro Treiber FI - Attacking LP experiment blade
FH: Loki Rxton 3 Pro
BH: Tibhar Grass D.Tecs OX Green

Yinhe T11s - spare > going for SP backhand
FH: Friendship Bloom Power 45 black
BH: Yinhe Moon 12 Blue Mid Hard

Yinhe N10s - spare
FH: Tibhar FX-S Black (used, got it when buying the Andro blade)
BH: DHS C8 1.0

Sanwei Defence Alpha - spare for defence fun
FH: Yinhe Jupiter 3 37 black
BH: Yinhe Qing OX

Rubbers I have on hand or on the way:

• Rxton 3 Blue
• Friendship Bloom Power 45 black
• Yinhe Moon 12 blue Mid Hard
• Yinhe Pluto Red
• Palio AK47 Yellow Red
• Yinhe 955 OX red
• Palio CK531A OX red
• Yinhe Mercury II Soft Red
• Reactor Tornado V5 Red
• Yinhe Uranus Pro Soft 1.8 black and red

Rubbers discarded (no review):
Friendship Pro Dragon-F Medium Soft Red
Yinhe Jupiter III 37 Red
Yinhe Big Dipper 38 Red
Sanwei Gear Hyper Mid-soft Blue
Yinhe Qing 0.7 Red - donated to teammate
Yinhe Neptune 0.7 Red - donated to teammate
DHS Hurricane 8 39 - didn't make waves for me in my tests, was okay but not not great
DHS Hurricane 3 Neo 39 black - liked it more then the H8, non-tacky style was decent, but I liked other options better

 

[tackyfh]

I think your rubbers are a bit medium soft/soft for your forehand, I usually goes with 39-40 deg rubber (47deg for 729 products) and boost them with 2 layers of haifu seamoon. Also, black chinese rubber often suits the forehand more since they have option for blue sponge (denser but easier to absorb booster and speed glue)

 

[enoxzr]

Loki Rxton 3
Tested in Pink on a Stuor Long-V clone and in Blue on a Butterfly Balsa Carbo X7 22.

I bought this rubber to try as I was looking for something new being unhappy with my previous setup and rubber experiments. I decided to try this rubber out due to its price and reasonable reviews for it, plus from what I read about it, it seemd to fit my playstyle. It also was available in blue and pink which I do have a little sweetspot for if I am honest.

First sheet I bought was the pink sheet and that was glued to a Stuor Long-V clone blade I had laying around. First reaction was really positive, I was surprised by how I was able to hit my first balls. As I got into the topspin balls I had to adjust a bit more coming from a European tensor rubber, but I got adjusted fairly quickly.

I have played with this setup for ~one month and in general I liked it, but wasn't blown away. I missed my balsa carbon blade as I lacked feeling in this setup. Recently I glued a blue sheet to my Butterfly blade and that did make things better, but I wasn't convinced on the rubber yet. I still lacked feeling on my forehand, especially over the table in short play and in blocks.

After reading a bit more I am convinced that the 40 degrees hardness the Rxton 3 comes in is too hard for me and I bought up a swarm of softer rubbers to try out ahead of my regional championships and the new season starting next January. Moving up a class in my local league as well, so I need to regain confidence in myself and my blade pairing I will use throughout next season.

To note, I have noticed no difference in the blue and pink rubber. However, both rubbers do not seem to be the best quality wise, as on both rubbers I have see the top layer separating from the sponge, on different area's of the rubber. It separates around the edges and starts spreading in wards a bit, just enough to be a nuisance but not big of a problem. Weird to see this happening on both rubbers, but it doesn't seem to be a major concern.

 

[enoxzr]

I think your rubbers are a bit medium soft/soft for your forehand, I usually goes with 39-40 deg rubber (47deg for 729 products) and boost them with 2 layers of haifu seamoon. Also, black chinese rubber often suits the forehand more since they have option for blue sponge (denser but easier to absorb booster and speed glue)

Thanks for the input as I was writing up my take on the Rxton 3.
I think I rather try the softer versions first, as I do think the 40 degree hardness on the Rxton 3 is too hard for my liking and in all honesty too hard for my technique to cope with.

I'll give the softer versions a try and see where I get with them and move up in hardness (possibly also taking up boosting) if I feel like these rubbers are too soft.

 

[TT Lover]

I think your rubbers are a bit medium soft/soft for your forehand, I usually goes with 39-40 deg rubber (47deg for 729 products) and boost them with 2 layers of haifu seamoon. Also, black chinese rubber often suits the forehand more since they have option for blue sponge (denser but easier to absorb booster and speed glue)

Does 47 degrees hardness of 729 rubber equal to 47 degrees hardness of ESN rubber ?

Thank you sir.

 

[turbozed]

Does 47 degrees hardness of 729 rubber equal to 47 degrees hardness of ESN rubber ?

Thank you sir.

No it's not, confusingly. It's more like 52d+ on the ESN scale. I will eventually open my 47d Bloom Power and measure it with a durometer, but that won't be until next season.

 

[tackyfh]

Does 47 degrees hardness of 729 rubber equal to 47 degrees hardness of ESN rubber ?

Thank you sir.

I'm not sure, but it's equal to 39 deg in DHS scale so u can convert it to ESN (~50deg)

 

[TensorBackhand]

Does 47 degrees hardness of 729 rubber equal to 47 degrees hardness of ESN rubber ?

Thank you sir.

I have Bloom Power 47d. It is about 54-55 ESN

 

[enoxzr]

The Big Dipper and the two Jupiter 3's arrived in the mail today. Seems like the Bloom Power and Battle Pro Max are still a week to week and half away from being delivered.

Gonna try to resist glueing one of the sheets to my Butterfly blade this weekend as I wanna try the Friendship rubber first, but we'll see if I can resist the temptation to do so 😂

 

[enoxzr]

After a chat with a teammate I glued the Jupiter III 38 to my Butterfly blade this morning. We are both gonna try it out as a forehand option, while the 37 degree Jupiter III might become a backhand option for him.

First impressions are very good. For the price you the rubber is pre-glued and you get a protective sheet with it, already seems very hard to beat for it's price, lets hope it plays well.

I also glued the Friendship Pro Dragon-F to a spare Stuor Long-V clone I gad laying around, gonna see how that plays as well, but not gonna play it a lot.

I als noticed on my Rxton III sheets that I removed from both blades this morning that my pink sheet apparently is 39 hardness, whereas my blue is 40. Never saw a seller advertise for multiple hardness option for the Rxton III so I was quite suprised, but may also explain my displeasement with my blue rubber. Saving the pink one for later.

Also to note, my old glue I could remove very easily from both rubbers, far easier than any other before. Pink had the full layer on the rubber and I could almost remove it in 1 try. The blue one left the glue on the blade, which was odd, but atleast also in 1 layer. Maybe the colder weather has an impact on that?

 

[enoxzr]

First session done on the Jupiter III.
Great over the table play, great serves so far. But I need time adjusting on my FH openings and strokes, speed is very linear. Not sure if I need a little more catapult or not, I'll give it some time.

My teammate however instantly fell in love with the Friendship Pro Dragon-F. That does have a little more kick to it, with him coming from Tenergy 05 FX's of both FH and BH. Those rubbers died in about ~8 months with his edges fully crumbling off at the moment. For half price of 1 T05FX I have now ordered a Pro Dragon-F Mid Soft with a Palio AK47 Yellow for his backhand.

 

[enoxzr]

First session done on the Jupiter III.
Great over the table play, great serves so far. But I need time adjusting on my FH openings and strokes, speed is very linear. Not sure if I need a little more catapult or not, I'll give it some time.
...

Second session done with the Jupiter III. I like it but I miss just a little something, it feels like the brakes are on a bit too much.

I decided to glue the Jupiter III to the T11s blade. Gonna give that a try for a couple of hours this week and see if that fixes the problem.

I'm a bit undecided on the Pro Dragon-F. Glued it to my Butterfly blade for now as my focus is on the T11s for the coming weeks. Might swap it out for something else, but for now its going to be my second blade.

 

[enoxzr]

Yinhe Jupiter III Asia 38
Tested as FH rubber on Butterfly Balsa Carbo X7 2022 and Yinhe T11s.

Overall I tested the Jupiter III for about 10 to 12 hours, of which a bit more than half of the hours on the Butterfly blade. On this blade I enjoyed services, receives and short play in general. My services were spinnier than before, pushing/short play was really enjoyable if I played active. If I got tired and didn't receive actively, balls would dive in the net. FH flicks on a receive were also very enjoyable to play, felt very safe. Also something enjoyed was the blocking of this rubber, I could block with a lot of confidence, where I usually stay away from blocks on my FH side.

However I missed something in open play. Both in loops, drives and counters the rubber felt like it was on the brakes, like it missed 5th and 6th gear so to say. Seeing I had my T11s ready, I glued it on that blade to see if the harder/faster blade made an improvement in that regard. Which it did, but not a lot.

After a good while on the T11s I decided to remove the Jupiter III from the blade. I still missed acceleration on the harder strokes. On the T11s short play got a little less safe, but was still a very good experience, blocking maybe even got a little better than on the Butterfly blade. This got my eager to try the softer Jupiter III I have laying around to play as a backhand rubber at a later stage, as I am set on my short pip BH for at least the coming season.

In the end the Jupiter III left me a bit frustrated. It has everything I like in short play, but leaves me too unsatisfied in open play for me to give it a serious go right now. Might be down to adjustment, so maybe I will give the rubber another go at a later stage. For the price around 15 euros this rubber is a great deal, especially since it comes with a protective sheet and a pre-applied layer of glue. It's amazing value for money if the rubber fits your gamestyle/technique.

For now I have set my hopes on the Bloom Power as my FH rubber for next season of local league. I just glued this on the T11s. This stays on till at least the first weekend of January as I play a regional tournament then. If I like it, it stays on till the end of the local league season, if not the Battle Pro Max is going on to have time to be broken in before the local league season starts.

 

[enoxzr]

Glued the Big Dipper 38 to my Butterfly blade (inlcuding a different SP sheet on the backhand) and going to use it as my spare blade for the coming period.

Interesting to see that my sheet of BD is only very slightly tacky, bit less then my sheet of Bloom Power. My sheet of Jupiter III is miles ahead of both looking at tackiness, even the Rxton 3 is a good chunk ahead of them. Might be down them being red sheets, but it's at least interesting to note.

 

[enoxzr]

Got some sheets of Loki Rxton 3 Pro on the way, to try as FH option.

Softer rubbers didn't necessarily did for me what I initially hoped they would. Also, I'm a bit disappointed with the tackiness of the red rubbers, only the Jupiter III seems up to par in that regard.

My setup on the Yinhe T11s will stay as it is for a few weeks, gonna glue the Rxton 3 Pro to my Butterfly blade and gonna keep the Big Dipper on it as BH rubber initially, with my Jupiter III 37 as backup for that. In case that doesn't suit me, I'm gonna order some more traditional BH rubbers.

 

[tackyfh]

Got some sheets of Loki Rxton 3 Pro on the way, to try as FH option.

I hope u can try Rxton 5 pro too, idk whether 3 pro and 5 pro is any different from the original version

 

[enoxzr]

I hope u can try Rxton 5 pro too, idk whether 3 pro and 5 pro is any different from the original version

Most likely I won't be trying the Rxton 5 Pro, as its likely that the Rxton 3 Pro is on tha harder end of what I prefer in a FH rubber.

On paper Rxton 3 and 5 Pro only differ in sponge hardness, so I will most likely only try the 5 Pro if the overall feel of the 3 Pro is soft (which I doubt it will be).

However, the announced Rxton 7 is an interesting rubber to me with what has been said about that, so when that launches I will very likely order a sheet of it and see if its any good.

 

[TensorBackhand]

Most likely I won't be trying the Rxton 5 Pro, as its likely that the Rxton 3 Pro is on tha harder end of what I prefer in a FH rubber.

On paper Rxton 3 and 5 Pro only differ in sponge hardness, so I will most likely only try the 5 Pro if the overall feel of the 3 Pro is soft (which I doubt it will be).

However, the announced Rxton 7 is an interesting rubber to me with what has been said about that, so when that launches I will very likely order a sheet of it and see if its any good.

Rxton 3 Pro uses large pore cake sponge. Rxton 5 pro uses small pore dense sponge. So they are quite different. But I ordered both to test out.
I'm hoping that 3 Pro is similar to GTX.

Rxton 7 should be interesting.

 

[enoxzr]

Rxton 3 Pro uses large pore cake sponge. Rxton 5 pro uses small pore dense sponge. So they are quite different. But I ordered both to test out.
I'm hoping that 3 Pro is similar to GTX.

Rxton 7 should be interesting.

Alright, thats interesting, I thought there was little difference between the 3 and 5 Pro.

Let's see what the 3 Pro does for me, maybe I'll give the 5 Pro a go later, although I'm not sure if a denser and harder is what I am looking for.

 

[enoxzr]

Had to order a sheet of Palio AK47 Yellow for a teammate and ultimately ordered a Rxton 1 in Red and the new Sanwei Au Golden in Red as back-up backhand options.

Current plan is to swap both SP rubbers for the incoming Rxton 3 Pro rubbers, and keep the Big Dipper and Bloom Power on there as backhand rubbers. Been trying them out at both could work, but the Bloom Power felt more controlled. Got a Jupiter III 37 on hand as first alternative, with the Rxton 1 and Sanwei Au Golden in behind.

Hoping the Rxton 3 Pro is a good enough fit for my FH the time being, otherwise gonna re-order the Bloom Power in black as FH rubber.