Neo-Tac recently introduced a terrific new ball cleaning product called 'Khameleon Particle Sand High Tech Ball Restorer'. For all those who have complained that Hook-It cleans but leaves a sticky residue, and/or that Renew-It cleans but also polishes, there are no more excuses.

'Khameleon Particle Sand High Tech Ball Restorer' is a pure cleaner that does nothing but industrial strength cleaning. It doesn't polish, it doesn't attempt to increase tac, it just flat out cleans.

At first I was concerned that the product is a form of liquid sandpaper -- meaning that the cover would be altered with product use. So as an experiment, I refreshed the cover of my X-Factor Deuce on the spinner using an 800 grit grey scotch-brite pad. This leaves very fine sanding lines on the cover. I then threw a few games on fresh oil to actually have something to clean. Then using a paper towel by hand, I cleaned the ball with Neo-Tac Restorer. It felt like using a very mild version of Neo-Tac Liquid Sandpaper. There was no question the Restorer was doing a complete clean -- I could feel it as I rubbed the compound into cover, and the paper towel was definitely picking up a lot of junk. And I was pleased that the 800 grit sanding lines were still intact after I was done, meaning that Restorer did not alter the cover.

As a final test, I cleaned the ball on my spinner (high speed setting) using Liquid Nitro. I made sure I was generating intense heat to pick up anything that might have been left behind by Restorer. To my delight, the towel was clean.

The bottom line is that Restorer seems to be a winner. And it should appeal to cheap bowlers who don't want to buy a spinner to use cleaning products. Just Restorer and a paper towel are all that's necessary.

No go forth; there isn't an excuse not to use neo-tac products anymore.
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"You want the truth? -- You can't handle the truth! "

Mumzie: No, I didn't try using Restorer on the spinner.

However, in the past, I have experimented with the other major liquid sandpaper products on my spinner (Ebonite Quicksand, Ebonite Sandblaster, Neotac Liquid Sandpaper), and I really didn't like the results. The Liquid Sandpaper compounds do not distribute evenly on the towel, so you get uneven sanding on the spinner. So from the 'cover refreshing' angle, using scotch-brite gives a much more uniform finish. And from a cleaning perspective, using a pure liquid cleaner at high speed with a lot of pressure is more effective.

I have to pack my spinner away when not in use, so it's not always convenient to pull it out and set it up when I have the urge to do a deep cleaning. That's what is really nice about the neotac products. They are designed to be used by hand, and using just a paper towel and a little elbow grease, do a great job.
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"You want the truth? -- You can't handle the truth! "

great post Steven, thanks!
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JEFF
Better....much better!

Here ya go:

http://www.blockbusterbowling.com/catalog/CatalogMgr.pl?cartID=b-4130&SearchField=category&SearchFor=SPN&template=Htx/spn.htx&hdr=SPN&displayNumber=10

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seadrive
Cogito ergo bowl

I've always been very happy with Hook-It as a cleaner, but I was in my pro shop recently and they had this Khameleon stuff, and based on this post by Steven I bought a bottle of it.

This is the best and easiest ball cleaner I've ever used!

I have a Granite Gargoyle, a ball notorious for getting dirty and wanting to stay dirty.  It's my heavy oil ball, so I keep it at the original box finish of 320.  It not only looks like cement, it feels like cement.

The last time I had used the Granite, it was only for about one game, since the lanes broke down to the point of being out of the Granite's range in that time.  Nevertheless, the ball got visibly dirty.  (I've heard it said that the Granite "grows a beard" as you use it, and that puts it pretty well.)  My usual cleaning regimen with Hook-It left a few smudges on the ball that just didn't want to come off.  I've never purchased Liquid Nitro, but my pro shop gave me a bottle with a few ounces left in it, so I tried that on the Granite.  It didn't get the smudges out either, but I did notice that the Liquid Nitro did not leave the tacky feeling on the ball that I get from Hook-It.  I like that tacky feeling, so I went over the ball again with Hook-It, not necessarily trying to clean it anymore, but just to put that tacky feeling back on it.  I left it at that.

In my league on Saturday just past, the lanes were really sloppy, and it was like that just about to the head pin.  That's very unusual for this house, especially during the "Please Come Back and Bowl Next Year" time of the season when we usually get really soft conditions.  Nevertheless, it was a mess, and I ended up using my Granite for the whole set for the first time ever, and did quite well with it too, I might add.  Afterwards, the ball was a disgusting mess.

I decided this was an ideal time to try out the Khameleon Particle Sand High Tech Ball Restorer.  As I was shaking it up, I noticed that it sounded like it was thicker than Hook-It or Renew-It.  It sounded like a regular gel-like polish.  It turned out that it wasn't as thick as polish, but it is higher viscosity than Hook-It and Renew-It.  I put the ball in the spinner and put some Khameleon on a paper towel and went at it.  I could see black grunge coming off the ball.  After about 10 seconds of this, I held a clean towel on the spinning ball to get the residue off, and then stopped the spinner.

The ball was completely clean!  I've never seen anything work this well, this easy, and this fast.  I did the other side, and then flipped the ball 90 degrees to go over it again at a different angle to see if I'd get anything else.  Nope.  Once was enough.  Amazing.

As I said before, the Khameleon just cleaned, it didn't leave a tacky feeling on the ball.  I went over the ball with Hook-It as a final treatment just to add the tackiness and I was done in record time.

Khameleon is an excellent product.

I haven't tried it yet on a shinier ball, so I can't speak about Steven's finding that Khameleon didn't change the surface texture, but if that is so, it seems almost like the introduction of Khameleon makes Liquid Nitro somewhat superfluous in Neotac's line.  Liquid Nitro, like Khameleon, does not leave a tacky finish, but Khameleon effortlessly removed smudges that were giving Liquid Nitro (and Hook-It) a hard time.  If it turns out that Khameleon does dull down a shiny ball, (like my 5000 Sling Blade) then that might be the niche for Liquid Nitro.  For now though, my plan is to use Khameleon as my primary cleaner (especially on duller equipment) and Hook-It as a cleaner and a finishing treatment to create a tacky surface.

I know this post has been long-winded, but I have been a big proponent of Hook-It as a cleaner on this board, and in this forum in particular, and I felt that it was appropriate that I give a thorough report on how well this new Neotac product works.

Thanks to Steven for starting this post with his thorough report.  If I hadn't seen it, I don't know how long I might have waited to try Khameleon.

Shiv
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Forever let us hold our banner high

Just a quick question about this new cleaner.
I'm not one that uses these cleaners normally so please humor me.
I noticed Particle in the name of the product. Is this just to describe the product or does it mean that it should only be used on particle coverstocks?
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All hail the almighty SillyBillyBob

These Neotac products really do an excellent job.  On polished balls, what I generally use as a cleaner is a 50-50 mixture of Renew-It and Hook-It that I keep premixed in a specially marked bottle.  It doesn't come close to Khameleon in quick effectiveness, but it does clean and polish nicely at the same time.

As to SillyBillyBob's question, all the info Neotac provides says that Khameleon is for cleaning particle balls, but I can't think of any reason why it couldn't be used on a regular reactive resin ball.  I think that they specifically mention particle balls because particle balls are generally harder to clean, so if the product cleans particle balls it should work on anything.

Since Hook-It cannot be used on plastic balls, I'd avoid using Khameleon on plastic balls just in case, until someone gets a verdict from Neotac about whether or not it's safe for plastic balls.

Shiv
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Forever let us hold our banner high