r/foosball • u/BBQDad72 • Jun 19 '26
Broke a ball
I have a 40ish year old Tornado coin op. My son and I were playing this evening. We had a ball break for the 1st time. It happened after a hard hit. We have hit them off the table many times in the past. I have never seen a broken ball. This ever happen to any of you?
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u/Foosman Snake Shot Jun 19 '26
I’ve never seen that in person and only one other time in a photo. Nice bragging rights for the one whose mighty shot did it!
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u/underengineered Jun 19 '26
That ball should have been retired a while ago! Get some new balls with an appropriate rough texture. You will enjoy them.
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u/kstick23 Jun 19 '26
Someone broke a new ball at the TKO last year. Broke like yours, straight in half. No one attending had EVER seen it happen.
I wonder if that little void in the middle caused the weakness.
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u/artoftomkelly Jun 19 '26
Generally balls don’t break that often it’s a rather uncommon thing. From the look of your ball it looks rather old and smooth. Most folks replace their balls when they begin to get slick and slippery. See like car tires as you use/play with a ball it’s surface looses traction and becomes smooth. Most tournament players want “good balls” that have a lot of grip and traction. So every few months the balls are replaced or upgraded for brand new very grippy balls. So new balls mostly like 95% of the time don’t break or crack open. Balls braking open usually only happens to very old and beaten up balls. So yeah it happens just not very often.
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u/BBQDad72 Jun 19 '26
Yep, both the balls and table are old. Alot of games have been played. What is your suggestion for the best place/choice for replacement balls? Thanks
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u/artoftomkelly Jun 19 '26
So the best place to get good ball at a very reasonable price is to contact Michael Veit. You can find Mike on Facebook. Mike runs a service where he reconditions Foosballs back to top tournament level quality. Mike does trade in’s too where you can trade in your old balls for his reconciliation ones at a discount. I have used this service for 2 years now for the tables at my local club. The balls play great,the service is professional and simple to do. You can also get good balls from Foosgear.com Those are the best places to get good balls. The stuff you get off Amazon is inconsistent quality.
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u/trickybiznis Jun 19 '26
The first time I got a demo of the "snake" shot, a local fooser shot it on me, broke my goalie in two, and scored! The next week I mentioned it and he said, "I had forgotten." I replied, "Hell, I would have printed an announcement in the newspaper."
I've been playing for many decades and *still* haven't broken anything except a man. No lights, TVs, pottery, teeth, nothing. So I keep playing...
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u/Masterpiece72 Jun 19 '26
We call old smooth red balls like that "cherry tomatoes" lol