Yeah, put one in a Fast Draw for a league party a while back. It didn’t make a huge difference but it did play much faster. Fast Draw is relatively open in the playfield, might make a bigger difference on a playfield with more stuff to bang off it....

Ceramic ball is 90% weight of a metal ball if I recall. I have one in my Interflip Dragon. Easily the party favorite because of it. But I would not suggest it on most games. Pick and choose your battles lol

Normal ball weight = 80grams
Powerball weight = 60-61grams

Played a Bally Eight ball at the York show with a power ball... ball got hung up in the left entrance gate... that left lane with the spinner and access to the top rollovers is an important aspect of the game, so in this case it just didn’t work.

Globalls will do the same thing you're looking for as well, and should be around the weight of a powerball.. I use one in my Crescendo because it's UV reactive.

https://mezelmods.com/products/pinball-glo-balls?variant=1314805788

I have a white Glowball in my Hot Line and it plays like lightning.

I've played this and it's super fast and fun!

That had nothing to do with the ceramic power ball but instead the steepness of of the game.

Yes, you should put them in all of your EM’s. It will instantly increase the fun factor and no more slow and floaty play.

I have a Powerball in my Paragon and my Play ball. I find it fun!

Question to all of you. Is there any concern of breaking PF plastics or parts? I would think that flipping a lower weight ball may have more of a tendency to get lift and hit targets harder. I have broken a drop target and a standup target in the past with a steel ball.

I’ve had ceramic balls in my games for well over a year and they get played often. No broken plastics yet.

Sorta related question. Anyone know if there is a reasonable substitute for the ball that is used in the manikin bowlers? (Evans, Williams, Benchmark, etc.) Needs to be steel core so the magnet holds it in place but coated with ceramic would be ideal. Replacing the shiny steel bowling ball with a colored one (or swirled!) would look so much better. Maybe there is a process available to do this?

$50.00 ?????? That’s crazy.

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Fwiw, that’s what the original ones cost from WMS back in the day. I bought a couple from the local distributor in case a game was missing one when I finally put it into my collection.

Unless someone starts making standard pinballs that might soon be the cost for a regular ball.

PS: Half joking, but it could be an issue in the near future. I'm probably going to get a tumbler because of it.

That had nothing to do with the ceramic power ball but instead the steepness of of the game.

Not following.. why would the playfield angle affect the ball hanging on the left entrance gate? The power ball obviously had the inertia to clear that gate 100x over... you could tell when playing that the entrance gate functioned inappropriately when the power ball slammed into the gate flap...I’d be more inclined to believe it’s more about the design of the gate flap hardware in combo with the physics of the much lighter, non-stock ball in motion; these games weren’t designed or tested with lighter balls... I’m sure this isn’t the only negative fallout from other games when using the lighter ball.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed playing the game with the lighter ball.

I know this is an old thread... I just bought a powerball / navi-ball from pinball life and put in my Buccaneer and I like this game a whole lot more..

I actually did have one in a Williams Big Ben to mess around. It’s a good intro game so not the fastest EM, but with voltage bump and the ball, that game was fast!

Thanks I might try that on mine.

I might pull the one from my TZ rather than use a NOS one I have laying around. Can you even prove one way or another if they are NOS or reproduction?

I'm not sure what the differences are between them. I've seen prices all over the place. Pinball life had the best price. I will say that playing with a white ball takes a bit to get used to. Its an expensive experiment, so if you have one already in a game, try it first. I also put one in my Magnotron and I don't think it made that one any better. I only played a few games with it, but still couldn't hit anything and the ball drains even faster

I put a Power Ball in my Whoa Nellie.
It could be me, but it appears even faster!