Sunday, January 1, 2017

The best and worst shuttlecocks I have tried (so far)


Pix from Google

The following is my personal take on the shuttlecocks I have used over the past few years.


In summary, there is no cheaper product which is durable and has best performance aka you get what you paid for. It's like wanting to own a BMW or Mercedes. You would not buy a Proton or Cherry and expect it to be the equivalent of a quality German automobile!

Alike buying a car, it is a compromise - Durability, Cost and Performance.

Please feel free to feedback via the comments.


BEST Overall Flight Characteristics
1. Yonex AS30/40/50
2. Aeroplane EG1101
2. Protech Platinum
3. RSL Tourney Classic
3. Xped RF-X3
4. RCL Black No1
4. RSL Tourney No1
5. Protech WorldClass


WORST Overall Flight Characteristics
1. Sintec*
2. Flymax
2. APAC*
3. Ashaway*
4. Efeel*


Best Durability (Least feather breaking or speed degradation)
1. Protech SG PT-10
2. Yonex AS30/40/50
3. RCL Black Gold
4. RSL Supreme (previously now Ultimate)
5. Sintec ST-818 Speed76


Worst Durability (due to feather breaking or speed degradation)
1. RCL Gold
2. Protech Masterpiece
2. Sintec ST-818 Speed77
3. Xped RF-X3
4. RSL Tourney Classic/Tourney No1
4. Aeroplane EG1101
4. RCL Black No1
5. Li-Ning*
5. Ashaway*
5. Victor Gold*
5. Efeel*


Worst Quality Control (aka batch inconsistency)
1. Victor Champion*
2. Fleet*


Pricing (Most expensive - from visiting shops)
1. Yonex AS30/40/50
2. RSL Ultimax (never tried yet)
2. Protech Platinum
3. Sintec ST818
4. Li-Ning A300
5. RCL Black Gold


Most Popular (various groupes or advertised usage at BadmintonCentral)
1. RSL Supreme/Ultimax
2. Yonex*
3. Li-Ning*



KEY:-
*The brand/series of shuttlecocks in-general

11 comments:

  1. Update>


    Worst Quality Control (aka batch inconsistency)
    1. Sintec
    2. Victor Champion*
    3. Fleet*

    ReplyDelete
  2. Most "de-proved" Brand (aka gotten worst)
    1. Protech SG (ONLY the local SG franchise, NOT TRUE for the International Protech branding)
    2. Li-Ning
    3. Fleet

    ReplyDelete
  3. Based on your experience, what would you recommend for new players:
    High durability, High value, OK performance?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tell you the truth, "new players" should buy plastic shuttles as per Commonwealth grading system in-use by badminton clubs. Initially establish in NZ and Australia, now adopted in Europe and US. Something like the Victor Carbonsonic or the Carlton equivalent would be best. Otherwise the Yonex Mavis blue band model would be fine.

      Reason? "New players" aka beginners, tend to hit the feathers more often and damage them. Until one could hit the cork or head consistently, it is waste of money to buy feather shuttles

      Delete
    2. It is also the reason why coaches buy and use feather shuttles with broken feathers to train "new players" - no advantage using good condition shuttlecock

      Delete
  4. Can u update the list again on November (durability and best flight).. Cocks quality changes... RSL Classic gotten worst... RSL Supreme is floating also... can add Latest Batches of LingMei Dimgray and Yonex AS30 and Protech Platinum

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Apologies as I can only update on those which I have tried myself. We do not receive any sponsorship or receive many samples.

      Delete
    2. My group would normally only purchase the shuttlecocks which received good feedback from our regulars.

      Otherwise I will only report on the products which I have personally tried before and not rely on "hear-says" etc.

      Delete
    3. Recently I have been playing with a couple of groups using RSL Tourney Classic & RSL Supreme. No real change to shuttle characteristics other than QA quality drop eg more dodgy shuttles per tube.

      Aka RSL Supreme tend to slow down dramatically after a few hard smashes - shuttle has to be changed although the feathers do not break as it becames too slow. RSL Tourney Classic still as fragile as before and not suitable for smashing games.

      Delete
  5. Since the BLOG was started, we have only received samples from the official supplier for RCL (in Malaysia) and Shutterly (in Singaporea), for testing. Have sent a request to a few other official suppliers without any replies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Other samples I have received in the past were from coaches who were importing shuttles on their own - usually provide between 1-5 shuttles for testing.

      Delete