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Best Ping Pong Balls

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BEST PING PONG BALLS

What is a ping pong ball?

If you are like me you love the sport of ping pong but in case you are not familiar. A ping pong ball is a lightweight, hollow ball used in the game of table tennis.

Players often spend a lot of time and money choosing the right ping pong paddle, but overlook the importance of the balls. The balls do matter if you are serious about this sport.

Ping pong ball regulations

Ping pong (table tennis) balls, as outlined by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) handbook must meet the following 5 specifications:

Ping pong ball size

Official tournament table tennis balls are to be 40mm diameter (1.57″).

Most of the balls on the market will be this standard size, but some are 38mm (1.5″) balls, like these.

38mm ping pong balls are faster and do result in provide more spin than 40mm balls. 40mm became the standard after the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and some still prefer 38mm balls.

Ping pong ball weight

ITTF-approved table tennis balls must weigh 2.71+- .05g.

Lighter ping pong balls are slower and more likely to wobble, whereas heavier balls are faster and more stable in their trajectory.

If you’re a beginner, go for the heaviest ping pong balls you can find that is as close to 2.77g as possible. Click here for heavier KEVENZ balls weighing 2.75g.

Ping pong ball color

Table tennis balls can only be white or orange.

Ball color is chosen to maximize contrast making it easier to spot during play.

White or orange balls can be chosen at any time. But before an official tournament, the two contestants must agree on which balls to use, and the ball must be sufficiently different in color to clothing:

White balls are usually used during televised tournaments because they provide better contrast for viewers.

Pick balls that contrast with your environment. If you play ping pong in a room with white walls or flooring, choose orange balls. If you play in darker areas, go for white ping pong balls.

What’s inside a ping pong ball?

Surprisingly, there’s nothing inside a table tennis ball aside from normal air. There’s a misconception that each ball must be filled with flammable gas because they burn so wildly, but it’s actually the flammable celluloid plastic that causes ping pong balls to catch fire.

Table tennis ball plastic explained

What’s a ping pong ball made from?

But there are many different types of plastic, and ping pong ball construction has changed in the last few years.

Table tennis balls have traditionally been made from celluloid, a type of transparent flammable plastic made in sheets from camphor and nitrocellulose. In 2014, the ITTF expanded their range of accepted materials to include other plastics, and gave manufacturers freedom to innovate and develop new table tennis balls.

Officially, both celluloid and non-celluloid ping pong balls are allowed by the ITTF, but celluloid balls are expected to decline in popularity because they are more expensive to produce and cause problems for manufacturers (like being extremely flammable).

So what does this all mean for you as a consumer? It means you have a lot of choice. There are a couple of differences between celluloid and non-celluloid ping pong balls; new plastic balls can be made with or without a seam.

Celluloid vs plastic balls

As you can see in the above chart (Source: ITTF Plastic Ball Q and A), there are differences between celluloid and plastic balls, and plastic balls with a seam and seamless balls. If you’re interested in learning the physics of table tennis balls, this paper from the Journal of Human Kinetics does a great job of comparing the performance of celluloid and plastic balls.

According to USA Table Tennis, plastic balls are thought to be slower than celluloid balls, due to their material difference and slightly increased size. Plastic balls also provide less spin for players, as plastic is a stiffer material than celluloid.

Best celluloid ping pong balls

It’s getting harder and harder to find celluloid table tennis balls on the market, but there are still some premium manufacturers like Japanese specialist Nittaku making them.

✅ Nittaku Premium 3-Star Celluloid Balls

Tip: celluloid balls are marked with a “40”.

Best plastic ping pong balls

✅ Nittaku Premium 3-Star Plastic Ping Pong Balls

Tip: plastic balls are also called “poly” or marked “40+”.

Seamed vs seamless ping pong balls

As we briefly touched on above, the newer plastic table tennis balls can be manufactured with or without a seam, whereas celluloid ping pong balls must have a seam.

What is the difference between seamless and seamed table tennis balls?

There a few differences between seamed and seamless ping pong balls: seamless balls are more durable because they don’t have a weak point at the seam. Seamless balls are hard to find, but some players believe they offer a similar playing experience to cellulose balls.

Here are some of the potential benefits you can expect from a seamless table tennis ball, according to Baal from TableTennisDaily:

Among the plastic balls, the XuShaoFa (XSF) ITTF approved ball is clearly a superior product…. I would actually say vastly superior. This is because unlike all of the Chinese seamed balls, the bounce is as high as celluloid. They provide a consistent playing quality. Their roundness is also superior. And there is absolutely no comparison regarding durability, the XSF balls last much longer than any other plastic ball.

Best seamless ping pong balls

✅ XuShaoFa (XFS) 40+ Seamless Poly Table Tennis Balls

Best seamed ping pong balls

✅ Butterfly A40+ 3 Star Table Tennis Balls

Seamed table tennis balls can be made from celluloid or plastic. Many of the cheaper balls you’ll find online are plastic.

While plastic seamed balls are not always revered, they are widely used and chances are you’ll be using them in tournaments or at your local table tennis club. If you’re serious about ping pong, it’s a good idea to practice with the type of ball you’ll be using against opponents, and plastic seamed balls tend to be the most popular.

For the last 3 years, seamed plastic balls have been the official balls of the World Table Tennis Championships (Butterfly’s balls [see above] in 2018 and 2019, and NITTAKU Premium 40+ balls in 2017).

Ping pong ball ratings

Stars indicate quality. 3 stars is the maximum rating, representing the highest quality balls. 1-star or no-star table tennis balls will be of lower quality.

As long as the balls match the required regulations (size, weight etc), the star rating does not matter when it comes to using balls in a tournament. It all comes down to durability: 1-star and 2-star ping pong balls tend to be less durable than 3-star balls and are better suited to training.

However, manufacturers set their own star-rating guidelines and there are still plenty of cheap 3-star table tennis balls on the market (like this pack of 50 KEVENZ 3-star balls) that are not as superior as other options (like these seamless 3-star ping pong balls from XuShoaFa). Even in the 3-star ball market, there’s plenty of variation in quality and more often than not you get what you pay for so take the brand reputation into account when making a decision. If a brand only sells 3-star ping pong balls, there’s no way to compare them to any other ball.

Best ping pong ball brands

Most of the best table tennis brands are from China and Japan, as the sport and subsequent industry is huge there. Here are the top brands, many of which we’ve already touched on earlier:

ITTF-Approved table tennis balls

For the full list of ITTF-approved ping pong balls, refer to the ITTF website.

In 2020, the official list includes 112 different balls: here is a selection that you can easily find for sale online today:

40 or 40+, plastic or celluloid, seamed or unseamed, try them all…

Also looking for a new table tennis racket? Read this guide to the best ping pong paddles in 2020.

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