ABS Balls become brittle with age

I am not going to mention the brand name because I think this is likely a problem common to all ABS

alphapong wrote: I am not going to mention the brand name because I think this is likely a problem common to all ABS  balls. Twice now I have had it happen that when we used brand new in the box premium 3 star balls they broke very quickly due to the fact that they had been stored for about a year prior to use. Last week in a training session with 8 players we lost 9 balls over the course of several hours. When it is  $3 a ball, this is pretty damn aggravating. We already knew that plastic balls are more sensitive to extreme temperatures, but they also seem to become brittle with age, even when kept in a temperature controlled environment. Thanks again ITTF.

Don't know why you don't want to mention balls by name, you did mention that they cost $3 per ball, so highly likely Nittaku unless you are buying overpriced butterfly balls.

I have some DHS D40+ balls that at least a year old. They play the same.

The first time it happened, I suspected it was the age of the balls, but thought it could also be a bad batch, or the UPS truck was too hot etc. 

Edited by alphapong - 06/17/2019 at 10:23pm

Abs is a very durable plastic used everywhere. Cars have many abs parts which get many cycles of hot and cold. Lego are abs.

Sunlight will make abs brittle, but it takes a long time. Leave a Lego outside and see how long it takes to get brittle.

Balls sitting in a closet will not get brittle in a year. I have DHS abs balls with date codes in early 2017 and older NP40. They play fine.

Any bad abs balls were very likely bad from the start.