I wipe after every frame, clean with ball cleaner at the end of every league and practice session. I have an original Donkee 2 speed ball spinner that is still running strong; except when I am resurfacing where it sometimes overheat and stops. After a cooling down I'm off to the races again.
I have every grit of abralon from 360-4000 and I've tried Br Siaair pads, which are pretty good. I've used cleaners from Storm, Powerhouse, Kegel and a few others, I've also used Simply Green, 409 and made my own degreaser with industrial grade degreasers. I don't always do this but I sometimes refresh the desired grit finish when I plan on bowling a tourney. I've used almost every ball polish and still use Finesse It on occasion.
I do most of my ball prep now at the pro shop because I don't bowl as much as I used to. I know about ball death and I'm afraid I've been a victim of it as early as the Columbia Chaos, which is about the time when ball death first reared its ugly head.
I believe there is legitimate proof of balls losing performance otherwise you would see pros using the same balls throughout the tour season, which is what they basically did in the old urethane/plastic/rubber days.
From all the input it appears that ball prices are pretty uniform throughout the country. I thought we just paid this much here in NYC.
I guess with these prices my next question is how many balls do you buy in one year?
When I buy balls I usually buy 2-3 at one time probably twice a year. I try to keep my bags and shoes as long as possible which can last as much as a decade. I've been doing this for 20+ years and I really don't know how much longer I can do this. Ball prices keep going up but my income isn't
