Curious About Lube and Bearing Longevity

Yo-Yo Mods and Maintenance
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Hey all,
I got into yoyoing about 5 years ago. Like most people, I started by binging tutorial videos and obsessing over what gear to buy. I made the mistake of picking up a responsive yoyo because a lot of tutorials insisted that’s the way to learn. There was a ton of talk about how hard binding is at first, but honestly, I had the opposite experience. The responsive yoyo made it really hard to learn tricks as it was constantly returning when I didn’t want it to or losing its spin.

Thankfully, I also bought an unresponsive Shutter at the same time, and I switched over to that almost immediately. Learning to bind for both front and side throw was one of my first “tricks,” and I never looked back.

I also picked up some thin lube early on, both YoyoFactory and YoTricks brands, and followed the usual advice: tiny drop on a pinhead, that kind of thing. But every time I used it, the bearing felt sluggish and way less satisfying to throw. I also really like the raw sound of a dry bearing, especially in a metal yoyo, so the quiet, dampened spin after lubing was disappointing.

What really pushed me away from using lube was how long it took the bearings to recover. It usually took about a week of daily play for them to feel “right” again. Eventually, I just stopped lubing completely. I’ve been using the same Yoyo Factory Center Track bearings in all of my yoyos ever since, with zero issues. I clean them regularly using the paper triangle method and they’ve held up great. The only exception was one Topyo yoyo that came with a messed-up bearing straight out of the box, but I replaced both my Topyo bearings with YYF ones right away anyway.

Ironically, the worst performing bearing I have now is the one in my original Shutter, the only one I ever tried to lube. I never tried cleaning it with lighter fluid or anything, but it seems like the lube just permanently gunked it up. Almost like the lube mixes with small particles and makes the bearing dirty permanently.

So I’m curious if anyone else had the same experience?
I’m just a casual, I do it for fun, but I still play nearly every day. I’ve got 7 yoyos in rotation and try to keep them all in use. Every one of them still runs the same bearings they came with (or the ones I swapped in day one for my Topyo ones).

Feels like a lot of the advice I got early on was either overcautious or just plain wrong. At least for my personal tastes anyway. I was really expecting my bearings to have failed long ago and I have about 10 bearings brand new sitting in a little plastic case just waiting. Would love to hear if anyone else went through something similar. And just what peoples thoughts are on the topic, bearing maintenance, etc.
~<3

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I’ve been lubing from the start. Got a bottle of YoTricks thin and thick and after 5+ years both of them are still basically full. I think the trick is to use as little as possible to get the desired amount of smoothness and noise reduction.

I dip a pin in the tip of the bottle and let just a tiny tiny drop hang off it and drop it inside the bearing race. Then I spin it with my finger and if it seems good I’ll go ahead and start using it. If it seems sluggish, I hit it with the computer duster to spin the excess lube out. The paper method is great for getting that gunk out.

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I generally run bearings as they come until they become responsive, at which point I clean them and run them dry. The downsides are noise and theoretically reduced bearing life. The upside is no break-in and longer intervals between maintenance in my experience.

I am sure that climate and local conditions like dust & humidity make a difference.

There may not be a definitive answer. There are factors that may be objectively true (lube increases durability) that may be relatively inconsequential (an un-lubed bearing in a yo-yo will last long enough for me). Either using or skipping lube can be right for a given circumstance.

FWIW, here is what is says on the Dif-e-Yo website (http://dif-e-yo.com/Tech%20Tips.htm):

Caution

If you use bearings completely dry without lube they can eventually get damaged.
Run them dry at your own Risk!!

Bearings need to be Cleaned and Lubed over time and extended use.

That’s good authority. I still take the risk, because I think that “eventually” is far enough out.

OTOH, on the One Drop website (10Ball Bearing product page):

Your choice lubed or cleaned. Lubed is recommended for spinners if your priority is quietness. Lubed won’t spin quite as long, but its quiet and buttery smooth. Cleaned are recommended for unresponsive yoyo play.

This is what works for me. YMMV.

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I didn’t consider environmental factors, but it very well could be part of why I’ve never had luck with lube. I live right between the Great Lakes there’s a lot of humidity. I also just prefer a noisy bearing lol. That is great info though, when I was first gettign into it some of the vids I watched on yotricks and such really made it seem like thin lube was not optional and your bearing would just seize up without it so I was just always kinda confused about it.

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same experience here. i now run bearings dry until they respond then i give them an acetone bath. if that doesn’t fix it i drop it in acetone then put it on the bearing puller and light it on fire to carbonize whatever got in there. works perfectly, never have problems

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I run my bearings dry. I’ve never had good luck with lube.

Also, I had the same experience as you with responsives, but I recently started throwing a responsive again and if you have a decent one it can be a lot of fun. I love my Butterfly AL and Metal Zero. Total cloud on a string factor for me that is harder to find on unresponsives.

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I hate the bearing spinning noise so I use as much lube as it takes to quiet them down after washing with dawn and hot water. I lose a bit of spin time but honestly I don’t care, I play heavy rimweighted yoyos anyway, so I can just power through the lube.

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I am a hobbyist watchmaker, I have a high magnifying microscope that I also use to inspect my bearings. Most noise that a bearing makes is from bits of string that are mashed into the outer race, and sometimes the ball bearings. Sometimes that string holds moisture and corrosion occurs. Another source is the cage on some designs rubs, typically on the inner race.

My microscope is a trinocular style, so I could mount a camera in it, but watchmaking tools are very expensive, so the one I chose did not include the camera. I wish I would have bought one earlier, because now the cameras will be even more expensive :sob::skull_and_crossbones:

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Personally I remember being in the same situation as you not knowing whether I should lube the bearings or not, when I first started yoyoing.

I did end up buying a small bottle of YYF lube, which I’ve only used once in basically 10 years of ownership! I remember how it ruined my NSK gold bearing because I put too many drops.

Never used it ever since. Never had any issues with any of my bearings either.

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i own many yoyos, and many of them sit for years without being use and the bearings die for me from sitting if they are dry/unlubed i think

i have 7+ years old yoyos with lubed bearings (mct oil or olive oil) that I can pick up and feel like the day i put them in my case. i have a 10 ball almost 10 years old that my brother lubed before he give to me, and is still silent and unresponsive to this day. it is my most broken in bearing and i keep it in the yoyo I use most at the time.

i only use dead quiet bearings ,however ,(10ball is quietest with lube while stay unresponsive i find. new ds bearing also silent with small ammount of mct oil for lube and stay unresponsive. old ds suck and sounds wet with lube)

a loud yoyo is gross for me!!! join the dark sides!

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werrdT
werrdT1200×1200 127 KB

Werrd.

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I lube my bearings bc it’s quieter and they spin smoother. Never had a bearing break or any issues like that. I just like playing w lubed bearings more.

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I run em dry. It works fine

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For me to get the perfect bearing feel is 100% acetone, a good long soak to get everything out of there.

Spin it on a chopstick to let it dry. Once I start getting good long spins - just two tiny drops of lube, like a little more than pin head amounts of thin lube ( I have OD lube )

Then a few gyroscopic turns to get the lube nice and distributed.

I never have issues with my bearings anymore. Used to have tons of issues but the above takes from a LOT of advice and videos and seems to work the absolute best for long spinning, long lasting bearings.

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I can’t stand bearing noise (more importantly, neither can the wife) I lube until quiet, but not responsive, 100% acetone baths when this doesn’t work or bearing is acting up

One drop lube is phenomenal, I have a lifetime supply

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I am kicking myself for not ordering my mystery box when they had the lube in stock, but it did allow me to check out under $50, so I was able to stay on budget.

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One of the NQP’s? I got one too, Ended up being a beautiful DS-61, I will happily buy more of these random boxes again

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sounds like youre using way too much lube. you dont want a visible drop of lube on the needle you’re applying it with – scrape the drop off the needle (like on the edge of the bottle or whatever, even another needle will do) and then wipe the needle on the bearing.
like i cant stress enough that you need only a microscopic amount – like the invisible sheen of factory grease that comes on stainless steel stuff. the oil will find its way, dont worry.

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This sounds probably accurate. I haven’t tried lubing a bearing for a long time but I might try this, especially since none of my bearings owe me anything after 5 years lol. I do think, as someone else said, that I have kind of unique environmental conditions. I live between the Great Lakes, and about 15 minutes from Niagara Falls, where it’s humid all year round, and my other hobby, minipainting (Warhammer and such) I had to do a lot off trail and error with people suggestions on things like wet paint pallets because the humidity kinda throws everything off. But ya, anyway, I will try your advice on a bearing and see how it goes, might as well.

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just outta curiosity, you don’t come across like you’re having problems, why change what you’re doing?