Rubber Life

[dhsalex]

I've been going through donic bluefires in roughly 3 months, my most recent one already feels dead after 2 months. Its been used for about 70 hours. Do anyone you guys have the same problem, and do you have any solutions? Also during matches the top sheet just looses grip because of sweat and drying against my shorts hasnt been helping, any tips? Thanks for any advice

 

[mahomedy13]

instead of using your shorts to dry,use your palm.I find that more effective.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

That hours sounds about right.

Some enivronments will cause the rubber to go earlier too
I'm sure you do the proper racket care already....

I recall someone from another forum has the same issues - due to the damp enviroment and rubber loosing its grip during matches.
Changing rubbers was his solution.
I can't remember what he was using or what he changed to.
Some rubbers topsheet is just not great with sweat or in damp enviroment

I do remember, he even used a dry sponge to try and clean the top sheet, but it wasn't good enough.

 

[dhsalex]

My hands sweat too much during games, so drying against palms just makes the topsheet loose even more grip. How often are your rubbers lasting at the moment?

 

[mahomedy13]

i dont play a lot nowadays,so they are lasting around 6 months.

 

[Donow]

I had this problem with aurus rubbers too because of humidity. Now with xiom vega pro it's a lot better maybe thanks to the topsheet which is of good quality.

 

[chiz]

Is is normal that a pre-assembled racket costing around $15 runs out after about 25 hours of use?

 

[mahomedy13]

Is is normal that a pre-assembled racket costing around $15 runs out after about 25 hours of use?

It depends on the use,but a premade is meant for recreation,so dont expect anything special from it.

 

[chiz]

It depends on the use,but a premade is meant for recreation,so dont expect anything special from it.

I usually buy a pre-made racket with Super FX on both sides but the sponge is dead after around 5-6 use of 5 hours each

 

[vvk1]

Bluefires have a reputation for being heavily factory boosted, so some loss of speed and spring after 3 months is to be expected, unless you reboost. However, 70hrs over 3 months is not enough to make the topsheet lose grip. Do you apply a sticky protective sheet to the rubber when you're not playing, even between games? That should help maintain the surface grip for longer.

 

[Der_Echte]

The amount of effective playtime you get from a rubber (lets call it up until the performance becomes 70-80% of new) greatly varies by user, conditions of the venues, care, the player's impact, the use or non-use of very wide edge tape to prevent early gassing out of the sponge, the amount of impact and by exactly what rubber it is.

In Korea, I palyerd every day 3+ hours. Tenergy, without edge tape maybe made it 4 weeks (100 hrs) before it became an average rubber. With edge tape, I could stretch that to 6 weeks. (150 hrs) Aurus would make it 2 or 3 months before I would switch it out. (the 200-300 hr mark) and my Korean friend would use it on his Jun Mizutani another 6 months (600 hrs).

All I did to take care of it was use edge tape (12 mm) wipe it off with my sweaty shirt, pants or hand during pauses in play, and toss the bat into my bat case after a shirt wipe-off. Carefully using BTY foam and a sponge and protective sheets did nothing to extend the effective life for me. For those who only played an hour a day, treating it like that probable added considerable life to their rubber. They would get 6-8 months out of their rubber easily, but in hours played, maybe only 150-200 hrs.