Does pre stretch really work? :p

Yes, it works, but it works even without pre stretch! Depends on your taste!

 

Do you warm up your car during winter?

 

It's work for me.

 

Do you have a license?

 

Virgin strings will stretch as the racket is strung and then some more as it is used. But for me, pre-stretching is a matter of reducing the unpredictability of a string "finding" it's equilibrium as you play.

I have played with a few strings, without pre-stretch, that felt fabulous .... for a few games or a session. But lost their mojo. I suspect that, in play, all strings are not stretched equally. So the problem wasn't one of a uniform drop in tension, but an uneven drop.

The other reason that I (lowly but careful, crank-stringer) pre-stretch is because if I didn't, then I'd find myself pulling 3 times on each string, just to feel like I'd not lost tension as the string keeps stretching after lock-out. That little compulsion would make the job last forever. :crying:

 

Pre-stretch is mandatory if you want to maximize the tension retention of your strings. I personally use machine pre-stretch automatically unless specified otherwise.

 

How many percent do you guys use on your electric stringer?

 

I use 10% for most strings. 15% for higher elasticity strings like BG65, ZM69, VS850, etc. I think I'd even go 20% if my machine had that setting.

I used to use 5% for most strings, but found out that 10% didn't affect playability negatively.

 

I used to pre-stretch manually (and I still do sometimes for some tennis strings) and it also made a good difference.

Using apps like RacquetTune or just an app that can give you the ping frequency of your stringbeds, you should be able to see how much a pre-stretched stringbed loses tension vs a non pre-stretched one.