Which premium pinball is best? | Why you should never put Stern pinballs inside your pinball machine

We tested 4 premium steel pinballs to and measured them against the Stern pinball supplied with all new pinball machines. The results were truly shocking.
We tested 4 premium brands Pinsound Multiballs, Marco Silverjet and Ball Baron Ninja

[svenop]

Thank you for calling Stern out on this!

[amgugten]

Good to inform new NIB buyers of this. Stern should ashamed of themselves!

I not only get rid of the balls on my NIB's, but also the leg bolts and levellers. Buff them up with some chrome polish, makes a world of a difference.

[sevenfinn]

I could not believe how bad the pinballs were from Stern when I bought Aerosmith new 5yrs ago after like 60 plays . I replaced them right away. Great video to inform people of this. Know you're putting a lot of great videos out, but would love for you to get back to your top 50 a couple of episodes. You and Spence keep up the great work!

[davidleonard]

My Australian distributor just sent me a link to this video. You covered a lot and were very even-handed. I am Ballbaron and the owner of the Ninja and Polaris brand and I have to say, win, lose or draw, I think you did a good job. All I can say is the Ninja is half the price of the SilverJet

[flofixer]

I think Stern may have changed the supplier of its pinballs this past year. I bought my Rush pinball machine in March of 2023. The original pinballs are still in it and the machine has had about 700 plays. The balls don't look super shiny, but I did not see any pitting or flaking of the veneer like you mentioned. I probably will still upgrade to one of the premium balls you mentioned, but I just wanted to post my experience with the stock Stern pinballs.

[mas]

I used to use Silverjets in my Ripley's Believe It Or Not! But they became magnetized after about 100+ - games. Now im using Ball Barons Polaris balls, no more problems with being magnetized. They are a little dull, but use a bench top buffer with some mothers' mag polish, and they shine up just like silverjets.

[stjamespl]

Not a boring topic at all, and good to see comparisons. For what new games cost, and to help preserve older game playfields, the extra cost of high qualty pinballs is worth it in my opinion. My go-to brand have been the Ball Baron Ninjas, but I will now give the Pinsound Multiball brand a try. As far as games with magnets, carbon steel pinballs are recommended instead of chrome pinballs. The downside is that carbon steel is not as durable as chrome balls. I have chrome pinballs in my Godzilla, and have not had any issues with them being magnetized. On the other hand, after one day of having Ninjas in my JJP Elton John, I had to switch to carbon steel pinballs - the chrome balls were getting stuck in the piano. So I've learned that some games will tolerate magnetized pinballs, where others won't.

[InsideSimRacing]

Wow! Had no idea.. Just ordered some for my Stern machines.

[ScottParisi]

Great video. Glad I'm not alone.

The balls that came with my Cactus Canyon remake LE and Foo Fighters LE never touched a playfield before going in the rubbish bin.

[GuitarsAndSynths]

For the sky high prices that Stern charges, they need to fix their pinball QA issue.

[ToddHowardsChessClub]

Hi Gonz, this always confuses me when I shop for replacement balls. The premium shiny balls like the ninja ones always state that theyre no good for games with magnets. All my games use magnets to some degree. The ones they recommend for games with magnets always look worse (not shiny) than the stern ones. I never know which way to go because of this.

[andrewellis-bcso]

I don't know if it just me and my son.
We both had the impression that the pinsound balls seemed really bouncy when I put them into my EBD and Getaway. The galss was getting battered with airballs. I have put silverlines into both machines and they are playing the same as before the Pinsounds went in, only the occasional airball.

[marcbullens]

Hi Gonz, i can add that my nib Queen from Pinball Brothers had the same issue. High gloss pinballs that scratched my playfield protector directly. After 25 games i noticed and replaced the balls. After that i start searching and found your video. One thing, has anyone asked Stern why they do this? Heck, they can sell it as a luxury addon if they wanted.

[andyb]

Just think how many Pinballs Stern purchase a year? They could get Premium Balls for well less than half the Price a consumer pays, then take off what they pay for the Cr+p Balls. For the amount they charge for a table this is a total scandal!! PS What else do they skimp on with the electronics?

[dranius]

Tip for the oil on new pinball. Just rub then with alcohol, polish with microfiber, put in trough hole, done.

[jameskeating]

Thanks for an very informative video.
I have to report a different experience with two of my new pins.
The balls removed from my new Stern Jurassic Park looked fine after 340 plays…
The balls from my new CGC Cactus Canyon were horrible looking after 240 plays total.
Changed the Stern out with Polaris Carbon, and the CGC pin with Baron Ninja Chrome…
Perhaps Stern got the message that Chicago Gaming hasn’t yet?

[johnmcclane]

Don't most modern pinball games have a magnets though? All three of my modern Sterns have magnets. I wonder if the Silverjet would be bad for TMNT, Jurassic Park, and Godzilla.

[TheClaretAndBlueArmy]

Crazy that a £10k Pinball Machine comes with such crappy balls. Wouldn't really eat into their profits either if they were to improve the quality of such an inexpensive item. Crazier still is that I used to work for Novus years ago, and never thought the products would ever be used by pinball enthusiasts.

[russ]

Yeah, they were bloody terrible. I recently bought a Godzilla prem and the balls that came with it were all marked and scratched and looked like crap. It was setup for me so the delivery guy just put the balls in that came with it but within the first few games I could see they were crap and swapped em out for some that I'd recently bought and had in another machine. I'd read on FB that they were pretty bad so I wasn't at all surprised. About to make an order and get some new ones for it. As soon as I can find out what size the bloody post screw I need is. They're the same size from old to new machines for the standard hex stand off posts but neither of the manuals I've got wanna tell me what bloody size they are 🤷‍♂🤦‍♂😕

[niels-peter]

Why do they put so bad balls in the machine? Then what of rails? Will they chip?