Tennis ball machines

Are you still happy with The Machine™?

Yes. Still works great. I have been using it maybe 3 days out of 7 lately because I’ve been playing more tennis with a meetup group. My oldest son has had it for the last couple of weeks to work on his game, but I have 4 demo rackets coming UPS from Tennis Wearhouse so I’m taking it back for a week to test them. They might arrive tomorrow.

It’s fun because you hit the ball and you get to see if it goes in or not, etc. It’s pretty easy to imagine hitting like it’s a real game. When you hit against the wall you know if your stroke was over the net or not, mostly, but it’s harder to tell if it was going in or going long.

Both the wall and the machine have their pluses. Best of all is a good practice partner, but the machine will let you do something that a practice partner would be bored with, like hit the same shot 200 times.

I’ve probably used it at least 100 times because I was using it daily for quite awhile, including sometimes twice a day. We’ve moved into the busy season at my job so I don’t have as much time. I am still trying to play 3-4 times a week.

Nice. Glad to hear the investment paid off. I guess you can’t rent this sort of thing to figure it out first?

I really don’t know. Some of the indoor clubs have ball machines. You might try them to see if you could rent an hour of court time with a ball machine.

Ball machines were really uncommon for private use when I was younger. I think they have come down in price.

I had a Lobster, I think it cost like $600 at the time.

It was fine; it shot balls as needed. I kind of soured on the experience after a while because the cleanup takes a long time, and there’s nothing like live rallying with a good partner. But it worked as intended.

Oh wait, it was a Tennis Tutor:

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I found that with a ball hopper picking up the balls only takes 4-5 minutes. It feels a bit like a break. I usually sit for a minute and have some water too.

I mean, it’s no substitute for a good partner who is willing to practice but it’s your anytime tennis friend.

I just bought a Silent Partner used, the high end one (SCOOP SMART). I’m not sure if it is not working, or if I don’t know how to make it work. It’s supposed to be able to run on AC power but it doesn’t, it always uses the battery. And I can’t get the battery to charge. Anyone familiar with this model, are there any secret tips?

Silent Partner are out on holiday apparently so I will have to wait over a week to hear back from them…

I have a Silent Partner, a lesser model. It doesn’t run on AC so I don’t know anything about that, but it comes with a battery charging cord you plug in. I’ve had it for a couple of years and never had a problem charging it. Maybe your charging cord or battery is bad?

The cord has a transformer wart on it with a light, and that light glows when it is plugged in. So yes, I think it is the battery, but the previous owner seems like a legit guy and says it worked fine when he packed it up. I’m going to crack it open (the tennis machine, not the battery!) and have a look, maybe something got damaged in transit.

Thanks.

In mine if I hit a ball back into the machine – I actually do this with some frequency – it will jam it usually and it stops. Make sure nothing is jamming the mechanism. Sometimes there’s a ball or two loose inside and they may have gotten lodged somewhere during transit.

Good thought, but the wheels spin, and it will actually throw a tennis ball (weakly) onAC power. That’s the other mystery, as it is supposed to be able to run on AC only, but it does so only very unsatisfactorily. :(

Dumb question, but did you twiddle with the settings? It can just about throw a ball through a fence if you turn it up to high. Maybe it’s set on low?

Set the speed up to 50. Not sure if that is MPH or 50% but pretty sure it should clear the net from the baseline either way…

I’m just going to have SP confirm my suspicions when they re-engage next week.

Do you have kids? Make them pick up the balls.

Haha. Not a bad idea. I don’t actually think I even own it anymore, contra what my post of 2 years ago said.