I think what jsigone is asking Cal, is if the Kinetic requires as much maintainence as the BW balls because the BW balls have a tendency to die out fast. He wants to know if the Kinetic requires baking every month to a month in a half to retain its reaction.

Like I said, pretty much any ball is like that, dull balls need more, like several of the balls in the BW Line, with the BW Pearl needing it less as it doesn't absorb the oil as quickly as the Solid or Bite. My answer gave him the basic information needed to make that determination himself. I'm not sure what the cover of the Kinetic is, if its pearl, or a polished solid it would need similar the the BW Pearl, and if its a unpolished it will need more.

i never knew my No Mercy needed to be maintained. That ball was AWESOME when i got it new. Rolled 750-775's for about 6 weeks solid before it took a big dive. I never understood why until recently. I just put it away and took it out ever now and then when my Trama would have a hard time. I held a 253ish average for that time. I got marriaged in that time frame last yr and the other team was pissed at my 241 blind HAHA. I had planned to resurface it and use the cleaner I got but before all the cleaner came off the fed ex truck, the ball cracked at the thumb hole.

So now I KNOW. Clean those darn balls after use. How often are you guys draining the oil out? I have a thermal chamber at work we use for testing computers at temps. There are 6 of us at work that bowl on leagues together and I introduced them to baking the balls. My buddy just got the BW Bite and told him it's high maintainence and he should get the cleaner too, so he ordered some. He also has the No Mercy and No Mercy Beat n.

I rarely extract the oil. Occasionally my equipment might be in the truck if I think its going to be cutting it close to make it to bowling after work, or if I think I'm going to be able to hit up a center near the jobsite so the sun will heat it up some and some oil would come out. Outside of that I've only purposely did it once. Most of my equipment, or at least the 14 lb arsenal that I need to find away to get rid or, was polished, pearl or both and rarely absorb much oil. I could leave it in the sun, or heat it up and hardly get anything out of them. I had dull equipment but they were rarely needed, so rarely used and I didn't need to worry about getting oil out of them.

I used to sit my BW Solid out in the sunlight once a week and let the sunlight do all the work and I'd rotate the ball about every 5-7 minutes to try and avoid the flat spots. But now that it is sharing playing time with my Cell it's about once every three or four weeks.

I'd say if it's a particular spongy ball I'd go every 1-2 weeks with the sunlight. But like you said you have a thermal chamber that you can use at work so maybe, no definately wait a bit longer because you can get higher temps than I can. I'd say use it when you notice the ball's reaction starting to go bake it. And definately try to keep a close eye on the balls and the temperatures so that the balls don't crack. Lastly you might want to find something like dowel rods to put the balls on so they don't develop that flat spot I was talking about.

It does depend on usage. If you use it almost every time you bowl. About 20-25 games for dull solids, and 35-40 games for others. At around 35-40 you might want to sand a dull ball back to OOB, or whatever surface you are using on it. A polished ball just a coat of polish at around 50 games will usually go a long way to keeping a consistent reaction.

I'm sure others will have different amounts they prefer.

I bowl two league nights + one practice night (4-6 games), so roughly 10-12 games per week after all the league warm ups add in there as well.

When I used the chamber, I set the balls on a large PVC ring to keep them elevated off the rack. I've only used it a couple times so far.

jsigone, clean your ball every use with a ball cleaner, or a degreasing solution. The reaction will last longer. When you notice your dull ball keeping a sheen, it's time to deep clean it.

Every ball will require deep cleaning at a different rate, depending on oil absorption and cleaning routine.

That PVC ring can make an indentation into the ball surface if the ball gets too hot. Depending on where that indentation is at it could affect ball reaction, plus according to USBC rules any indentations/grooves other than the ball and company info is illegal. So keep a watch that there is indentations form the PVC ring.

thanks for the heads up on the rings, I'll make something else then, maybe outa dense packing foam.

Today I practiced at a new house, was floddy with snappy back. Simular to my main house. I sanded the Trama to 2000 abralone and worked great. Threw the ball like I normally do and rolled some pretty good games. 5 practice games, 214 was the lowest and 242 was the highest.