I’m curious? what’s all the hype on ceramic bearings?Are they supposed to reduce friction? Do they spIn longer? I use NSK concave but I’m thinking of switching up,ceramics very fragile so I’m assuming if you drop it it would break, any advice?
Chris, have to be honest I think the hype on ceramic is a Mandela effect, never really see anyone talking good about ceramics if not probably 10 years ago, I think ceramic are quite the worst, once you mess them up they ready for the bin and doesn’t have any real benefit compared than normal ones.
I think you have already the best, NSK or in my case DS bearings (I love the cut) are the best around, so keep playing mate and if you need bearing just buy more NSK!
Also I noticed that every yoyo comes nowadays with pretty much a very good bearing (I am not a fan of center tracks but I do love concave shape)
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Awesome!! I appreciate the honesty, they seem interesting,and the concept I get, less friction, longer spinning,but they’re way to many cons compared to pros, so thanks again, I’ll pass especially for the price lol
I think also the pros are not really “true”, I tried (many) and had (couple) and really didn’t notice any benefit at all compared to normal bearings, a friend of mine had to throw in the bin one after couple of days cause it get stuck and is impossible to clean, I think is totally a waste of money keep enjoying the NSK this is good stuff
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Facts!!! Again I appreciate it!! Yea I can’t go wrong with nsk concave, even the center tracs are nice
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This is really a truly loaded question. Because the answer isn’t as simple as them just being straight up better. I think what happened back in the day was probably true at the time. And ceramic bearing which weren’t that common in Yoyo might’ve been superior to regular bearing of the time. It’s important to note that most “ceramic” bearings aren’t made of ceramic at all. 
sounds crazy right ? But it’s true. I think they’re made up of some synthetic material or a type of plastic however I’m too lazy to google it so don’t quote me there. I do know that all ceramic bearing aren’t created equal the same way that all metal bearing aren’t created equal. There are high quality ones for sure which definitely might be up to par with say, an nsk bearing but you have to know what ur buying by researching these things. What I believe happened is that as ceramic bearing grew in popularity they started being manufactured by any and every place that could and the same thing happened in any aspect of product manufacture, which people started making them for as cheap as possible, meaning using cheaper materials. And because people who Yoyo didn’t really keep up with these changes because the information wasn’t made available to us. The result was that all we had to go in was this old info that ceramics are better, and that’s about it. If you take notice you’ll see that almost any “ceramic” ceramic u go to buy online, almost never will u see the specs of the bearing, what materials it’s made of. If they did show it you’d see that the vast majority on the market aren’t of top quality. I’m not saying there’s no top quality ones available or that this is the case everywhere. Not at all. Just saying. And then you get into hybrid ceramics… which everything I stated above holds true as well. There’s a certain material that’s used for the balls inside the bearing that I think does have superior performance abilities. And unlike full ceramic bearings I think it easy to get a top quality hybrid bearing. Easier, at least, then finding a top quality full ceramic bearing. And in my experience I’ve personally seen some good hybrid bearings spin exceptionally longer than my other bearings. There’s no short correct simple answer to original question, but I think we can agree that the general statement of ceramic being superior is out dated. But I’d agree that an nsk bearing is definitely on par with most ceramics on the markets and probably superior too.
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One benefit is that they can be cleaned with soap and water. Maybe that’s it with todays offerings. I’ve always wanted to try one but have never pulled the trigger for all the reasons above. They felt kind of premium simply for the material. I’ve read too that they are kind of loud.
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For use in yo-yo; ceramic bearings are not superior.
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I remember when I paid 40$US at Nats for a ceramic for my Lilith. Also my super samurai came stock with a ceramic, first production to do so I believe. I find no difference. I prefer Frank’s stuff or plain Jane 10 ball. Jmtc.
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I’ll have to try and find my time charts from when I was trying to break the sleeper record anout 10 or so years ago and experimenting with bearings. I can tell you they didn’t sleep as long and broke faster than the steel bearings. Ceramic bearings require break in not just cleaning in acetone and it’s possible I didn’t break them in correctly. Ceramic bearings are more fragile and is definitely better suited for applications that don’t involve lots of movement that isn’t rotational, like a wheel on a conveyor belt. It’s just spinning in place, a yoyo experiences quite a bit of directional change which doesn’t suit the strengths of the bearing.
they could be if we actually had the abec ratings for every yoyo bearing out there… but that doesn’t seem to come up in the yoyo world. higher abec ratings generally mean the bearing has tighter tolerances and generally is more precise. my experience with wheel bearings in skates confirmed to me that higher abec ratings usually meant the bearings were smoother and rolled more easily. abec 7 better than abec 5 and so forth. none of this may matter in yoyo, not sure.
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I’ve always wished that yoyo bearings would have abec rating. It always made picking skate bearings so much easier.
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I just got a ceramic bearing in a yo-yo for the first time recently. I was very excited when I first saw it then very disappointed when I first played it. I switched it for concave metal bearing and it feels a thousand times better.
There are a few situations where ceramics are nice like playing near water, humid places or wet places or something dusty or with lots of fine particles like a machine shop or something where washing with soap and water often would be more ideal than using a solvent. Noise wise I feel ceramics are loader than ss. Overall I have a few ceramic and hybrid bearings they have a use case but they aren’t my fav when I can buy bulk SS CT from Ross (Hollywood modern) and swap bearings until I’m forced to bulk clean.
All of those are pretty niche scenarios though.
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I bought a Dif e Yo ceramic and one of the V cut ceramics from Yotricks and honestly they didn’t play that well at all, best ones I found are the platinum plated NSK made in Japan bearings. I love the way the gold NSK bearings look but the platinum ones seem to be more smooth and quiet for some reason.
I do this with all of my bearings… Just blow the water out and they’ll be fine.
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I like a nice acetone bath. That stuff evaporates quickly.
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I don’t think they’re for everyone, but I like that they’re pretty consistent from my experience. They are louder, but I like the sound they make. I’ve gotten them from the three or four sources that sell them and have never gotten a bad one yet (this is all in the 2020 and later era). They don’t spin as long as the best metal bearings, but they’re generally fine for a casual yoyoer like me. I only have them in a few yoyos, but with those sometimes I’ll grind on a trick for a couple few hours at a time with hard throws, lots of force when the yoyo hits the end of the string and the occasional floor hit. Never had an issue with one going responsive on me. That said, I don’t think I’ll be getting any more of them since they’re more expensive and not really any better than steel, but no bad experiences to report.
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I am one that likes experimenting so I have tried a few ceramics but by no means have I done extensive research. Just based on my perception of how they play and feel compared to steel, I just don’t see the benefit for the extra money.
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Better? In what reference?
Several mentioned above.
I feel bearings are for the most part a mute point.
The reason for this is the dynamic we use them in this hobby.
If you throw a sleeper and let it just spin, how long will your throw last?
Now, when we play, we are adding friction from string contacts and various other dynamics that impact the spin of the yoyo. (Not the Bearings fault)
So what is the time difference between a sleeper and how long you actually play on a throw?
Noticable difference?
I believe this is why we have Center Track and Concave bearings. It is more important to reduce string friction than to increase “Spin Time”.
I think Smoothness is the biggest factor we look for in Quality Bearings.
Just my thoughts. Ceramic or Steel? What ever makes you happy.
Have fun.
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