Stay away from European rubber because they are fragile

[andymagata]

Every time I play pieces of my rather expensive Joola and Andro rubber fall of, not to mention the deep tearing a table hit causes. On the other hand, my cheaper rubbers from Yinhe, Tuttle and Loki are in good condition despite bad gule job, bad cuts, mishits etc.

Is this the norm for European rubbers? Sure, they are great to play with, but I think those companies should not sell such crap, and even have the stomach to charge premium for it. It is fraud, and large parts of the community supports it.

 

[Lazer]

Every time I play pieces of my rather expensive Joola and Andro rubber fall of, not to mention the deep tearing a table hit causes. On the other hand, my cheaper rubbers from Yinhe, Tuttle and Loki are in good condition despite bad gule job, bad cuts, mishits etc.

Is this the norm for European rubbers? Sure, they are great to play with, but I think those companies should not sell such crap, and even have the stomach to charge premium for it. It is fraud, and large parts of the community supports it.

I played for a long time with ESN rubbers (on BH right now) no such problems.
Maybe You shouldn't hit the table after You miss a shot...

Cheers
L-zr

 

[andymagata]

I do not think table tennis equipment shops are at fault, they have to sell what people ask for. Rather the guys that review stuff on their channels should not praise this stuff.

 

[Zwill]

It's true Chinese rubbers can take more until they get nicked. I'm not a huge fan of ESN but they are no worse than Butterfly in this regard. (Chinese rubbers have durability issues too, but different ones)
Also hitting the table is not intended use. I think you shouldn't drive your car into poles, walls, busses either 🤔

 

[cybershapedragon]

Every time I play pieces of my rather expensive Joola and Andro rubber fall of, not to mention the deep tearing a table hit causes. On the other hand, my cheaper rubbers from Yinhe, Tuttle and Loki are in good condition despite bad gule job, bad cuts, mishits etc.

Is this the norm for European rubbers? Sure, they are great to play with, but I think those companies should not sell such crap, and even have the stomach to charge premium for it. It is fraud, and large parts of the community supports it.

ESN rubbers have tensed rubber (tensor) and are therefore more likely to get torn. That's just their nature and the source of the unique touch/feel.

 

[olive-nguyen]

Sort of true. I take really good care of my rubbers and somehow my old fastarc gets a ding, my h3 Neo used for longer doesn’t have a single chip. Compared to my backhand rubber Rakza 7 with a lot of chips, you can’t also see the difference in tearing. It’s a shame, but I don’t think Yu can sum it in terms of rubber quality. Just different pros and cons. Like Chinese rubbers are rather sensitive to dust and I won’t put my forehand side flat on the table, always with a ball underneath

 

[tzifos]

Every time I play pieces of my rather expensive Joola and Andro rubber fall of, not to mention the deep tearing a table hit causes. On the other hand, my cheaper rubbers from Yinhe, Tuttle and Loki are in good condition despite bad gule job, bad cuts, mishits etc.

Is this the norm for European rubbers? Sure, they are great to play with, but I think those companies should not sell such crap, and even have the stomach to charge premium for it. It is fraud, and large parts of the community supports it.

I played for a long time with ESN rubbers (on BH right now) no such problems.
Maybe You shouldn't hit the table after You miss a shot...

Cheers
L-zr

The truth is between these. There are ESN rubbers (like Fastarc) that last long and don't have such problems and there are ESN rubbers that loose bits play after play in the sides (like Hexer Grip/PowerGrip/SFX) and this is from my own experience.

 

[zeio]

ESN rubbers have tensed rubber (tensor) and are therefore more likely to get torn. That's just their nature and the source of the unique touch/feel.

It has to do with the proportion of synthetic rubber to natural rubber.

 

[olive-nguyen]

The truth is between these. There are ESN rubbers (like Fastarc) that last long and don't have such problems and there are ESN rubbers that loose bits play after play in the sides (like Hexer Grip/PowerGrip/SFX) and this is from my own experience.

Strange, I experience the chipping on fastarc too. But worse on Rakza 7

 

[laowa]

Yes newer esn rubbers have terrible durability!!

 

[Lazer]

Wonder what You guys do to your rubbers.......

Cheers
L-zr

 

[NetProphet]

Every time I play pieces of my rather expensive Joola and Andro rubber fall of, not to mention the deep tearing a table hit causes. On the other hand, my cheaper rubbers from Yinhe, Tuttle and Loki are in good condition despite bad gule job, bad cuts, mishits etc.

Is this the norm for European rubbers? Sure, they are great to play with, but I think those companies should not sell such crap, and even have the stomach to charge premium for it. It is fraud, and large parts of the community supports it.

Yeah, Chinese rubber is harder for sure and seems to fray far less than the generally sofer European counterparts.
That said, I think a lot of it comes down to how well a racket is looked after. I've never had an issue with any of the Yasaka rubbers I've used and they're ESN rubbers but they always got cleaned, covered with plastic and put into the racket case immediately after use.
I have a friend who is fat more 'Agricultural' in how he looks after his racket and his rubbers edges are in bits and one of them is Chinese.

A very tidy cutting job also reduces the fraying at the edges.

 

[K.K]

never had this problem with esn too, only had it once back when i played with butterfly rubbers. they crumble on the edges if you chop short. anyway you mostly wouldn’t play them long enough that it would create any real problem

 

[Tyce]

Most ESN rubbers tend to fray, but one BIG factor in that is when you stretch them while gluing. Even a little bit can make the tension too much.
What I found extra interesting is that edge tape doesn't help. I've seen many bats with a frayed trench against a wall of edge tape.

Soft rubber is more prone simply because it's weaker. It's also not a tensor issue, as I've seen it on Vari Spin, Vario, but less on Sriver and Mark V (because the topsheet is tougher). Non speedglued ofc.

I've also seen it on pretty much every sheet of 729 Super fx, which is Chinese. But those also tend to end up with pinholes in them after a while so quality is pretty crap

 

[backspacer]

Wonder what You guys do to your rubbers.......

Cheers
L-zr

Blame them.

 

[TackyForehand]

It has to do with the proportion of synthetic rubber to natural rubber.

Does get torn more with more natural or synthetic rubber?

 

[zeio]

Does get torn more with more natural or synthetic rubber?

Typically more with more synthetic rubber. Natural rubber is irreplaceable because of that. See 30:37 of the video for a detailed explanation.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

stay away from the chinese because you need boosting.

Spoiler: So what is left?

Butterfly / Japanese Woo Hoo Yay!

Spoiler: OK, ok... to be fair

there is Victas, so don't go finger pointing Gozo is a pure Butterfly fan-boi

 

[NextLevel]

Strange, I experience the chipping on fastarc too. But worse on Rakza 7

Never had this experience on G1, especially if I use edge tape, though that era of rubbers was built to mimic Tenergy (Xplode, Genius, Hexer, G1, Vega Pro, Baracuda, Rakza 7) so I totally get why it might logically.

 

[Zwill]

I think Dignics and Glayzer have the most chipping on the edges, except for 09c, that doesn't do it at all.

Tenergy also does it but not as bad.

Still, besides that Dignics and Glayzer durability is still probably one of the best if not the best of all rubbers.

Some older ESN rubbers are not bad either, G-1, V>15... maybe some others too.

Newer ESN rubbers durability is kinda bad but I didn't try the latest ones after Rasanter R53, and K3.