How to Clean Your Bowling Ball for Peak Performance
Scott PohlDescription
Similar to your skin, the surface of a bowling ball has pores that need to breathe in order to get the proper reaction on the lane. Each time you throw a bowling ball your ball picks up oil, dirt and dust that clogs the pores and neutralizes its ability to grip the lane. That’s why it’s essential to know how to clean a bowling ball so your equipment performs at its best, all of the time.
Scott Pohl, owner of On Track Pro Shop, demonstrates how to remove oil from shiny and dull bowling balls.
Pre-packaged Wipes for Bowling Balls
Storm’s Reacta Wipes rejuvenate both shiny and dull bowling balls while restoring tackiness. 20 disposable wipes come in a zip lock package and you can clean multiple bowling balls with one wipe. For best results, apply after everytime you bowl.
Dull Bowling Ball Cleaner
PowerHouse Clean n’ Dull
PowerHouse Clean n’ Dull removes oil, dirt and belt marks from a dull (strong) bowling ball’s surface.
Apply a dime size portion onto your bowling ball. Evenly wipe the entire ball with a paper towel spreading the cleaner around the ball until it appears damp.
Wipe your fingers over the ball and you’ll discover that it is tacky or almost sticky to the touch.
After application, your bowling ball will better grip the lane because the cleaner revitalizes the natural track on the bowling ball.
For best results, apply after every time you bowl.
Shiny Bowling Ball Cleaner
Kegel’s Revive
Kegel’s Revive decreases the attraction of lane conditioner to the ball’s surface. This in turn, reduces the amount of conditioner that can be absorbed into the cover. Since oil attracts dirt, this also reduces dirt buildup.
Apply a couple of sprays to your shiny (weak) bowling ball and wipe the entire ball with a paper towel.
Spread it around the entire surface of the bowling ball until you bring back the tacky feel the bowling ball had when it was new.
For best results, apply after everytime you bowl.
These bowling ball cleaners are a great way to keep your bowling balls performing at their best in between resurfacing.
Learn how to remove oil with this video, Maximizing Your Bowling Balls Performance, and check out more free videos from National Bowling Academy to better improve your game.
Scott Pohl here with OnTrack Pro Shop. Feel free to check us out on Facebook and Instagram, do a lot of good things there for you. We're gonna talk about how to clean a bowling ball for peak performance, right now. These bowling balls are awesome. They hook a lot of great ways. The problem is they absorb a lot of oil and sometimes even a lot of dirt as they go down the lane. One cleaner, very simple to use, are these wipes. They come in a nice pre-packaged pouch, unseal the pouch, take out the wipe. All you have to do spread all the way around, very simple, and it's even good for multiple uses. Okay, you can use it on multiple bowling balls all at one time. Get a lot of good use for your money. Okay, moving on from there. Now we have a couple of different cleaners. Bowling ball cleaners today are specifically designed for, usually, the specific type of bowling ball. For instance, I have a dull cleaner for a bowling ball. I'm gonna use it on this one right here. I'm gonna grab a little bit more of a part of the ball that's been used. Get a better example. I put about a dime size on that bowling ball, grab a thin napkin or paper towel to use and just lightly spread it around the bowling ball. Works really well. And you'll notice that it actually gets a little bit absorbed in there and the towel will come out a little bit dirty and it feels nice and sticky just like it was brand new out of the box when you got it. Okay, so here's a cleaner now that's made for the shiny bowling ball. It's a simple spray on and it's not gonna take away the shine characteristics for instance, this one had. Okay, so we're going to actually shine this off here. Wipe there, what we got is this nice tacky feel on the bowling ball once again. So from there, these bowling balls are pretty clean, but if you want to get them back to even closer to when they were new, grab the Abralon Pads, we have a really smooth, fine 4,000 Abralon Pad here, okay. We're just gonna rub this a little bit. Opens up the pores, a little bit of the bowling ball and it's gonna have a little better performance and even tackier yet than it was before. Same thing here, I have a little bit more of a duller pad. I'm gonna take that to it and you can see how I changed that dullness and it brought it back just a little bit more, it's gonna work better on oilier lanes or start to hook a little bit sooner, okay. And lastly, cleaning your bowling ball in between shots are awesome with these Shammy towels. They're nice and thick and absorbent and they're gonna give you a clean reaction from shot to shot. It's gonna allow the oil not to stay on your bowling ball and get in the pores of the ball. All right, one thing to note, the best time to clean your bowling ball, if possible, is right when you're done with your competition or league, because the oil and the dirt hasn't settled inside the bowling ball.
Your video was very informative. Keep up the good work.
Scott, the Powerhouse Clean and Dull works great on all surfaces. EBI states the chemical does not change the underlying surface of the ball. Just does a great job of removing dirt. I use it on plastic, urethane and all flavors of reactive. I do use Powerhouse Energizer after the Clean and Dull just in case there is any residue left from the stronger cleaner. Great discussion!