Baking your balls?

[six6guy]

Baking (or reconditioning) your balls removes absorbed lane oil and restores the factory performance of a ball. The more porous the surface of a given ball the more frequent this will be need be done. I gather it's as often as every 25 games for some balls. The pro shop here charges $25 per ball and their oven is a stainless unit that rotates the balls and can do 2 balls at a time. I see at Amazon a personal unit that doesn't rotate the ball, is $190, and looks to be made with ABS plastic... I guess the pro shop got their oven someplace and my guess is it would be significantly more than the plastic unit

So I'm curious with your experiences on this topic...

• Do you have your balls recondition at the pro shop and if so how often? (every 25 games, every 50, once a month)
  Do you own a recondition oven/device and if so can your describe or give make/model?
  More frequent and shorter bake time _OR_ Less frequent and longer bake time?
  Can you describe the performance difference of pre/post reconditioning and how long had that ball not been reconditioned?

I have a couple of new balls that need reconditioning periodically and I'm toying with getting a oven, what models do people have/avoid. My budget is somewhat limited but it's not completely sour.


Thanks in advance
Brad

[tomcat]

hi pro shops tell me every 100 game recondition in oven. Some folks put ball in bucket hot water with dish soap, with taped holes. For 15 or 20 min.

[djp1080]

Creating the difference website has some videos on how heat effects on bowling balls that is pretty interesting. See for yourself.
Probably one of the best devices for getting an oil soaked ball pretty close to new condition is a Detox machine.
You can make an inexpensive ball oven by making use of a food dehydrator by modifying it to handle the size of a bowling ball. Nesco has a couple of units that seem to fit the bill and they have a temperature control capability to more or less keep the ball from heating up too much (i.e., 125 degrees F or so).
If you were to invest in a good chamois and some ball cleaner, you'll be miles ahead of the game. Spending some money on some sanding pads might be in order as well.
If you're going to spend $190 on a ball oven, you might as well go another chunk of cash and get a ball spinner while you're at it.
Keep your gear clean and use ball cleaner after each session of bowling and you'll probably not have to bake your ball at all.
Hope this helps...

[RobLV1]

As djp states, if you continually take care of your bowling balls, you probably will never have to bake them. Personally, I've never had a ball baked, though to be honest, when I was bowling a lot, I did try to put one out in the sun during the summer (I live in Vegas). I really didn't see any difference after baking. I will say that anyone who recommends baking a ball after fewer than 100 games is either not the sharpest knife in the drawer, or has an ulterior motive (PSO?).

[fordman1]

I have soaked my balls many times. One time I had an emergence and had to leave. My red and blue swirl colored ball sat over night and turned pink and sky blue.
Thread title made me chuckle.

[J Anderson]

As djp states, if you continually take care of your bowling balls, you probably will never have to bake them. Personally, I've never had a ball baked, though to be honest, when I was bowling a lot, I did try to put one out in the sun during the summer (I live in Vegas). I really didn't see any difference after baking. I will say that anyone who recommends baking a ball after fewer than 100 games is either not the sharpest knife in the drawer, or has an ulterior motive (PSO?).

When I used to drive from Connecticut out to Long Island once every summer to bowl with my friend Jeff, by the time I got to the bowling center every reactive ball in the bag would have a sheen of oil on the surface. Of course, while I’m very good about wiping balls between shots, I’m terrible about cleaning them before leaving the alley.

[Timmyb]

That $180 ball oven that you see is nothing more than a Nesco dehydrator with 4 extra rings. Built my own for about $100.

Did later add a probe thermometer just to see if the temp I set it at was accurate. It was not. Ran about 10° hotter than what I set it at, so be careful.

[got_a_300]

Yep I also built me a ball oven out of a Nesco dehydrator with the 4 extra rings
and a ball cup in the bottom to hold the ball in place while baking it. I do not
really use it all that much myself as I try to keep all of my equipment cleaned
with some ball cleaner and a pad after league is done.

I mainly use it to de-oil other peoples bowling balls for a very small charge not
anything even close to what a PSO would charge to do the same thing I don't
believe in over charging people like a shop would. I also refinish bowling balls
on my ball spinner for myself and others as well for a very, very cheap price
the PSO wants to charge them $30 to bake a ball and around $40 to refinish
a ball.

I usually charge them somewhere around $5 to bake it and $5 to refinish it.

[boatman37]

I threw one of mine in the oven once on the lowest setting for a few minutes and it came out soaked in oil. Won't do it again but just wanted to see. A teammate said he left his in his car one day while at work in the middle of summer and when he got to the center it was soaked with oil. That same guy said every once in awhile he will set his ball in front of a little electric heater in his house.

[JasonNJ]

I had an older Ebonite Pursuit-S that I baked once and I got a good amount of oil out of it but recently I've been using Clean and Dull and rarely get any oil coming out of the bowling ball now so I rarely bake them.

If you do bake bowling balls, you have to make sure you stay under 135 or to be safe around 125, because the heat can damage the material in the ball.