I wasnt aware of hollywood yoyo. Gonna have to check them out 
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Yes, try playing fixed-axle. Never need to clean them. 
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They can buy a nice new Butterfly for $5. Half the price or less than just about every brand name bearing on this site.
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Thatās true fixed axle will remove bearings from your life entirely
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Absolutely! But, wooden axles can become so polished they no longer respond.
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Ahh then you need wax or to swap the axle which is admittedly a tad harder than swapping a bearing. I see where thatās goingā¦
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I still love my fixed axles. I just had to retire my old wooden Duncan Tournament. 
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The intended market for precision bearings is wide. The use of precision bearings in yo-yoās is well within the design tolerances for things like load, shear and vibration. Put simply; a yo-yo does not even begin to come near the ability of precision bearings to withstand physical stresses. These bearings are rated for hundreds of pounds. Yo-yoās weigh 100 grams in the extreme.
Yo-yo bearings do not need maintenance. When they get too crunchy - buy a new one. Anything more is just obsessive-compulsive.
If you want good bearings - buy good bearings. Avoid believing the 10-ball hype. Bad bearings can not be cleaned and āfixedā. They are best dealt with by throwing them out and replacing with a good concave. As said above - buy in bulk.
ā¦ IMO.
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this one
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thatās true, even brake rotors needs to be cleaned because they are coated in anti corrosion fluids, thatās why you need a brake cleaner, which you should use to clean a bearing before you put it into your yoyo
not sure why 5 min of maintenance is obsessive-compulsive. Iām not afraid to throw a bearing away but saying no bearing should ever even be cleaned is kinda far. last night i was playing and my bearing started making that grindy sound and lost a ton of spin. quick mineral spirits bath and 5 min later its spinning perfectly and dead silent, why should i throw it away?
i do think lube is a noob trap tho. all i heard when i started was about thick and thin lube and where and how to use them etc. i have a bottle of thin lube because i bought it like the first week i was throwing and i donāt use it. itās way more trouble than itās worth and i canāt imagine it drastically extends bearing life. makes it quieter but thatās the only use i see for it at this point
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But for how long? My experience is that this cleaning and lubrication does not last more than a few hours before the bearing returns to its crunchy state.
I was simply saying that once the bearing starts to go; you are fighting a losing battle. But truly, it is up to you what time is spent wisely.
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for sure. Iāve just found that sounds doesnāt just happen at the end of a bearingās life. if thatās the case Iām burning out bearings faster than i can buy yoyos. i have 2 cats and i live in a very humid southeastern climate so it happens every so often. Iāve had to throw one or two away so far but the rest have kept on trucking. i know theyāre not crazy expensive and while Iām not the guy that adds water to a can of tomato sauce to get what amounts to a few drops out, but i will use a spatula to get 99% of my mileage if you catch my analogy 
This depends on the environment youāre throwing in and how often you change your string. If your playing an old frayed string getting fibers in the bearing or have cats or yoyo in a space with allot of fine particulate then the bearing could be just fine and it just has junk in it that a cleaning makes better.
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Baby powder, saw dust, cat dander, dust in general, over using a string, getting your yoyo wet for whatever reason, high pollen levels, high humidity or any other scenario where the yoyo is exposed to fine particles can and will gunk up a bearing regardless of the shield over time.
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Yeah Iād have to buy way too many bearings. Feels like mine lock up every other day, sometimes. Especially in the summer when I play outside a lot.
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