FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Will NuBall run in areas (countries) that have 220-volt electrical systems?
NuBall is a 110-volt device, so in countries with 220-volt infrastructure, a voltage converter of at least 500 watts is required.
Why does my machine have a label around the temperature control?
Every machine is tested before being shipped to the customer. If the thermostat on a unit is inaccurate, we affix a high quality label which corrects the inaccuracy. When NuBall is set at 135 degrees according to the label, the machine will run at or very near 135 degrees.
Why is the base of my NuBall cracking?
Some cleaners and some bowling lane oils seem to have an adverse effect on the ABS plastic that the base is made of. The most common cleaner to cause problems is Simple Green. We recommend you clean your NuBall base with a dry paper towel or plain water.
Should I heat the ball until it is completely dry on the surface?
No. We recommend running NuBall for one hour. At the end of that hour, there will usually be visible oil on the ball, and often in the cup below. We recommend using a good degreaser, such as Zep Heavy Duty Citrus Degreaser to remove the oil from the ball. A spinner is helpful for this, but not necessary. PLEASE NOTE: Do NOT use alcohol or anything containing alcohol to clean the ball, as it will cause it to cool unevenly, which can lead to the ball cracking.
Should I take my ball out every few minutes, wipe off the oil, then put it back in?
It’s really not necessary. Our specially designed cup allows hot air to circulate under the ball, eliminating the need to rotate the ball, and collects the oil that drips off of the ball.
How should I dispose of the extracted oil?
Lane oil is mostly mineral oil, much like baby oil. In the amounts that are likely to come off the ball, our recommendation is to simply wipe out the cup with a paper towel and discard it.
I ran my ball through the machine and got no oil out of it. Is something wrong?
There are a number of possibilities:
1) Your NuBall might be damaged. We do test every NuBall before we send it out, but occasionally they can get treated roughly enough in shipping to damage the thermostat. The first thing to do is test the unit. That is easily done by placing a thermometer inside the cup in the bottom and turning it on for 30 minutes. Any thermometer that reaches 135 deg will work… meat, candy, bbq, oven… If the thermometer does not read at least 130 deg., the NuBall is not functioning properly. That is an easy fix. We simply send you a new top.
2) It IS possible for the oil to evaporate, even in as little as an hour. We suggest trying a different ball, but this time checking on it in 20 minutes or so, to see if there is any oil on the surface. If you check it every 10-15 minutes after that, for up to an hour, and there is no oil, then you are not likely to see any from that ball.
3) People who take meticulous care of their bowling balls, wiping them off after each frame, & cleaning them after a match, may never see visible oil, but will generally see improved performance. So the next suggestion is to try out the ball, and see what you think. You can also try rejuvenating a friends or spouses ball, particularly if they are less careful in keeping them clean.
4) There are bowling balls that are not porous, of course. Plastic balls are not porous. Plain urethane balls are not porous (there are new pure urethane balls on the market now, and we occasionally see a person using an old one from the 1980s-90s). There are a couple of balls - fairly new models - on which NuBall's function is affected. One is the Quantum Fire from Brunswick, and another is by 900 Global - a gold, pearlescent ball. These balls are made with a super-thick coverstock - essentially, it’s a big core with a thick coverstock, with nothing else in between - the coverstock is poured onto the core directly. Those balls are porous, but the pores are several times deeper than those we’re accustomed to. Therefore, even if you bowl 3 or 4 times a week, it can take several months for the pores on the ball to get filled with oil. When they do finally get full, it has the same weakening effect it has on other resin balls, and using NuBall will help, as it does on other balls.
5) One of our first sales as a company was to a friend who played in our poker game. He had a Hammer Black Widow Venom that had never been rejuvenated (and had been used for years). He tried it in our machine, with no oil produced. He tried a couple of other things, and then his pro shop operator tried this: he lightly sanded the ball using the same grit of paper that produced the ball’s current surface (it was 4000, I think). Then they ran it through NuBall, and it produced 3 or 4 tablespoons of oil! I had that same ball, and we had had no luck with it either. We sanded it as described, and lots of oil came out in Nuball. It seems that the pores are being capped by some sort of crust that is strong enough to resist the expansion-by-heat that is produced in NuBall. A light sanding takes off that crust, and the process works fine. We have since had other customers report similar results using this method with other bowling balls.
We have found that some balls simply don’t seem to absorb enough oil to see any come out during rejuvenating, while others can produce several tablespoons.
How many times can I bake a ball and how frequently can it be done?
You can bake a ball as often as you wish, for as long as you wish. We have baked a ball overnight a couple of times with no ill effects at all. We recommend baking a ball for one hour, approximately every 30 games.
What is the warranty on NuBall?
New units have a 30 day return policy, and 3 year replacement on all parts.
Refurbished units carry a 30 day return policy, and 3 year replacement on all parts. The only exception is, there may be slight cosmetic flaws, which do not affect the performance of the machine. For instance, no more than 1 or 2 of the 8 bottom tabs on the middle section may have been broken off. Those kinds of minor flaws are not covered under the warranty.