Greetings

General tech/power question that goes beyond my expertise and experience thus far.

I’ve had a few games in a row in my house that were in great shape, a few of which were NIB Sterns. It seems consistently that my flippers and auto plungers were underpowered. Within 20 minutes of playing a game, I’d start to see fade.

For example, NIB Jurassic Park. Auto plunger would work maybe 90% of the time cold, but get deep enough into one game and it’d start to miss the ramp. And the kicker on this one is that I sold it to someone that said they didn’t have auto plunging issues at all.

Another example is the captain marvel ramp in avengers. From a trap it’s possible to hit the ramp cold, but maybe 10 minutes into a game? Impossible.

Can you offer any avenues of research I can explore? Or perhaps terminology I can have an electrician I can look into?

Thanks

I do not, so I will not. Only one game. I can look at my circuit breaker, I suppose.

I'm aware this is a common issue. This is, however, across games. More than just the two I shared. And it's worse than just standard fade. We're talking about being weak to begin with, and fading within 20 minutes. I did a ton to try and dial in that JP shooter lane based on everyone else's tips, but it was clear my issue was more about power than mechanics (as evidenced by game being sold and working in another house no issue).

Using this post:

https://mrelectric.com/blog/how-to-use-a-multimeter-to-test-an-outlet

I can report: 120v. But one thing it says:

"Check if the wiring is reversed.
Place the red lead into the large slot and the black lead into small slot. If you get a reading, the wiring is reversed. This won’t affect simple equipment like lamps but can cause issues for more sophisticated appliances and electronics."

I definitely got a reading of 120v with the leads both ways.

Oh actually:

"Determine if the outlet is properly grounded.
Keep the red lead in the small slot and move the black lead and place it in the ground (Uu-shaped) outlet slot. The reading should remain the same. If it doesn’t, the outlet is improperly grounded."

Reading went to ~0.

Thanks. Short of something being installed wrong...anything else?

The power at my circuit breaker trips a bit (from other stuff). I've been told the contractors that worked on my house used some pretty sensitive breakers. Is there a world where that can contribute to weak pinball?

Bummer - Well, thanks everyone.

Kinda back to square one. I agree flipper fade is real, but it seems to happen way too fast for me.

Avengers Premium is the latest culprit. Auto plunger is garbage. Left flipper can't hit Capt Marvel after like 10 minutes.

Had similar issues with JP, but that was mainly the auto plunger being an issue.

Playfield pitch is ~6.5. Ambient Temp ~70 F.

Yeah, and it's the 2nd machine in a row. So I'm at a loss. Considered buying a kill-a-watt. That website is laughably broken.

I hesitate to call an electrician to make my flippers not fade so far!

I cannot describe how annoyed I am to be pulling out the slow-mo video on the auto-plunger for the 2nd NIB game in a row, but I just did it, and it really looks fine. Just...weak. Hey, "Skill Shot" every time, I guess.