rating grommets quality

Discussion in 'Badminton Stringing Techniques & Tools' started by kwun, Dec 15, 2014.

  1. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    As stringers, we deal with grommets every day. and more accurately, dealing with old and used grommets more than new ones. having regular customers that brings racket back to me time after time, i have a pretty good feel on what brand uses the best and worst grommets.

    Knowing grommet quality also helps us as stringers, as grommet wear there is higher chance of getting premature string damage.

    here are some that comes to my mind, in order from best to worse:

    Best:

    Victor - Victor grommet are nicely shaped and tough. I rarely need to replace grommets on Victor rackets
    Adidas - Close to Victor in quality

    Panda - Panda grommets are just around the same as Yonex

    Yonex - Yonex grommets are good, but tend to wear faster than Victor. some prematurely chips.

    Li-Ning - Lining has decent grommets but they do bend out of shape, slightly worse than Yonex.

    Apacs - Apacs grommets are terrible, they wear out fast esp at the frame corners. the worse part with that is it will form a hidden hole and the frame cut into the string easily.

    Fake - Any fake rackets have terrible grommets. they are cheap looking, don't last and require frequent replacement.

    what are your experiences?
     
  2. jshrmohanty

    jshrmohanty Regular Member

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    Dear Kwun

    As a stringer, I frequently come across some yonex rackets came for stringing with blocked grommets at T-joint. It is very difficult to pass through the string at the T-joint grommets. It is inside blocked. How to deal with this?

    Can you make a video how to replace the both side grommets at T-joint.
     
  3. DarthHowie

    DarthHowie Regular Member

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    Inspecting, rotating, replacing and flaring (shared) grommets eats up most of my time especially for those who i string frequently for at high tension. I have to say that the best grommet i've encountered are the Yonex Voltric ZF2 tungsten grommets. I do agree that Victor grommets are very good (but that may be biased since i use Victor). I think the best grommet for shared holes are the "T" shaped grommets you find on Armortec and the old Muscle power rackets. I wish they could be sold alone in bulk. They guarantee that there is no frame cutting by the string on the outside corners of the frame.
     
  4. Loki7850

    Loki7850 New Member

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    Are there any websites that sell top quality grommets?? Should I use W&D?
     
  5. PinkDawg

    PinkDawg Regular Member

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    Interesting... I have strung with a lot of stuff from Yonex and FZ Forza. FZ's recent rackets have had some grommet problems (~4 of them can come out when stringing if you aren't careful), but other than that, the shaped are nice. The other (non 11.000 rackets) don't have that problem. The shapes aren't perfectly consistent but they're always easy to work with. Very few of them chip prematurely. I only have experience with Yonex VZF and Arc10 but I assume my good experience with those translates to others.
     
  6. xZhongCheng

    xZhongCheng Regular Member

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    The grommets I got from MBS are quite good.
     
  7. yan.v

    yan.v Regular Member

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    RSL and Black Knight grommets are terrible. Almost as bad as the fake rackets' grommets.

    As for Yonex grommets, I think they're quite good, but lately they seem to sink out of their place when stringing, which can make them pop out slightly outside of the racket when strung. This was not a problem before 2012, but it has been a problem for every single new model since then except the VTZF2.
     
  8. Taeivon

    Taeivon Regular Member

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    Is it possible to buy those thicker grommets? Ie those Victor "Shockless" grommets, and Gosen thicker grommets which are basically same as Victor's "shockless" grommets?

    Also I fins that share holes grommets are the ones that wear off quickest, what are the highest quality grommets we can get out there in the market?
     
  9. sh_shashi1

    sh_shashi1 Regular Member

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    There are different sizes of grommet at MBS . Which one did you buy ? I have Yonex and Victor . Or you need all sizes for various holes in a same racket ?? I need to buy some and a prompt reply will be helpful .
     
  10. sh_shashi1

    sh_shashi1 Regular Member

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    There are different sizes of grommet at MBS . Which one did you buy ? I have Yonex and Victor . Or you need all sizes for various holes in a same racket ?? I need to buy some and a prompt reply will be helpful .
     
  11. demonderrick

    demonderrick Regular Member

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    I bought the grommet directly from the factory that makes grommets for Yonex/Victor/Fleet...etc, they are located at Tai-Ping Dist. of Taichung, Taiwan. However, they sell the grommets by kg and minimun is 10kg for each size. They have told me that the best material they have right now is Nylon 12. Yonex is using Nylon66 with Yonex secret compound and their own mould. The Nylon 9 is for China market and it is hell cheap.... too cheap that you can't image how cheap that is....
     
  12. kttcn

    kttcn Regular Member

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    i reply to Darthhowie
    VT ZF2 grommets doesn't impress me very much the reason being that it tends to dent very deep when u string high tension with thin gauge it dent so deep that i have to change the whole string of grommet for my client and its annoying.....
     
  13. DarthHowie

    DarthHowie Regular Member

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    [MENTION=117234]kttcn[/MENTION]
    Are you referring to denting on the inside of the frame or the outside of the frame?
    I flare all the shared grommets and haven't noticed any denting inside or outside the frame.

    Can you give a specific example of high tension and thin gauge string?

    My experience with the ZF2 has been string jobs of 28 x 30.8lbs and 29 x 31.5lbs with BG-80 (0.68mm) and BG-65 (0.70mm) string which isn't thin gauge by my definition (0.66 or less is what i define as thin gauge)
     
  14. kttcn

    kttcn Regular Member

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    i refer to the outside part of the frame on the share grommets on the 2 and 10 o'clock position of the racket
    i string 27-29 yonex 4 knot pattern with bg85 for around 10+ time the string cut into the share grommet quite significantly.
    the problem is that we can't turn the grommet or change it at a very low cost
    this is quite common situation over here i wonder if that is the same case across the ocean
     
  15. DarthHowie

    DarthHowie Regular Member

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    I understand where you are coming from now. Yes replacing these grommets can get costly. As a home stringer the only grommet replacement i will do is standard grommets and I don't charge for that service. For the Z-Force 2 you should definitely charge for at least the cost of buying new zforce 2 grommets.

    My problem would be getting access to buy these grommets.
     
  16. Chow Mein

    Chow Mein Regular Member

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    Being a YY sponsored player with 4 ZF2's, I bought a few packs of replacement ZF2 grommets from Shuttlehouse ($5-6 per pack) with the concern that I may need some replacement parts midway thru the competition season after many restrings.

    Turns out, if you are somewhat careful and deliberate when using the nubs on the ZF2 grommet strips and dont damage the B6, B8 or A5 grommets when tying knots, the grommets are very durable. Haven't had to replace any yet after many string breakages and restrings.


     
  17. kttcn

    kttcn Regular Member

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    agree with you that they don't tend to damage on the knoting position but the dent on the outside is really uncomforting
     
  18. Super85

    Super85 Regular Member

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    The new Babolat Satelite grommets is crap, they are soft like silicone! And I don't get why they flare all the grommets on 2 and 10 o'clock when it's not a shared hole. I switched all of them on my coach's rackets.
    image.jpg
    image.jpg
     
  19. ninja801

    ninja801 Regular Member

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    does anyone know if you can buy victor shockless grommets ??

    i ended up buying a mix box off rkep on ebay

    i use alot of victor racquets and they all seem the be quite soft on the outer edge of the racquet but i have nothing else to compare it with...
     
  20. Tim Tam

    Tim Tam Regular Member

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    Custom grommets?

    image.jpg image.jpg
     
    Indra fadly likes this.

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