Temperature

[philip in china]

Aimed mainly at Geoff who seems to be our table guru.

Temperatures here drop to around freezing in the winter. Due to bad building inside is often colder than outside! What is a good temperature at which to keep my table? I propose to put an electric radiator under the table. So when should I turn it on? Could I get my table too hot and end up damaging it if using an oil filled radiator?

[poolqjunkie]

Aimed mainly at Geoff who seems to be our table guru.

Temperatures here drop to around freezing in the winter. Due to bad building inside is often colder than outside!

May be you can move the table outside? It is warmer there.

[Geoff Large]

Aimed mainly at Geoff who seems to be our table guru.

Temperatures here drop to around freezing in the winter. Due to bad building inside is often colder than outside! What is a good temperature at which to keep my table? I propose to put an electric radiator under the table. So when should I turn it on? Could I get my table too hot and end up damaging it if using an oil filled radiator?

the main thing to watch out for in colder climate , is the freezing of rubber , it will turn hard and when the warmer tempretures come back do not expect the rubber to be as soft as before , continuous colder tempreture on the rubber will in time damage it .

Can heating under the table damage it ? YES it can , too much heat can damage ( distort ) the slate and frame work , but gentle radiated heat such as the Oil filled radiators can keep the slate warm and also the rubber , I would set the thermostat at 60% F , make sure the heater is not too close to the slate so buy the smaller type of oil filled radiator , the heating tubes as used in the tournements tables are in my opinion too close to the slate , and there is no need for it , Warm air rises so it will not matter if the tube heaters are 6 inch off the floor , the radiated heat will rise up to the slate .
A club that I go to , also has 3 convector heaters which are very hot in one spot , directly above the heater , these are the type with an open element inside a metal box with open slatts on the top , if you look in you can see the elements glowing red , this hot spot can distort the slate over time .

So in my experience oil filled raditors are the safest and lowest price option , there are three sections under the table so 3 low wattage oil filled radiators are realy required to work well when play is required , but just one to keep the chill off when not playing is ok .

Bring the heat up for play but not too much .then lower back to 60%F on centre heater only and turn the outer heaters off when table is not being used .

Unless you have Electric supply sockets under the table , you will require extension lead , make sure it is fully extended and can take the wattage of the heaters , if you do not want to trip over the lead when playing , it is ok to unplug the lead and put it under the table , the oil will stay warm and it will take a few hours for the slate to lose it's tempreture . when finished you can plug one back in on the 60%F tempreture , just to keep a moderate heat in the table , but when you want to play just put the other heaters on 2 hours before use .
If you have under floor heating then none of this is required unless you want to only heat under the table , then you would either Zone the underfloor heating to section under the table if pre wired or plumbed , you could also have a long old cast iron type central heating radiator put under the table and plumbed in .

[Terry Davidson]

He probably has Centigrade over there so 60F is about 15C and for playing temperature I'd recommend 20C to 22C which works out to around 69F to 73F or so.

Also, you will find if you heat the table until the slate bed is warm to your touch you will get a lot more 'kicks' so keep the temperature around 21C when playing.

Terry

[philip in china]

Thank you all. I have got a small electric heater which should be ideal. I shall probably switch it off when actually playing as the flex would be in the way but I presume that if I get all that mass of slate warm enough it will stay warm for some time.

[poolqjunkie]

Any pictures?

[philip in china]

Poolqjunkie, you want pictures of an electric heater? What an exciting life you must lead. LOL.

[poolqjunkie]

I mean pictures of your table and the heater set up you have.
I am sorry I will try to be more specific next time.

[philip in china]

PQJ, Sorry, my sense of humour is a trifle perverse at times. Yes of course I will post some pics of the set up and that ******* cue probably within the next few days. My wife does the photography. I never could manage to get the hang of a digital camera!

The set up is really rather sweet. The room is actually a 1st floor landing which is big enough to take a full size table. In some ways I wish now that I had got a full size table but am quite happy with what I have got. The floor is ceramic tiles but I am going to put something soft over those as I sometimes lose a ball as the rails from the pockets aren't the greatest. After what Geoff said about lifting and moving a table I might just use some matting and cut out for the feet of the table. I realise that that will lower the effective height of the table by the thickness of the mat but I really don't think I am quite at the stage where such details matter. (Before anybody asks no I won't be miking the mat thickness).

Most important to me is to get a comfortable chair as that is where I spend most of my time.

[philip in china]

My set up here

Somebody on this thread asked for a photo of my set up here. Thanks to the wisdom of ferret I have now set up a photobucket ID so you can see the table and me at: http://s557.photobucket.com/albums/ss17/philipinchina/