Alternative Cheaper Table Heating idea?

[Hotwire147]

I have just opened a new thread here introducing my hotwire system to a wider audience having mainly fitted systems for top professionals untill now. How much should a cheaper alternative be? To have Hotwire fitted, does not cost much more than having a table recovered and lasts a lot longer than a cloth.

[EvilDealer]

Hello
I have a full size snooker table and I made six heating plates for the table. each plate has a 10 m coil of carbon fiber heating cable (the total is 60 m). the heating cables are contrecoller by a thermostat which cuts the current when the temperature exceeds certain degree.
- 10 m of cable costs: 4 euros so total 24 euro see the link (https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/Nouve...6054449d13ea-0)

- the price of the thermostat is 4 euros, see the link (https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/10A-1...9ca5980c53a9-2)

so the snooker heating system price is 28 euros
the plates used are 3mm wooden plates.
it works perfectly since a year and a half.

enjoy it

I would be interested to see a picture of this. Do you not need a thermostat for every 10m cable?
where do you lie the cable? on top?

[JONKAR]

Hello
I have a full size snooker table and I made six heating plates for the table. each plate has a 10 m coil of carbon fiber heating cable (the total is 60 m). the heating cables are contrecoller by a thermostat which cuts the current when the temperature exceeds certain degree.
- 10 m of cable costs: 4 euros so total 24 euro see the link (https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/Nouve...6054449d13ea-0)

- the price of the thermostat is 4 euros, see the link (https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/10A-1...9ca5980c53a9-2)

so the snooker heating system price is 28 euros
the plates used are 3mm wooden plates.
it works perfectly since a year and a half.

enjoy it

[philip in china]

I was clicking through a few threads when I had a thought on this one.

Be careful and follow the advice of the gurus- Geoff and others similar. If you get it wrong and ruin the slates your Cheaper" form of heating might end up being extremely expensive.

[djax]

I'm left wondering, just how quick we need a table to be? This time of the year my room stays around 15c the club slightly warmer. After years of playing, I find with the latest cloths, Northern Rubber, steel rail cushions and TC balls I am hitting the cue ball softer then ever. Resulting in reaction of the cue ball that wasn't possible 20 years ago.

[philip in china]

Certainly the wood cracking or warping due to changes in humidity is a very real one. Fortunately I have a curatrix who monitors such things. I have a hygrometer in my snooker room.

Yet another reason for getting a prewar mahogany table!

[inevermissblue]

Too much ambiguity here! Conflicting views all round.

[vmax]

Beware of drying out the timber of the table as wood warps when it loses moisture and you could end up with a table that can't be levelled.
Oil the table all over, leave for 48 hours and then varnish the table to seal in the moisture, leave again for 48 hours and direct any heat only at the slate bed, about 20 degrees C should be enough to warm the cloth and evaporate any moisture it picks up from the atmosphere in the room, which should be warm and well ventilated.

Balls can be warmed also as this increases their elasticity and response, lie them out on top of the radiator for 10 minutes before play, turning 180 degrees after 5 minutes, but no basting

[DeanH]

I believe they try for table bed cloth of around 20°C, hence the heaters under the pro tables appear to be 40°C to allow for loss through the air, through the tables construct and the slates.
The point of heating the table is to reduce the dampness in the cloth and the rails.

if the slate was 38C was that the underside? what was it on the playing surface? if it was 38 on top - hot to the touch!

love to hear table fitters advice

[inevermissblue]

I recently got our club to agree to getting the best table heated. I was going to go down the tube heater road, as I have done this before with good results in terms of added speed etc. Although having heard the negative comments about long term damage. I have decided to try oil filled radiators.
I purchased 3 mini ones which are approximately 800w each. In order to get them closer to the slate I have utilised the old light canopy and place that under the table. With the rads spread out across the top section.
I monitored the slate temperatures.
At room temperature the slate read 13.5°c. This was with central heating off. Surprisingly, the temperature doesn't improve after ironing. So then I switched on all the heaters and after 30 mins the slate reached 24°c and after 1 hour they climbed upto 38.1°c.
Is this a decent temperature? Or should it be more? As there is a noticeable improvement. I am yet to compare this to when the central heating is on. To montior the slate with heating on/off. The heaters are set to virtually maximum by the way.

Im wondering what others have done in terms of positioning their radiators?

Or what size they used or wattage?

[Shockerz]

I've been looking at table roll off for a while as the guys at the club want table heaters fitted but I was told by a table fitter to avoid it as we only have 3 slate supports under the table and the slate is more susceptible to warping with heat and also the supports may well do as well.

Looking at Geoff's supports on his website link they look like a great idea.

Geoff - Is this the sort of thing you would do to stop the slate dropping any more or would you be able to tighten they to counteract warping that has already occurred?

[inevermissblue]

Hi Geoff. If you really discourage the use of tubeheaters. Do you have any examples of radiators to use? I.e. size, heater settings and or temperatures? Cheers. As I'm in the process of heating a table very soon.

[Geoff Large]

I have 4 tiny oil filled radiators and they do the job of speeding up the table, it doesn't need to be warm to the touch like the tube heaters are.

Geoff - Could the slate not be supported in the centre to correct the roll off you mention? Reason I ash is that I have the end slate (D end), which runs slightly cushion to centre at both sides - I was was going to see if the centre could be raised a little at the next recover, there's nothing to adjust in the centre, so the idea was just to use a prop if it might have the desited effect?

Yes you need adjustable slate muntin brackets , cut out the old fixed muntins and fit brackets and cut down original muntins and refit , don't forget to place a washer or metal where the bolt bites into the wood .

You can make them out of joist hangers like this , cut excess top tabs off and weld a nut to them .
you can only fit these if you have space above the cross members for the top tab to slide into under the slate and on top of the cross member .
older tables will require slates off to fit if no space there .

http://gclbilliards.com/adjustable-muntins-retro-fit/

But the roll off I mentioned is because of heat displacement of shale in the slate bed , forcing upwards and not a slate dipping issue which i think is what you have

[perpetualboredom]

I have 4 tiny oil filled radiators and they do the job of speeding up the table, it doesn't need to be warm to the touch like the tube heaters are.

Geoff - Could the slate not be supported in the centre to correct the roll off you mention? Reason I ash is that I have the end slate (D end), which runs slightly cushion to centre at both sides - I was was going to see if the centre could be raised a little at the next recover, there's nothing to adjust in the centre, so the idea was just to use a prop if it might have the desited effect?

[islotey]

Thanks Geoff - I'm using 3 small oil-filled radiators placed under the table at the moment so maybe I'll just stick with them. I do leave the heaters on all the time at a low setting but they have thermostats built-in. I need to have heating in some form as the table is in the basement and it stays pretty cool there especially in winter. ...