I have four HUO pins in my collection and three of them have playfield protectors on them. The gameplay has been dramatically improved on all of them (plus they look great too).

All of these HUO games have the original playfields except for one... the Rolling Stones. It has a fully assembled NOS Bally playfield that I removed from the original wooden Bally crate and installed in my pin. NOS but not without flaws in the insert heights and a few other minor cosmetic flaws. With the playfield protector installed (which took about 15 minutes to install) not only does it look better (almost like it is clear-coated) it also plays much better. Nice and smooth.

This is the best option for these type of machines with less than perfect (but still super-nice) OEM playfields.

I can always strip the playfield down and have it clear-coated. Nothing changes in that department. I can remove the protector in a matter of minutes and the game is exactly as it was when the protector was installed.

Don't knock these until you try one. You are only risking the cost of the protector but if you are like me with some ultra-nice original pins that you don't want to have the playfields clear-coated at this time, it's just the ticket.

If I had to bet I'd guess that most of the responses were from people who never even tried one because the only possible negative from using one of these is the initial cost of the protector. The installation is fairly idiot-proof and the gameplay is nice and smooth afterwards.

They are fairly expensive (around $100) but as far as any other downside to them?

There are none because you can always just remove it in 5 minutes and you are no worse off than you were when you installed it.

The only thing you are risking by getting one of these is the cost of the protector. That's why I tried one out first. After that, I was on board for two more.

Yeah I read the thread. But if you read my post you'd see that I have three of them. I'm not just trolling the thread. lol

They do not make my early SS games play like shit. The PET plays faster than Mylar. It's somewhere between a clear-coated playfield and one with a factory Mylar installed.

If the 1st one I bought would have made the game "play like shit" as you claim, I definitely wouldn't have bought two more a few months later.

The thing they are really nice for are sunken inserts. A playfield with sunken inserts plays like shit. Plus when you play games with sunken or un-leveled inserts playfield wear is dramatically accelerated around the edges of the inserts. Slap one of these babies on and it will play better and there will be no more wear.

What is the downside?

They cost $100. That's the only "downside" I can see.

Anyone else see any "downside" to buying one of these?

If you want to talk about changing the gameplay just look what clear-coating does to a game that didn't originally have it.

No purist likes clear-coated playfields on older machines either. Way too fast.

The thing that is nice about the playfield protectors vs clear-coating is you can easily remove the protector in about 5 minutes. No harm done.

A playfield is only original once. Once you clear coat it, it will never be original again and the gameplay will forever be changed from the way it was originally designed to play.

With that being said, I still clear-coat some of mine.

None of my protectors seem to move. At least not that I can notice.

Another thing to realize is that Mylar is Dupont's trade name for biaxially-oriented PET sheet. Mylar is PET sheet that has been physically oriented (stretched) in two directions.

PETG is also a member of the Polyethylene Terephthalate family of plastic resins but contains an additive which makes it a copolymer.

The physical properties are similar in some areas and differ in others.

So basically if you hate the PETG playfield protectors you automatically hate Mylar too along with automotive clear coating since all alter gameplay.

Do you have a playfield protector?

I do. I have three of them now with another on order.

It's just as I suspected.

If you don't really have one then you're just trolling.

There's a big difference between having an opinion and pretending you know WTF you are talking about. lol

Go buy one and then get back to us with an educated response.

I bet you claim you can give an unbiased opinion on a lot of things.

I don't think you have to worry about being accused of "cheerleading" a product you've never tried. lol