What the heck is the difference between pressurized and pressureless tennis balls? And why should I care?
If you're like me, you're looking for only one kind of tennis balls – the cheap ones! I buy balls by the case at Costco so I always have a can on hand. If I happen to be in Wal-Mart, I'll buy balls there too as they are often priced at less than $2 a can (I guess whoever is setting the prices at Wal-Mart is not a big tennis player and doesn't realize they could get more than this).
But I was thinking that, since tennis balls are an absolute necessity to play the game and since I'm vaguely aware that there are different kinds of tennis balls, what are the differences? And am I playing with the right kind of balls?
Without getting too technical (or boring), here's the anatomy of a tennis ball – a rubber ball wrapped in a fuzzy fabric covering with either a solid rubber core or a hollow core filled with gas. When the core is solid, the ball is called “pressureless.” When the core is hollow, it is filled with pressurized air or nitrogen so the balls are called “pressurized.”
So what's the real difference between pressurized and pressureless tennis balls and why would you use one or the other?
Pressurized balls are the ones you usually find in a single can of three – probably the ones you buy most of the time. Their benefits?
- More bounce – Pressurized balls feel more “lively” when they first come out of the can. The can itself is sealed to prevent the pressurized gas inside the balls from leaking.
- More spin response – Because they're lighter, you can generate more spin with these balls.
- More speed – Since they have less mass than pressureless balls, pressurized balls travel faster.
But these benefits are, like a good haircut, very short-lived. Within two to four weeks (or less) of opening the can, these balls will become pretty much unplayable. As the pressurized gas inside the balls escapes, these balls lose their bounce and feel “dead” or “wooden.” That's why you probably open a new can of balls every time you play a match that counts for something.
Pressureless balls, on the other hand, feel a little “dead” right from the start. But, over time, as the fuzzy fabric cover on the ball wears away and the rubber inside softens, these balls actually become more bouncy. While that sounds good, the fact that these balls are heavier means that they strike your racquet with more force. And they require your arm and the rest of your body to use more force in hitting them. The result can be an increase in injury. And while the balls may become bouncier, their spin response decreases over time. A definite negative in these days when so many people, even me, are trying to generate spin on their serves and ground strokes. So where will you see pressureless balls in use? They're often used in lessons and in ball machines because of their longer life.
Conclusion – keep buying the pressurized balls in cans for use in your matches. But don't be surprised if you find yourself hitting pressureless balls in a lesson or with a ball machine. In fact, you may want to comment on this to show your pro and/or your tennis pals your vast command of tennis trivia. Or . . . not. Surprisingly, most people aren't as impressed by tennis trivia as you might think.
© Kim Selzman 2012 All Rights Reserved
Hi Kim. Good article highlighting the differences. I much prefer pressurized tennis balls for the reasons you mentioned in the article, but of course don’t like having to constantly buy new ones. Then last year I discovered PressureBall. It’s amazing. I just store my tennis balls in the tube, pump it up to the right pressure, and now my tennis balls never lose their bounce. So I get the best of both worlds – pressurized tennis balls, without having to replace them. Here’s their website: http://www.pressureball.com I’d be interested to know if you’ve tried that out at all.
I’ve used pressureless balls for years for lessons for that exact reason. It keeps the cost of balls per lesson down BUT I still throw away balls every lesson that have ended their shelf life. I have a quick question, do you feel that tennis ball pressurerizers actually bring life back to the balls in your personal experience like the ones here from Gamma – http://www.tennisplaza.com/gamma/gamma-revive-tennis-ball-pressurizer-2814? I’ve bought one before and tried it but the time I spent putting balls in there and actually increasing their life didn’t seem like it was worth my time….. What do you think?
I have not tried one of these tennis ball pressurerizers but I did try out re-pressurized balls from Rebounces one time. You can send them your old balls and they have a machine that somehow repressurizes them. You can also order these types of balls from them and I did get $50 worth which seemed to be a lot. They weren’t like new balls and you could never use them in a match, but I think they would be great for practicing or for using in lessons. I wrote this post about it back in 2011 – https://tennisfixation.com/rebounces-recycles-tennis-balls.html. I think this type of thing – or maybe the DIY version that you got from Gamma – might be a worthwhile effort if you were concerned about tennis balls ending up in the landfill, but I’m not sure it’s the kind of thing I would have the energy to do on a regular basis. And I seem to end up with a lot of slightly used balls just from league tennis. But I think it’s great to try new things and maybe, eventually, the tennis ball industry will figure out a way to turn all of this old balls back to like new again. Maybe. In the meantime, I’ll just keep buying balls by the case. 🙂
Hi Kim. Reading you article defining pressurized t-balls you stated they are packaged in sealed 3-4 ball containers and the containers are “vaccum” sealed. I question that as the vaccum would cause the enclosed balls to loose their manufacured internal pressure more quickly than if there was pressure in the container. Please if you would clarify this issue for me.
Thanks for your time.
Roy
Roy – You are absolutely right. I was wrong in saying the cans are “vacuum sealed.” They are just sealed to get the balls pressurized. Other readers have pointed out this mistake too! Thanks for reading and letting me know this. I want to get it correct.