I mean an unused racquet (for example, kept in a collection). I'd think the material (graphite, titanium, whatever) would deteriorate over time. If I bought a brand new racquet now and kept it in a good environment, would I be able to use it 10, 15 years from now, expecting the same durability as it'd give me today? Just out of curiosity when I see some people have 5 - 10 racquets of the same type/model. Tammy
I know there are players using 10+ years old rackets (i.e. cab20), and the service is still great. By the way, what that has to do with 5-10 identical rackets??? I think most of the racket breakage are due to bad string work, or mis-usage (i.e. clash, mis-hit, etc).
I think the playablility is not an issue. My Aerotus80 is about 15 yr old and it is still feeling pretty good. Actually my wife likes it better than my new Cab20 MS (I let her touch my NS8k, I would not let her use it). I have always wonder how should we store a collectable racquet. I put away my Aerotus80 in my themo bag "with string @ 18lb" for the last 10 yr. should I cut the string and store it away or keep it on? The reason I am asking this is because 2 yr ago when I broke down and un-retired my Aerotus, while I was restring the racquet, I notice the string marks on the racquet frame. I think we should store the racquet un-stringed because I also have to replace half of the groments because the string has damaged most of the shared hole groments. Any suggestions?
I imagine that if you kept it unstrung, and out of sunlight, heat/temperature extremes (and maybe even humidity) then it would look as good and last/be equally usable longer than any person would be expected to live........ Just a hypothesis though, I've never tried it out - I can't afford to just have brand new spare racquets lying around unused.
he means that when people have 5-10 identical racquets, by the time they use the 8th or 9th, will the material have degraded by then.
i think so. given the condition listed by others. stored unstrung, in moderate condition, ie, not too hot/cold/dry/humid, etc. there are ppl who are still using cab20 from the 80's and they are still holding strong. i have a few rackets which are approaching 10 years old and they are also holding very well.
Yes and probably no. Yes, you would be able to use it 10-15 years from now. Probably no, the durability would not be the same because you had 10-15 years of play time with the racket not to mention 10-15 years of string tension on it. So the durability would be less. How much less, probably minimal/not significant.
im quite sure some of the material would have degraded by then. all the moisture in the air. insignificant or not i dont know. but keeping a racquet unused for 10-15 years is something i doubt many will do anyway. unless its mainly for collection purposes?
The only part I would have any concern over is the wooden handle. However, if you control the humidity (and keep away termites ) I see no reason why it couldn't be just as good after that sort of time frame. There's only one way to know for sure though - however, it'll take someone with more spare cash than me.
Well, I still have my Carbonex 8 which I have it for at least 20 years. It has gone through lots of tournaments stress too! But so far, it is still playable. I don't see it being disintegrate any time soon. For unused ones, I suspect they should last longer than the one I have. Cheers.
even with ideal humidity conditions theres bound to still be moisture in the air. of course i dont mean that they will disintegrate or turn to jelly after that amount of time. maybe the effects are pretty insignificant in certain cases? or its simply that u need to use it in high level tournaments which require 300km/h smashes to be able to notice any difference in playability
