How Can I Preserve My Bowling Ball Surface?

If you ask how can I preserve my bowling ball surface, you are thinking about an important element of your game which must not be ignored.

Making sure your equipment is ready for use will help provide a consistent ball reaction and requires little effort on your part, but it does require effort.

Simply cleaning your bowling ball surface upon completion of competitive bowling sessions helps you prepare your equipment for the next time you bowl.

This is not enough, however.

Modern coverstocks require regular maintenance to protect the surface and to refresh or restore the ball reaction you seek.

It makes good sense to protect your investment in high tech bowling balls. Cleaning and texturing the surfaces yourself, or stopping by your favorite pro shop to refresh the surfaces, gives you the opportunity to get a dependable ball reaction.

Ignoring maintenance leads to a loss of the dependable reaction you got when the ball was new and first drilled.

It is your responsibility to clean the surfaces of your equipment and rid of lane oil, dirt, smudges, nicks and scratches.

As stated, however, the maintenance must not stop with cleaning the ball surfaces only.

After cleaning your ball surface, use grit pads to texture your ball to the coarseness needed to help you get the traction on the lane you seek.

A low grit pad, 500 or 1000 grit, will provide added traction when the ball encounters heavy lane oil. Low grit pads reduce skid length and increase surface friction when the lanes are oily and require getting the ball to react properly in the mid-lane.

Use a fine (high) grit pad, 2000 or 4000 grit, to extend the skid length when the lanes become dry or medium dry, and when you wish to prevent your ball from reacting too quickly and hooking too soon.

Grit pads also help remove small abrasions from the ball surface, scuffs, or dirt build-up that use of a liquid ball cleaners will not.

You can easily use grit pads after applying cleaner to your ball surfaces by using firm and steady hand pressure over the complete surface of the ball. Some bowlers prefer using multiple grit pads for this process.

As example, you may wish to use a low grit pad such as 500 or 1000 grit and then use a 1500 or 2000 grit immediately after using the lower grit pad to get a deeper texture and to fine tune your ball reaction.



Experimentation with various coarseness of grit pads is a must if you wish to keep your surfaces prepared the way you like for the next time you bowl and to get a very similar ball reaction from session to session.

If you just put your ball back in your bag after use and ignore the maintenance, you cannot reasonably expect a consistent ball reaction over the course of 30 or more games of bowling.

It is recommended by manufacturers to restore or refresh your ball surface after 10-30 games, clean the ball regularly, and do a more complete resurfacing of your equipment after 60 to 80 games of bowling.

Preserve the life of your equipment by cleaning and texturing your bowling ball surfaces routinely.