Which racket manufacturers have the worst quality control standards ?

Brett69

Rookie
In terms of specs being radically different among exact models. Which company is closest to their listed specs?
 

Brett69

Rookie
PACIFIC also among the best for consistent specs.
I’m a long time Pacific user and very happy. Very concerned about their complete fade out in the American market place. I need a grommet kit for my Pacific Raptor. If you have any connections let me know.
 

stecosta66

New User
I'll second what everyone is saying here.

Wilson is the absolute worst in QC. My Blade Pro (H22) 18x20 came in 312g unstrung....

Yonex on the other hand spec wise is spot on!
 

SinneGOAT

Hall of Fame
I went to head. No problems.
I own a couple head racquets and the specs are very on point. Head youtek ig prestige pro was exactly on spec with the stock leather grip, two head gravity racquets and both were within two grams of each other, bought a few months apart both with head leather tour grip.
 

Crocodile

G.O.A.T.
There is generally talk that Wilson has the worst quality but it has to be said that they sell and produce a lot of racquets so there is a lot out their to criticise. I would say that must racquets coming out of China have issues with spec consistency and Wilson in particular had more than its fair share of problems with its Blade line of racquets. Pacific on the other hand have a reputation of being very high quality but they hardly exist, so you are not getting a very big sample size. Yonex is viewed by many to be very good.
 

mhkeuns

Hall of Fame
I’ve been lucky lately. I’ve only been off 2 grams off with RF97 (*under), Blade V7 18x20 was 1 gram under & Pure Strike Tour was 1 gram over. Waiting on my Pure Drive to arrive, I’m hoping my luck continues.
 

Johnny505

Semi-Pro
Best - Yonex
Worst - all others

Feature of Blade v7 on their product listing:

  • Reduced spec variance (+/- 5.5 g) for added consistency from frame to frame
Must try harder!
 

Chezbeeno

Professional
I feel like this is probably a well-known enough fact, but for anyone who doesn't know: Yonex keeps all of their manufacturing in-house, so they have 100% control over production, unlike the companies that get their stuff produced in China. QC is top-notch as a result.
 

Steve Huff

G.O.A.T.
I've had great luck with Pro Kennex and Yonex (in the past) and Fischer (now Pacific). I wouldn't hesitate to get any of these again. On the other end of the spectrum, I probably see more rough burrs on the inside of holes on Head rackets. Haven't weighed enough Wilsons lately to know how they stack up. Some of the Head rackets I've seen lately seem very well put together, no burrs, so maybe they are improving. Another one I see is the lower Babolat lines, like the Team models, the C-Drive and the Pulsion. They seem to have holes that have been drilled too big for the grommet in it.
 

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
Are there many players having QC issues with Babolat? I’ve been a Babolat racquet user for the past twenty years and have never had any noticeable QC issues with specs or paintjob quality. I am not one to weigh and measure racquet specs, but don’t recall noticeable differences when I played with multiple racquets of the same model. At any given time over the years, I’ve owned 3-4 racquets each of the Pure Control swirly, AeroPro Control, AeroStorm Tour, Pure Strike Tour Gen 1 and Pure Strike Tour Gen 3.

So, I thought they would rate pretty highly on QC standards. I don‘t have any experience with other racquet companies in the past two decades apart from demoing racquets periodically.
 

SinneGOAT

Hall of Fame
Are there many players having QC issues with Babolat? I’ve been a Babolat racquet user for the past twenty years and have never had any noticeable QC issues with specs or paintjob quality. I am not one to weigh and measure racquet specs, but don’t recall noticeable differences when I played with multiple racquets of the same model. At any given time over the years, I’ve owned 3-4 racquets each of the Pure Control swirly, AeroPro Control, AeroStorm Tour, Pure Strike Tour Gen 1 and Pure Strike Tour Gen 3.

So, I thought they would rate pretty highly on QC standards. I don‘t have any experience with other racquet companies in the past two decades apart from demoing racquets periodically.
Swingweight on the latest pure strike caught me off guard but racquets like the drive and aero have good QC, owned three and didn’t have problems other than a few grams static weight and probably swingweight and balance, nothing crazy like head heavy when it’s 4 points headlight.
 

Regord

New User
Advertised strung swingweight of the Head Gravity Pro is 332, but I’ve read that someone got one with swingweight between 350 and 360. Crazy.
 

cortado

Professional
Advertised strung swingweight of the Head Gravity Pro is 332, but I’ve read that someone got one with swingweight between 350 and 360. Crazy.
It would really suck for someone who is not a gear-nerd and doesn't understand QC tolerances to be excited to get a Gravity Pro and end up with one that is 30 swing weight points higher than it should be.
 

flanker2000fr

Hall of Fame
I just received third Prince Textreme Tour 100P last night. All 3 of them are less than .5 gm difference in static weight, two match the published balance exactly and one is less than 1 pt different. I am extremely impressed. I have half a dozen Yonex racquets so I am used to high level QC.

Mirrors my experience with Prince. They are generally within 2-3g on static weight, and very close to the stated balance. Best overall, though, is Yonex, as many others have noted. Wilson is a sad joke.
 

edelp

Semi-Pro
Maybe no one mentions Angell as they are kind of "Custom" offering company at least in their custom line and people assume that specifications tolerances are extremely tight.

From other brands, my experience as well is Top Yonex (have again a recent example), very good Prince (if off, kind of 2-3gr below...), Head okish but with some disappointments and Wilson I was kind of lucky with static weight but not with SW.
 

Steve Huff

G.O.A.T.
Are there many players having QC issues with Babolat? I’ve been a Babolat racquet user for the past twenty years and have never had any noticeable QC issues with specs or paintjob quality. I am not one to weigh and measure racquet specs, but don’t recall noticeable differences when I played with multiple racquets of the same model. At any given time over the years, I’ve owned 3-4 racquets each of the Pure Control swirly, AeroPro Control, AeroStorm Tour, Pure Strike Tour Gen 1 and Pure Strike Tour Gen 3.

So, I thought they would rate pretty highly on QC standards. I don‘t have any experience with other racquet companies in the past two decades apart from demoing racquets periodically.
I don't know if its a quality issue, but I tube a lot of the grommets near the top of the frame. People bring them in complaining of a "buzz" and invariably, its a broken off grommet, usually one of the 4 top ones. The grommet barrel will move up and down the string after it's broken off.
 

TennisHound

Legend
Do we even need to ask? Wilson is #1 worst.

Serena’s new 102 was actually a 104, but she hit with it and liked it, but did notice it was different feeling. Turns out the QC from Wilson was so bad that she ended up with a SW104 that was actually off by 2sq inches. That’s how the SW102 was born.

:)
 

HBK4life

Hall of Fame
I have a friend that buys and sells Wilsons and makes good money. He has noticed since the pandemic Wilson QC has gotten worse. Not sure if it means anything but interesting take.
 

Brett69

Rookie
I have a friend that buys and sells Wilsons and makes good money. He has noticed since the pandemic Wilson QC has gotten worse. Not sure if it means anything but interesting take.
I never liked Wilson rackets. I’m not surprised the overwhelming opinion is they’re the worst in regards of QC
 

TagUrIt

Hall of Fame
I switched from Wilson to Yonex over a year ago and I’ve never looked back. Yonex has exceptional quality control. They’re racquets go a 50 point inspection before ever leaving the factory.
 

jdub486

Rookie
Wilson is horrendous. But it seems recently after measuring 2 Clash Tours and 7 2020 RF97’s that they are coming in well under target weight (could be coincidence.) This makes it a bit easier to match specs.
 

yonexRx32

Professional
Prince used to be spot on about ten years ago. Not sure these days, but about 10 years ago I bought a few Princes and they were exactly on the money, exact weight, exact same balance for rackets that were not "matched".
 

jalapeno74

Rookie
Just receive my ProKennex KI Q5 315 and it weighs 324g :oops: (unstrung, everything unwrapped)

Does anyone know how much variance PK commits themselves to?
 

YCata

New User
Got a Prince Phantom 100X 305 that weighs 296 :(

I find Head and Tecnifibre are generally slightly under spec, especially in the hoop so it’s fixable with lead but we shouldn’t have to do it
 

gold325

Hall of Fame
IMO lately.. Tecnifibre has been really really bad..
Babolat and Wilson has been fine within reason..
Yonex has been the best for a long long time..

Im my experice (3 2018 VCore 95s) Yonex has good weight and balance control BUT poor SW control.

Will never risk it. Pay $10 extra and get matching frames close to spec (or underspec) no matter which brand
 

BorgCash

Legend
The answer is easy - companies who invest money in marketing not in products have worst quality - Wilson, Babolat, Head
 

Westerwick

Rookie
IMO lately.. Tecnifibre has been really really bad..
Babolat and Wilson has been fine within reason..
Yonex has been the best for a long long time..
Yonex is made in Japan, and is the only major market brand not made in China. Japanese manufacturing quality control is part of their process. With Chinese mainland manufacturing we are forced to inspect and reject by batch. Anyone who has ever dealt with that quickly realizes that they never really reject, and that they often just blow rejects by when the inspectors aren’t looking. The problem isn’t that the manufacturers don’t have standards, it is more that the Chinese get around them in order to lower their costs. Unless each one is handled outside that setting (as in Angell customization) or the manufacturers actually own the facilities, we will be stuck with this problem as part of their quest for lower costs and higher profits.
 

esm

Legend
Yonex is made in Japan, and is the only major market brand not made in China. Japanese manufacturing quality control is part of their process. With Chinese mainland manufacturing we are forced to inspect and reject by batch. Anyone who has ever dealt with that quickly realizes that they never really reject, and that they often just blow rejects by when the inspectors aren’t looking. The problem isn’t that the manufacturers don’t have standards, it is more that the Chinese get around them in order to lower their costs. Unless each one is handled outside that setting (as in Angell customization) or the manufacturers actually own the facilities, we will be stuck with this problem as part of their quest for lower costs and higher profits.
Paul does good job keeping the Custom line as close to the spec for his Angell fans.
Some Yonex racquet are made in China - check out some of their Alpha/Ace/Game, etc lines.
 
Top