String "shelf life"

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cap.phillips

Rookie
Does anyone know the average shelf life of string. The reason I ask is that I used to always buy string on an as-needed basis. Since I started stringing for several people I keep keep several sets in stock. Some I've had at least a year or more. I have many half sets of both polys and synthetics and some full sets of basic synthetic of various brands. Is there an average "shelf life"? Should I be trashing the older string?
 
I don't see any problem with Polys and synthetic materials but I think Natural gut have to have shelf life. It is just MHO. I have many poly and synthetic strings in my closet. And I have 3 sets of natural gut.
 
I have never had a problem with old string but I don't have it around that long either. I guess it depends on the string. A customer brought me some old string to string once and when I pulled tension it looked at though there were bubbles in the string. I think it was from the string breaking down. It broke in about a month and he normally said he got a lot more life from his strings. He said the string was 15 to 20 years old.

Irvin
 
Synthetic strings can last a good while if stored properly, in my opinion.
I have some reels 40 year old tournament nylon Ashaways Vantage and Vantage2, and a reel of Bancroft nylon. A couple years ago I strung one up for a client, and he liked it and had me string another as well. It held up fine. That said, if you do use older stock as such, early snapping could possibly occur, as age happens, but I did use 40 year old stock and it worked fine.
BTW, I also have an old wooden Tad/ Davis racquet that I strung with Bow Brand Gut back in 1971 ,strings still intact, and I hit with that racquet 2 years ago (1 set) ,and also last year (2 sets), the sound of that racquet/strings brings back memories! The nat. gut is still playable after all that time. String environment where it is stored can make a difference in life of string in my opinion.
 
jim e said:
Synthetic strings can last a good while if stored properly, in my opinion.
I have some reels 40 year old tournament nylon Ashaways Vantage and Vantage2, and a reel of Bancroft nylon. A couple years ago I strung one up for a client, and he liked it and had me string another as well. It held up fine. That said, if you do use older stock as such, early snapping could possibly occur, as age happens, but I did use 40 year old stock and it worked fine.
BTW, I also have an old wooden Tad/ Davis racquet that I strung with Bow Brand Gut back in 1971 ,strings still intact, and I hit with that racquet 2 years ago (1 set) ,and also last year (2 sets), the sound of that racquet/strings brings back memories! The nat. gut is still playable after all that time. String environment where it is stored can make a difference in life of string in my opinion.
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That Vantage and Vantage II probably hits JUST like it did in 1972...unless it breaks, I don't think you could tell the difference in Vantage that was fresh or 4 decades old! ;) Compared to some of the monofilament 'plastic' strings of the day, it 'might' have had a bit of feel(maybe). I could never string it tight enough so it wouldn't feel like the 'thread' it was made from :) . I remember DREADING having to string Pro-Fected or Vantage in a new wood racket or new Arthur Ashe Comp :( .


By the bye, I think the main enemies of synthetic strings are heat(or temperature swings) and UV. A synthetic that has been stored in 'normal' room temperature and not exposed to direct light would likely hold up for many decades. Of course, natural gut would add high humidity to the list of detrimental conditions.

I reckon one exception was the 'bio-degradable' Gosen string from the '90s. Anybody have a set just dissolve on them? :)
 
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i agree with Coachrick,
I put a 1978 VS Plastigut in n.o.s. Donnay Thierry Tulasne and I've been playing with it for the last 2 years.
I have about 20 sets of Gosen Hy-o-Sheep oilfilled multifil strings from the 1980's and they play and string as good now as they did 3 decades ago.
 
stringwalla said:
wow, havn't heard "Vantage' in a while. Remember "Vantage Spiral"?
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I still have a reel of Vantage (which is a natural color), and also a reel of Vantage II, ( which is a blue spiral in color). That Vantage II they put an extra set of a 33' string to compensate for a join in the string at that time, as there was a shortage of nylon raw materials back in early 70's. I also have a reel of Bancroft tournament nylon. Back in the day, Wilson had a green spiral called Wilson International Nylon and that was a good seller besides the Victor Imperial gut I use to string.I strung a lot of nat. gut back in the 60's and early 70's.
 
I pulled out an old woodie of my dad's that was strung up with some natural gut and damn have i been missing out on gut. Strings last forever as long as they are stored well!
 
Blackkitty said:
I pulled out an old woodie of my dad's that was strung up with some natural gut and damn have i been missing out on gut. Strings last forever as long as they are stored well!
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I still have an old Tad/ Davis Imperial racquet that I strung with Bow Brand Gut back in 1971. Strings are still intact, and hit 1 set with it 2 years ago, and 2 sets with it last year.That sound of that woodie and strings brought back memories.Strings played very well as well.
 
Poly/co-poly strings have a shelf life of 5,000 years.

Gut is good for a few years if packaged well and stored in dark, cool and dry location. If gut is not packaged well, stick it in a big ZipLoc bag, squeeze the air out, zip it, and store properly.

Syn gut and multi are good for many, many years also if stored in a cool, dark, and dry location.
 
Irvin said:
Funny you should ask I started saving some poly string just this morning as I red that. I will let you know how it turns out if I live that long.

Irvin
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Funny you should respond to that, as I thought that possibly you would have some poly string that old from when you 1st started stringing!
 
No I don't have any string older than maybe a year or two at the most. But in another life I was stringing arched harps and guitars about 5000 years ago. None of them are around any more though.

Irvin
 
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cap.phillips said:
Does anyone know the average shelf life of string. The reason I ask is that I used to always buy string on an as-needed basis. Since I started stringing for several people I keep keep several sets in stock. Some I've had at least a year or more. I have many half sets of both polys and synthetics and some full sets of basic synthetic of various brands. Is there an average "shelf life"? Should I be trashing the older string?
Click to expand...

I think as long as you keep them out of the sun and keep them from getting wet they will be fine. I keep all my string in ziploc freezer bags…
 
Prestige Maniac said:
15 years ago I bought a Technifibre Black Code 200m reel, and 10 years ago a Luxilon 4g 200m reel, all these 15 years I have been using them, I have not noticed any difference in quality.
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-polys are ok, or would last the longest; so, not surpriced your polys lasted you this long
-dont do that with multis or synthetic gut strings!
-multis would deteriorate first, they dry out and snap with tension
-syngut also dries out, but a bit slower than multis
-im a stringer, so ive seen numerous dried out string/s types people bring to the shop
 
1HBHfanatic said:
so ive seen numerous dried out string/s
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What do you think happens when a string "dry's out"? (what is happening from a physical/chemical perspective?)

Nylon and polyester are very stable/durable. When not exposed to harsh oxidizers/uv-light nothing happens.
 
Somewhere along the line the USRSA answered this question and I believe they opined that 10 yrs was the shelf life of a synthetic string. I think they were talking about nylon based strings because it was many moons ago, before the proliferation of polys.
 
10shoe said:
Somewhere along the line the USRSA answered this question and I believe they opined that 10 yrs was the shelf life of a synthetic string. I think they were talking about nylon based strings because it was many moons ago, before the proliferation of polys.
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I can't quite believe that. I have a Syngut from an estate that is at least 30 years old and plays brilliantly.
 
Anecdotally, I took a long break from tennis and stringing (maybe a handful of frames a year during that time), and I've got lots of string coming up on 15+ years old at this point. It all strings up fine, no noticeable change in stretch or on-machine dynamics. This stuff has been kept in a pretty well sealed opaque plastic bin, but not generally temperature controlled all this time. I've got some other sets (original prince syn gut soft) that's probably closer to 25+ years old stashed somewhere, too! I think 10 year shelf-life is a very conservative/"safe" estimate as well. If I were stringing professionally, I wouldn't want to slap a guarantee on anything even that old, though.
 
fritzhimself said:
I can't quite believe that. I have a Syngut from an estate that is at least 30 years old and plays brilliantly.
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I completely agree with this assessment. Several factors affect their storage. Sunlight/UV and temperature variations. High temperatures and prolonged exposure to sunlight doom strings. I just store everything like mushrooms.
 
I would suggest you not buy any more string than you can use up in about a year or two. But That’s an ideal world. If you have string that 10, 15, or even 20 years old chances are there are newer and better string on the market. If the string are stored in a controlled environment I would not have any issue putting old string in a racket.
 
Irvin said:
I would suggest you not buy any more string than you can use up in about a year or two. But That’s an ideal world. If you have string that 10, 15, or even 20 years old chances are there are newer and better string on the market. If the string are stored in a controlled environment I would not have any issue putting old string in a racket.
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Well - a newly purchased string can be stored at the dealer for several years - can't it?
I have never seen a manufacturer's date on a reel.
 
I string a fair amount of racquetball racquets and the most popular string in my shop for racquetball is a string called Lightning. It is marketed as both Ektelon Lightning and Prince Lightning. I buy the Prince. Depending on which warehouse TW ships from I either get the old white/green packaging or if I am lucky I get the newer blk/purple/green packaging. There is a noticeable difference in how supple the string is coming out of the package. You can feel it when you uncoil the string. Back in the days when most strings came in cellophane packaging with an insert card I think strings kept better. Now that most strings come in cardboard (like the Prince packaging I just spoke of) I think they are more prone to the aging effect I mentioned with the Lightning.
 
MathieuR said:
What do you think happens when a string "dry's out"? (what is happening from a physical/chemical perspective?)

Nylon and polyester are very stable/durable. When not exposed to harsh oxidizers/uv-light nothing happens.
Click to expand...
-im not sure exactly, but i suspect that the "bonding agent" the manufacturers use to form/stick/glue/etc.. the filaments inside/outside of the string dry out!?
-the more complex the string on the inside/outside, the more things will go wrong
-ultimately why i think the "polys" last the longest, they are mostly 1 solid piece of construction, and less chemical to dry out
-but again, thats just my guess!?
 
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