Ball Cleaning

Many customers ask us, what is the best way to clean Billiard Balls or Pool Balls, so we have put together some information to help you understand the ins and out of this process.

First, let's start with:

WHY SHOULD YOU CLEAN YOUR POOL BALLS?

Dirty pool balls boost wear and tear on your table cloth, slowing down the balls, they also affect the distance that the balls travel and the speed in which they move on the table.

When handling pool balls, you transfer dirt and oils from your hands to the balls as you pull the balls out of the pockets and push them around to rack them up. While playing balls pickup chalk and other debris as they move around the table and are pocketed.
The cue ball gets the most beating as its the one that is affected the most. It gets marked with chalk and due to its white colour all marks are evident.

These marks are then transferred to object balls when cue ball and object balls make contact at high speeds. In conclusion dirty balls affect your cloth durability, your game speed and simply look bad compared to shiny balls.

WHAT TO AVOID

No matter what and contrary to what you might read online in some “expert” forums, DO NOT PUT YOUR POOL BALLS IN THE DISHWASHER, this will not only void any warranty but will cause permanent damage to your billiard balls.

Pool balls are made from a variety of resins and or other materials. They vary greatly in quality, weight, balance and roundness.
They can be very sensitive to the heat generated by the dishwasher. Some of the novelty balls are made of acrylic or hard plastic, some just have an overlay or the number and stripes colour screened.

These types of balls are very sensitive to even a gentle cycle in the dishwasher. Even the best balls will be dulled with a trip through the dishwasher and you will have a hard time getting that luster back.

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO CLEAN POOL BALLS THEN?

From our long experience in this industry there are 2 effective ways to clean pool balls:

1st Method is by hand

Its the cheapest way, a bit labor intensive, but can be done using a reputable ball cleaner such as Aramith Ball Cleaner and with a micro fiber cloth. This process takes time and lots of effort and the result is generally acceptable but not that great. A bottle of Aramith Ball Cleaner retails at 400 THB while an Aramith Ball Restorer retails at 450 THB. The Aramith Micro Fiber Cloth retails at 250 THB.

2nd Method is using a good quality ball cleaner/polisher

While this does seem more expensive at first, it does give you the best results. For Pool halls with a large amount of tables purchasing a Pool Ball Cleaning Machine would make sense and is a good solution. As for home owners, we now offer the service where they can bring their ball set to one of our showrooms and where we can clean the ball set for them for a small fee. The cleaning process will take between 20 minutes to 60 minutes per set depending on how dirty the balls are. We only charge 500 THB for this service. We only clean Phenolic balls which means only Aramith Balls or Cyclop Balls.

** Note if you own your Ball Cleaning Machine do not use the Aramith Restorer due to its high abrasive nature, it will damage the ball cleaning machine carpet and wont be effective on the Pool Balls.

Pool Balls Cleaning Service: 500 THB | Duration approx. 1 hour

Snooker Balls Cleaning Service: 750 THB | Duration approx. 1.5 hour