How to Choose Air Hockey Tables? Complete Buyer’s Guide

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Looking forward to buy a air hockey table for your game room or as a gift to your kids? Great! I am sure you must be crawling whole internet to find out what air hockey table to buy and what are things to keep in mind before buying.

Well, your search ends here. We have compiled a comprehensive Air hockey table buyer’s guide after lot of research and taking in account expert’s suggestions.

So, let me cut the chase and get straight to the important things that you must check before buying any air hockey table online.

Important Things to Know before Buying

1. Table Size

The size of the table defines how much space it will require for playing as well as storing. A full-size table used in professional tournaments is 90 inches in length and 50 inches wide. And to have a full size air hockey table you need a 10′ x 7′ open area in room.

Air Hockey tables come in many different sizes from 40 inches to 8 feet in length. If you are looking for an air hockey table for adults then the length must be longer than 60 inches. For kids, you must opt for a table lesser than 54 inches in length.

Also, the size of the pushers should be checked. There are special smaller pushers for smaller hands of kids.

 

2. Material & Construction

Ideally, a good air hockey table should be made of solid wood or Medium density Fibreboard (MDF). Apart from the table top, the legs must be sturdy to efficiently distribute the weight of the players leaning on the table while playing the game.

Also, the joints should be strong and well secured by solid screws. The weight and material of the pucks and the strikers should be accurate to make it easy to hold and play.

 

3. Air Flow

Air Hockey table is equipped with a motor or blower to provide the necessary air to reduce the fiction between the puck and the table surface. The air flow is a decisive factor when it comes to choosing the best air hockey table.

Most air hockey tables have a 110v blower that generally provide 80-100 cubic feet per minute air flow. Some professional air hockey tables have 120v motor too for heavy duty performance.

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4. Leg Levelers

It is recommended to buy an air hockey table having leg levelers. They come handy when you assemble your table at your home to keep the playing surface straight. If the playing surface isn’t straight, then the game would be unfair favoring one or the other player.

Generally, most of the good quality air hockey tables feature leg levelers or screws to ensure the straight playing surface even on uneven floor or ground.

 

5. Scoring System

Air Hockey is the game of goals and keeping a track of the who scored how many goals. There are two types of scoring systems seen in air hockey tables – manual and electronic.

Manual scoring systems have a abacus or slider type of scorer which the player has to slide after each goal to keep the score. While, the better scoring system is the electronic one which automatically counts the no. of goals scored by each of the players and displays on a LED panel.

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6. Power Source

For the air motor, all air hockey tables use AC power and you need to plug it into a standard power source to operate. While, the tables with electronic score keepers or LED lighting etc use AA or AAA batteries. The problems with the battery operated score counters is that the drain the batteries fast and you need to change them often.

Though, there are not many air hockey tables that use direct AC power for electronic score counters so you need to make a wise choice there.

 

7. Multigame Table

The latest trend in the market are the multi-game tables. If you are an arcade gaming buff, then you can go for a multigame table that has 3-in-1 games i.e. Air hockey, Billiards and Table tennis. That’s a complete game room in one table!

These combo tables will save space as well as money because you wont have to spend separately on three tables nor you have to make space for three tables in your garage!

But if you only want to play air hockey then multi game tables will only add extra cost to your budget and nothing else.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”http://youtu.be/qjIsQl0auIM” showinfo=”no” rel=”no” fs=”no” https=”yes”] [su_note note_color=”#ffff7e”]Don’t forget to Check out our list of Best Air Hockey Tables of 2018[/su_note]

Final Words

Well, the above factors are the most important one but apart from these some other features like graphics, design, lighting etc are few addons that you might want to have but not very necessary as far as the basic air hockey game is concerned.

We hope now you know what things to consider while buying best air hockey table for yourself. If you have any doubts, please ask in comments below. We will make sure to help you out!

 

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