Sports Elite Tennis Ball Machine - Auto Portable Tennis Ball Launcher, Preloaded & Custom Drills, Spin Control, Lob Elevation Switch, Ball Speed (up to 80MPH), with Multi-Function Remote

I bought this liberty machine(like new for $827) to practice tennis alone on the court without any hitting partner. I can practice my shots for long hours without need of anyone in my opposite court. I got it delivered it yesterday and tested the functionality without balls. Everything works as mentioned. The is one discrepancy in the elevation markings. In the www.lobstersports.com it is clearly mentioned that liberty machine has 50 degree elevation, but machine it is printed only 40 degree so kind of wrong impression about their honesty in giving the correct specification in actual machine. I will test it on the court tomorrow and give further feedback on elevation and top spin and back spin and speed. For 10 degree less elevation on machine then what is on Amazon.com and lobstersports.com, i can give only 4 stars. I stay on second floor and it is not easy to carry machine 36lbs every day for charging internal battery. So I decided to check the internal circuit layout and found a solution to connect the battery externally and carry only the battery home for charging. Lot of relief as I can keep the machine in my car. Let me tell how to separate the battery from machine, it is quite easy if you know how to check the polarity for +ve and -ve terminals. Please be careful before connecting the battery externally and connect correct polarity for XLR cable and battery. I have made a custom XLR cable to connect to battery. I modified the XLR connector and using only two pins of the XLR cable . 1 & 2 pin only. XLR Pin 1 is +ve and 2 is -ve. Lobster machines have an XLR connection port to plug in external battery pack. The lobster battery pack 12V 18AH with fast charger is $179. So I decided to buy a cheaper 18AH battery an Amazon for $37. Bought an XLR cable cut it and used the male side connector to battery. We can buy XLR connectors separately without cable and make our own cable. Please check the continuity of the +ve and gnd wire using multimeter. I made the connections wrong twice and two 7.5 A fuse blown away. Thank God, I have connected the fuses in line to protect the machine PCB board in case I make the wrong connections. I found out that the lobster machines has reverse battery connection protection circuit. So I saved my brand new machine from getting fried due to components burning on the PCB. I am using two battery chargers one 1.5 A schumacher charger from Amazon $25 for the 18 AH battery and another battery tender .75 A charger ($27) for the 8.5 AH battery which was previously inside the machine but now it is outside the machine in the external battery BOX. I bought this BOX from amazon for $12. I bought the XLR CABLE for $10 Monoprice brand . The cable is not 16 AWG as mentioned by Monoprice only the outer sleeve is thick making it 16AWG, So if you can solder and make your own XLR cable that would be great using 16AWG or 18 AWG wire. I posted the pics also for everything. Please do not forget to make the XLR cable correctly and with correct polarity.Use 16 AWG wires for safety as 18Ah battery has higher current than internal 8.5 Ah battery. Connect only one battery at a time to XLR cable and another when first one has depleted. Enjoy court time of 6 to 8 hrs . More review on the way. Please let me know if any questions. I took the machine to the court yesterday and after messing around with the adjustments with elevation, speed, feed time, spin control and finally started playing. I am really amazed as the balls were consitent in their desired spot and i was able to practice for 6 hrs continously as I have total 2 batteries. I left with 2 more hours of juice left in battery. I tried the horizontal sweep but stopped it after 15 mins as it made me tired very fast. I have not tried the overhead lob yet but will try it next weekend and will update my review. The top spin and underspin is great, though need some adjustments on the control panel for speed and elevation. Overhead lob is great, I practised at max elevation and speed around 50MPH , need to adjust as per wind blowing. Overall great machine and true partner so far.

In the interest of being clear and helpful, I recommend that everyone who contributes a review cover as a minimum all the numbered information below. (My answers are in parenthesis.) Tennis level (I am 46 and played Division 1 tennis) Balls used (I tried Gamma Pressureless, and was very disappointed. I moved to regular pressured balls, and so far have been happy with their performance) Length of time used (I've used it now for about 4 weeks, at least 2x/week) Machine Type (Elite 1) Battery Care (Did you overcharge your battery, by charging it overnight/more than 24 hours? If so, you ruined your battery's life. I did not.) How I am using it (I am not traveling with it, so no picking up and loading into car. I would not want to do that with this machine, and thankfully I roll it out and down to the court.) Type of court (Red Clay) So far, I am very pleased with this machine. I will update this review if anything I write in it changes. It has proven to be reliable, and arrived fully charged and ready to use. The wheels work well and seem sturdy, although even bigger ones would be nice. I did not get the remote, and while it would be nice, it is certainly not essential for use (and I have no plans to buy one). I have found one setting with speed and distance and spin that I have been hitting cross court ground strokes with only. It delivers a consistent ball. While it can hold 150 balls,, but if you are going to roll with it and tilt it at the appropriate angle to get it moving, I am only able to keep about 40 balls in the basin (the others are in the hopper), otherwise they are going to spill out of the basin. I have found that using an air compressor after 4 weeks of use was helpful to remove the dirt and accumulation of fuzz from the balls. I will continue to use that every few weeks. As I mentioned in the intro. I bought Gamma Pressureless balls because Lobster recommends using pressureless. The Gamma batch of balls I received was poor and I sent them back. In their place, I put all the balls I've played with since the start of 2017, and had a much more consistent bounce and delivery. I called Lobster to inquire deeper into the pressureless recommendation: it's NOT for the well being of the machine, but rather for the consumer. In other words, Lobster believes that pressured balls will go dead within 1-3 months time, and they don't want consumers to be annoyed that they have to replace the balls so often. They reported that pressureless might last up to 6 months. I'm going to go with the used pressured balls and see how it goes, as it's going well so far. With about 85 balls, I estimate the machine can go about 10-12 times before the battery dies. That's not very impressive for me, as I'm turning it off during the ball collection period. The charge time can be anywhere from 3-8 hours, depending on how dead the battery is. That seems good to me. Overall, I'm happy with it. To be able to practice tennis strokes, and have a reliable machine to do it with, is a luxury. Why didn't I think of this earlier?

The Lobster Elite 2 is a great value for the money. It has enough options for feed rate, ball speed, spin, height, and oscillation to satisfy the advanced player as well as the novice, young or old. Our family summer lakeside cottage has its own tennis court, and generations of kids have learned tennis from patient parents willing to teach them and to share adult court time. Over the years, as motor boating and tubing became the exciting activity for kids, and there was less effort put into the discipline and patience required for tennis, there was much less family focus on the daily matches on both courts with family and visiting friemaintenance court was alloConsequently, enthusiasm for the sport began to wane for the upcoming generation of youth, much to the dismay to the older generation, just now in the still-actively tennis-playing grandparent stage of life. We decided to purchase the Elite 2 this summer, with the remote and two 60-count bags of pressureless balls. The decision was initially to help the one young teenager y grandchild, who is n b n llpllllpnmnbn passionate enough to about the game to play competitively, to be able to keep up on his high level of practice during his summer vacation. Lo and behold, when his similarly aged cousins saw him having fun & getting a great workout with a new machine that didn't try to coach or criticize, they began to use the machine, too. Also, 5-7 yr old cousins, some fresh from a first introduction to tennis during short summer tennis programs at home, began to choose to forsake their cherished tube rides for some time with the new toy. Parents & grandparents are thrilled to see their kids' newly acquired skills put to immediate use and enthusiasm develop. Busy parents can also slip in a hard practice between child-watching and meal preparation without the hassle of trying to arrange a quick singles or doubles game within a short window of time. Small and portable enough for easy storage and transport to nearest power source, an absolute must if there is none right at the court. One of our BEST decisions ever!

Bon rapport qualité-prix.

Great machine but it does not come with a remote and that piece has to be ordered separately which was disappointing. Also, while charging, there is no indicator such as a flashing light to show it is in fact charging and then a solid light to show it is fully charged.

Should come with balls and ball hopper. It is too heavy. Needs to be slighly smaller and more portable so can throw in the car trunk. Charger cord is too short.

It is exactly what I expected and wanted.