Foosball Rods Cleaning and Maintenance Tips

If you have invested in a nice home foosball table, then it only makes sense that you should time out to regularly maintain it so that it continues to give you plenty of fun games. Fortunately, caring for a foosball table is easy and does not take up much of your time. One of the most important things that you’ll need to do is clean the rods by lubricating them with silicone. It is a cheap and easy process that will great extend the life of your foosball table and improve your games.

Why Use Silicone?

Since your foosball rods need to move smoothing as your turn them, they need to stay well lubricated. And the best way to ensure that is the case is by using silicone on your table’s rods. Not only will it help to improve speed and performance when playing, but it also saves you money by extending the life of the bearings.

Spray Silicone vs Liquid Silicone

As you shop for silicone for your foosball table, you will notice that you can choose from either spray silicone or liquid silicone. While each type works to lubricate the rod, here at Foosball Revolution we prefer the liquid version to the spray version.

Here’s why - with the spray version, you are limited in how you can direct the silicone, which means that is basically only ends up on the rod. You can’t actually get the spray silicone on the bearings, which is essential to extending the life of your table. But, if you use the liquid silicone, then you can manually put drops of it on the bearings on your own. This is definitely the best way to lubricate the bearings of the table.

Never use WD-40 spray in place of silicone! While this may work initially, it is actually very damaging to your table cause it dries out the bearings and bumpers and will eventually wear down the rods.

How To Use Silicone On Your Foosball Table Rods

When it comes to maintaining your foosball rods with silicone, you should schedule this as weekly maintenance if you are a heavy player. But, if you don’t play it that often, then you can go for longer periods without need for silicone lubrication. In fact, if you only play occasionally or a few times a week, then you can use a monthly lubrication schedule.

It is easy to know if your rods need some extra lubrication because you will notice that they turn slower and are harder to slide in and out.

For the easiest way to apply silicone to your foosball rods, take a clean cloth and put some of the silicone directly onto the cloth. Then, apply it to each of the rods on the table. As you do this, take precautions to not drip any silicone onto the playing surface or the handles. Once you’ve applied it to the rods, you should move on to the bearings. Take your liquid silicone and put it right up against the bearing and put a drop or two of it on each bearing. After each drop application, spin the rod around a few times (slowly) to make sure that the silicone gets completely in the bearings.

Where To Buy Foosball Rod Silicone?

Most foosball table manufactures sell this lubrication with other foosball accessories. You can also usually find it in retail stores that specialize in these tables. However, you can also just order some online from Amazon.

We recommend that you choose the Tornado brand liquid silicone as it works well and have a great low price.

click here for lowest price on Amazon

It comes in a 2.5 ounce bottle that should last you for several months since you only need to use a little of it at a time. Some people like to use an eyedropper to apply it to their tables, so if that appeals to you then you should buy one separately as it does not come with the bottle.