I bought 3 new Lane Masters balls back in February so I kind of put my older balls on the shelf while I was trying to adjust to the new ones. Several months ago, the guy in the Pro Shop asked me what I plan to do with my older balls. He said that if I don't use the balls, they will crack. He asked me if I wanted to sell them back to him. He showed me a whole box of balls people had returned or he had previously drilled, mostly older balls, thay had huge cracks in them. I told him that I plan to use the balls occasionally, but for the mean time, I wanted to practice with my newer ones.

Sure enough, about a month later, my old Ebonite V2 developed a deep crack rom the ring finger 3/4's of a way around the ball. My balls are kept inside my house and remain at a relatively constant temperature. I was told that the balls will build up pressure within and eventually crack if not used. Is it true that if you don't use a ball that has previously been drilled, that it will crack with disuse? What about balls that have yet to be drilled?
Thanks,
Pattayabowler

OK, so sometimes balls crack. That happens. You put them in cars, then garages then basements and sometimes they crack. Sometimes you treat them even better then that and they still crack. But that's just how it goes.

Your Pro Shop guy is just trying to get used stock cheap. And then if that ball cracks what does your Pro Shop do to warrenty it? Probably nothing. I have seen very few balls crack as you have described. I have seen some do so. But very few.

I think balls that have never been drilled are just fine. Never seen one cracked before drilling.

LOL, on the other hand, I have about 3 dozen balls in the house that are drilled and none of them are cracked. Another three dozen at "mom's" place in lockers that have not cracked on the outdoor patio. So I dont' think a study has been done to really study this idea. Its just a line of thought. It may not be wrong but it also may not be right.

I think it was just unfortunate that your ball cracked. Its not something you did or put in any particular environment. It just cracked.

Erin

I have ripped through a ton of ball and only one cracked. I leave them in the truck/car year round. I throw them excessively. I've heated them to push oil out and they just take a beating.

The only ball to ever crack on me is my left hand drilled ball (I'm righty, was injured for a few months so I went left). The ball has little games on it then stored out of the sunlight in room temperature and sure enough the ball has a thin crack around the entire ball. It was The Big One, I liked that ball so much I had though about getting it plugged and drilled righty but I guess that's out the window now lol

I have had only one ball crack to the extent that I had to throw it away. A Columbia Bully I had developed A crack around the entire ball. I had the ball on a piece of carpet on the garage floor, and I left it there for quite awhile..I actually forgot about it. It was out there during a cold spell, that may have helped the situation. One day I decided to dust it off and take it to practice and discovered the damage. So I took a chisel and a Hammer and continued to crack it in half just to take a look inside at the core and inards of a bowling ball..LOL.

ButI think Erins correct,..your Pro Shop guy is just trying to restock his used equipment.

If they are not subject to severe temperature changes, I don't see how this happens. My older balls are kept in boxes in the back of a closet. One of these days, I will check them. I don't think I will find anything though.

When I had a 2.5 year break off bowling, and left my balls to the locker at the bowling hall, they were just fine when I came back. And also my first ever ball, which has not been used for about... 4 years is still fine too.

Ive had one ball crack and about 50% of my friends said if they leave a ball in one place for a long time they had one crack. Just rotate the ball every couple of months.

Look, I'll rotate my wine bottles in the racks. But, I refuse to rotate my bowling balls.

LOL Oh come on Dennis, rotate your bowling balls too. Maybe they'll get better with age :-P.

Sorry not poking fun at the post, and if anything I would just make sure that the temperature stays fairly consistent as you stated. They should be fine.

People, I had a Storm ball crack almost all the way around and I buy about 40 to 50 balls a year so they made it up quickly and explained that when the balls are being formed, they will sometimes have an internal blemish, some problem with forming the ball. The outside "Cover Stock" is perfect, without blemish. The problem is inside. We can't see it so naturally people jump to the conclusion, it sat too long.., The ball was defective in the first place and someting after a period of time, triggered it to crack. If they told everyone that, they'd have top make up too many balls. I have only had that one to crack, I sold about 40-50 of my old used equipement and the people are still using them and would not part with them. I have about 40 or 50 left and have given several away. There are none of them cracked. It was just a factory defect we could not see. It was a Paradgn. The purple one. They were noted for cracking there was a problem in the design, but I'm not the one that told ya that. Ha! Eddie