No black rings here unless I haven't gotten to strip the game down after getting it first to swap them out.

No black rubber. White rings, red flipper rubber, and cliffy posts.

I like black rubber rings. I clean my games enough so it doesn't matter.

I put black on Scared Stiff. Just didn't make sense to do it in white.
All my other games get white when I shop them out.

They look really cool but, in my limited experience, they are slower playing and are much dirtier. I don't care for them.

I have black in my EATPM.

Some games just look better in black.

I prefer the bounciness of white rubber to black rubber. That said, there are definite uses for black rubbers... such as an area that should stay as dark as possible under something like a pin2000 screen...

+1.... Yes Sir!

I put black rubber on Black Knight and have not noticed any problem with it being dirtier, It does seem to play a bit slower. I put white (game came with a rubber kit from PBR) on Jungle Lord and am getting white tracking all over the playfield, on the balls, etc. What a mess. I did not know you were supposed to wash new rubbers, I thought you just ripped open the package and rolled em on.

+2

I didn't know this either. Is this really true though? I've never heard it.

Ive been switching over to the clear rubbers from PBL and supplement with the smallest sized black rubbers on my machines for mini-posts and such.

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=catalog&parent=359&pg=1

Ive always thought the white rubbers need more cleaning, I dont like the look when they get the dirt marks all over them.

So let's review what we've learned:

1. White rubbers play faster than black rubbers. (Is this really true? It's just freakin' rubber...I'd think your coil strength and table pitch would influence that more.)

2. You have to wash white rubbers before putting them on because they'll cause streaks on the PF. (Never heard that either, but it doesn't sound like he's making it up.)

3. Black rubbers cause more dirt on the PF (I haven't noticed) but you have to clean the dirt off of white rubbers (which is annoying).

Half of me wants to change everything over to white now (which wouldn't look very good on LOTR, I don't think) and the other half is happy with all black so I don't have to keep cleaning the rubbers every week.

I hate this thread. It's making me think too much.

LOTR looks quite nice in all white but yeah, I would always feel like I need to take the glass off and clean them every ~20~plays.

I definitely like having colored cliffy post sleeves on everything versus the standard black rubber post sleeves.

Edit---I think most of the dirt on games comes from the slingshot coils. I cleaned my Xmen and Spidey up a little before MGC and those specific areas were pretty dirty already afterwards.

I have never heard about washing rubber before installing it before also...is that common?

I use white rubber on everything, never washed any, never had white streaks. This surely is a joke, right?

I like how dirt accumulates on the white. I then clean it off with naptha and the dirt is removed from the machine. I think it promotes better housekeeping of the pin. Yeah, I do clean them frequently, so the white rubber gleams (lol), but I consider that a good thing.

How do the clears play? I was just looking around thinking about switching to clear. I'm all white now, black rubber causes too much extra dirt. The clear rubbers sound cool, but I've never seen them in person and never heard how they play. They are quite a bit more expensive than standard white. Any reviews or pictures?

White IMHO looks cleaner and "neater". Many times I have switched from black to white with red flipper rubbers and the white always ends up looking great. Plus the other benefits others have mentioned.

I've been using the clear mini-post rubbers from pinballcenter.eu along with the larger clear rings available from Pinball Life. Shipping from Germany isn't too bad (10 Euros) for a light weight package and a lot cheaper than spending $1.19 a piece for the Super-Bands transparent mini-post rubbers available over here.

http://www.pinballcenter.eu/catalog/mini-post-716-premium-transparent-p-4322.html?language=english

Yes more expensive but oh well, I think they play pretty nice. Did you play my machines at MGC? They had them on the slings. Here is a few pics....

DSC08577.JPG

DSC08559.JPG

DSC08554.JPG

DSC08555.JPG

I think I read somewhere once to wash off the mold release residue but I Never did wash any white rubber rings before install and never had any issue until this one instance. Only ones That did this were the set that came with the Jungle lord I bought. This set had a PBR label in the bag (bag was not sealed when I got it so I cannot say with 100% certainty). I wish I had taken a picture.

The black ones I put on Black Knight seem a little stiffer (less bounce) than the white that was on before, same playfield pitch.

Ed

I prefer white rubber, but currently use my huge Seven stars stash of black rubber. it is non comparable to the crappy quality rubber, which is available today (on my SC the slingshot rubber broke in cca 150 plays).

What a timely post - the Simpsons I just picked up has black rubber on the yellow posts, and while I prefer to restore my games as they came from the factory, I really like the look of the black on yellow. Do black rubbers really cause that much more dirt?

I keep whatever the designer put on the game so if it had black, that's what stays. I really have no preference but I do hate the look of the white rings when they start showing the dirt.

Wow, from an engineers point of view, I think this would make a great science fair project to find out whether black or white causes more dirt! May suggest it to my kids for next year.

Here's my thoughts from personal experience (and I have never washed rubber rings first).

White is bouncier (just stretch each and you can tell) and is why it's on most older games. Black tends to be on most newer games which have more power. Use the one you like bets. Love cliffys post sleeves and the super bands for flippers. Both stay cleaner, but do affect how they play and I won't put them on all my games.

As for the dirt, if the black rubbers caused all the black dirt on a machine, then the white rubbers would never get dirty. ..

Here's my opinion: Most of the black dirt in a machine is soot and oxides. It's caused from several sources. Anything that sparks (leaf switches, etc) will cause a small amount of soot. It's also caused from metal to plastic and metal to metal wear. All that black inside of coil sleeves is not from black rubbers, a lot of it is the small amount of oxidation happening to the plunger that then gets worn off when the plunger rubs against the plastic in the coil. Some is also from the coil sleeve since they do wear and all of that dust goes somewhere. All those moving surfaces create friction and wear which translates to dust and dirt.

Then there is also just dust that makes it into the playfield because they are not airtight. You also have speakers pumping and moving volumes of air (containing dust) especially at high volume. Smokes, environmental pollution, pollens, pet dander etc will all find it's way into a playing machine quicker then an idle machine (probably another good science fair project).

My opinion has always been people feel black rubbers cause more dirt because they see the black on the playfield etc, as opposed to white rubbers where you see black on the rubbers first. If the white rubbers turn real black, then most of us would open the machine, clean them and everything else. Without that visual cue there is probably just more black soot, dust, etc building up in the machine over time. Now over a long time the rubbers will oxidize (harden) and release some dirt too, but I would think most of us are replacing the rubbers before that becomes a major factor.

Now, I haven't tested all this, but this is my gut feeling from personal experience with many different games.

Greg

I think Greg (SilverballNut) speaks the truth as to where the dirt is coming from.

I'm in agreement that a majority of the dirt is those other causes besides the black rubbers...maybe some is caused by black rubbers, but not all. So if you had colored rubbers, such as red...would the dirt be mostly red? I'm thinking that with red rubbers they would also show the black dirt.

Science fair project test, maybe swap out half the rubber for red and see how much red you get on the white rubber. My guess is next to none. Perhaps swamped by the black "other source" dirt.

Black is less bouncy, and I simply don't like how it looks. When I see black rubber, I think route game. I also prefer the balls to bounce more. It gives you less control, forcing you to become a better player.

No science fair needed, this is for sure where most of the dirt originates. That said, all rubber rings do deteriorate, and most of this comes from the friction / impact from the ball, not long-term oxidation. Games get dirty fast enough as it is, why add to it with black rubber residue?

I actually prefer the more deadened play of black rubber, but I have enough games that I've noticed a difference in the cleanliness of black versus white rubber, so I switched to all white a long time ago. I am considering the clear at the moment though.

No, I wasn't there this year. Your games look cool, but it's hard to tell how the rings look. They actually look pretty white in the pictures. Are they real clear in person? I had imagined that they might pick up the color of the lighting nearby. I'm LEDing my games now, and I envisioned that the clear rings might pick up colored LED light from nearby, but I'm not sure how translucent they really are.

The white/clear rubber also brightens up games nicely from a lighting perspective.

If you get the black rubbers from titanpinball.com it has the same traits as white rubber without the dirt regular black rubber causes. For instance games like metallica look better with black rubbers, the titan rubbers is the answer. Although, I did buy those clear super band mini post rubbers and will be putting those in eventually, like some have mentioned above. Black titan rubber throughout though, other then mini posts and flipper bats which will be purple, I also ordered yellow in case I want to switch it up sometimes.

Yep, the color of whatever bulb makes it colored a bit. Look at the top view especially of my TRON sling area, they glow the blue/orange.

Another good thing, especially for darker games like TZ, they let just a little more light through than black/white opaque rubbers. Also, they shed the dirt a little better like superband flipper bat rubbers, doesnt really cake onto it, Id guess its the silicone (I assume thats what they are really made of).

Edit----Here are a few more of Sharkeys I just did not long ago....

DSC08821.JPGDSC08818.JPGDSC08816.JPGDSC08815.JPG

Alright, I'm in. Did you find that they offer enough sizes to do the whole game in clear or did you still need to use white in certain places?

PBL doesnt list the small sizes, maybe call/email Terry to see if he has them.

I used black for smaller posts but this link luckymoey provided has all the stuff under 3/4ths. I ordered 50 of them after he posted that in all the tiny sizes. Only prob is it takes 5-6weeks or whatever to get the shipment from them in Germany. I grabbed a few extra clear discs for TRON as long as I was ordering.

http://www.pinballcenter.eu/catalog/mini-post-716-premium-transparent-p-4322.html?language=english