Performance & Durability of the ONIX Fuse Ball.

A few members have inquired about the new Onix Fuse ball.  Here are a few comments from the PickleballCentral website.

PickleballCentral Expert’s Corner:

  • Information On the Performance & Durability of the ONIX Fuse Ball – Notice Posted March 21, 2018

  • Hi Pickleball Players – Onix’s new Fuse ball is now out in the marketplace and gaining some reviews. There’s been a lot of excitement from our customers about this ball, and now that they are in stock, we’ve tested this ball in both the lab, and on the courts. We want to share some specific information with you and set expectations about the performance and durability you should expect with this ball.
  • The ball is USAPA approved, and as such bounces lower out of the package than a Pure 2. It plays similar to a Pure 2 – as an injection molded two piece ball, it has a softer playing characteristic a lot of recreational players prefer. It slows down the game a bit, and many of our test players liked the way it performed on the court because of that. The teaching pros like to use a softer playing ball for clinics, so we got good feedback there as well. Testers felt like it had a similar feel on the paddle as a Pure 2, just not as bouncy out of the package. Most enjoyed the ball, and most of the comments were positive about the ball. We received good feedback on the color intensity of the yellow as well.
  • We ran it through our test lab, and like a Pure 2, it’s bounce height decays over time (typical of all injection molded balls including the Jugs, Pure 2, P7, etc), meaning that the bounce height gets lower and lower over time. This is a common trait of all injection molded type balls we’ve tested so far, so you should expect these balls to get softer and softer over time, with lower bounce heights over time.
  • What we also found in the lab is that the Fuse is not as durable as the original Pure 2 ball, so please plan your purchases accordingly.  In our discussions with Onix, they have shared with us that they want customers to understand that the durability is more in line with a rotationally molded ball (like the Dura, Onix 503, or TOP). Our lab testing confirms this. Please understand that these balls will not last for weeks and months (like the Pure 2 balls), rather you should expect these to last for a limited number of matches.