Friday, April 1, 2016

Revisit - Sintec ST 818

Initially had difficulty locating the pix of the product on the net as I could not even find a pix of the ST 818 on the brand owner's site???

However they are promoting their competitors products - see the screen capture below. Are they then ashame of their own products?


Pix from internet

Sintec website promoting all other brands of shuttles but their own???

Not sure what's going on at the Sintec website since the ST 818 is not a new product. You can search on the net as well as my blog to see the review more than 2 years ago.

Anyway ... I have tried both the ST 818 models in Speed 76 and Speed 77 on&off during the past few years when playing with different groups in Singapore.

Both the Sintec ST 818 speed 76 & 77 have the same annoying characteristic- the ST 818 tends to slow down tremendously at the final stages of it's flight?


Durability wise, Speed 77 is terrible during smashing games whilst Speed 76 fares better. On one occassion, some younger ex-Secondary School players were playing 2 sets of 21-points using Speed 77 - they decided to take the whole tube with them, after going to where the organiser kept the shuttles atleast 3x during the game!

Performance wise, both versions of the ST 818 also slows down atleast a notch or two after a few hard smashes! You then have to keep adjust your strength since the shuttles kept "adding more and even more air brakes" as time went by. Thus the players have to hit the shuttle harder and higher to compensate for the induced drag!!! If you are playing against above average players, you are then limited to certain shots only ... it's a real enjoyment factor killer!

Price wise, the ST-818 normally sells for about $29 per tube; approximately SGD$26 per tube if you buy 5 or more at a go. Hence these are not exactly cheap shuttles either.


Since the ST 818 keep induces drag upon usage vs proper tournament quality shuttles, you really need to remind yourself how this shuttle behaves as the game progresses. 


Don't only take my word for it - you should try it atleast once and came to your own conclusion about the ST 818.