The tough truth about bearings ...

The painful truth about modestly priced bearings these days is that many of them are manufactured in the same factories. That being said, they’ll often have similar idiosyncrasies, such as starting off quiet and gradually (or suddenly) becoming loud . Unfortunately, all replacement bearings will eventually require some level of maintenance, and it seems to be a “luck-of-the-draw” situation when some need it sooner than others.

With all of our new replacement bearings, we always do good amount of initial QC testing (spinning them about 7-10 times on each side, using a bearing stand) to make sure they are all quiet. However, it’s really hard to predict their behavior once they are installed on a yoyo bearing seat, since some bearing seats are tighter or looser than others - all having with varying degrees of tolerances. If a bearing fits perfectly or slightly on the looser side, it has a better chance of staying quiet and smooth for a longer period, but if it fits overly tight, it has a greater chance of quickly becoming loud.

After installing a bearing on a particular yoyo, sometimes the inner band can slightly stretch, causing little changes with how the balls align and spin against the inner band, which can produce tiny metal fragments or debris than can often cause the bearing to become loud or produce an audible grinding or introduce responsiveness. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the bearing itself is defective or bad; it generally means that the bearing will need to be cleaned and undergo a bit more of a “breaking in period”, which is super common and not unusual at all.

If a bearing doesn’t seem to improve after it is properly cleaned and treated (sometimes more than once), only then would we determine that it’s likely a bad bearing (needing replacement). We experience this all the time, even when personally buying yoyos or bearings from the most prestigious, boutique yoyo brands, where a bearing sounds great right out of the package and then becomes loud within minutes (requiring bearing maintenance). Sometimes we get lucky and a bearing will stay good for several days or weeks or months, but they almost always need a little care at some point. But we’ll be the first to admit, it is a bummer when it needs it sooner than later.

If you experience a new bearing suddenly becoming loud, we encourage trying to see if a little cleaning and thin lube might help resolve the issue before determining that the bearing needs to be tossed out or replaced. Most bearings will perform much better and quieter after they’ve been properly maintained and have had enough time for a proper break-in period. There is a wealth of helpful info on YouTube that demonstrate various ways to clean and maintain yoyo bearings, and here are a handful of links that we like:

Our preferred method is:

De-shield bearing.
Use compressed air to blast spin the bearing - possibly dislodging any debris from bearing.
If compressed air alone fails, use a solvent like mineral spirits or parts cleaner to clean the bearing.
Allow bearing to air dry on a paper towel or use compressed air to carefully blast out residual liquid and speed up drying process.
Apply 1/2 drop of any thin lube to the fully dried bearing.
Spin bearing several times to verify that it spins freely. If it’s a bit responsive, you can use compressed air to carefully spin the bearing a bit harder, which seems to blow out any excessive lube.
If the bearing now spins more freely and quietly - success!! If not, maybe repeat a few steps - you’ll get it ;)
Re-install the bearing and play for a bit. Allow a decent break-in period for the bearing to reach it’s full smoothness.

If you find this helpful, this makes us super happy! If you have other bearing maintenance methods that work better, please share them with us or send us links that we can check out. We’d be happy hear what works for you :)