Falco Tempo Long Booster Review

New booster technology, completely safe for health, 40 times under the test limits, even if used alone. Effective for 3 months minimum, this booster is probably the fastest booster on the market!

Bottle 150ml, comes with brush (attached to lid).

Performance?

    Effect lasts 3 months +
    Drying time around 1 week
    Power value better than Toluene’s (highly effective former speed glue ingredient) power

How to apply?

    Apply 1 layer every 24h on the sponge only
    After the last layer, allow the rubber to curve and become flat again (8-10days)
    Glue the rubber to blade using water-based glue or glue sheet

Warning: This booster (and all other speed glues and alternatives) stretch the rubber, increasing the tension on the top-sheet. Some high tension rubbers or Tensors are not designed to be used with speed glue or alternatives as it put too much tension on the top-sheet. Some rubber are glued together better than others, so using speed glue or alternatives, there is always a risk of damage to the rubber.

(Note: Boosting rubbers is not legal for formal competition under ITTF rules)

Made in Belgium by Berenger, one of the leading manufacturers of table tennis glues.

 

Falco’s statement regarding ITTF regulation compliance of their boosters:
As stated by the ITTF, a racket covering should be used as it has been approved. The ITTF does not approve a racket covering, but rather the Top-sheet (the black or red rubber). Then manufacturers may choose a type of sponge that could hard or soft, thin or thick, boosted or not! Moreover, any player may change the sponge and use the sponge of his choice (this is very common in Asia). So Falco Boosting is 100% legitimate: this technique does not touch the approved rubber since it only boosts the sponge previously unglued.

The ITTF view:
Players cannot boost a sponge without an influence on the top sheet and so the current law is:
2.04.07 The racket covering shall be used without any physical, chemical or other treatment.

Note: The rules are only relevant where formal ITTF rules are applied, so for other competitions or social play, the booster are perfect legal.

 

Review by haggisv:

I love the idea of being able to revive on old and useless rubber, or a rubber that’s dropped in performance, back into something that can be used again for some time. Similar it’s great to be able to turn a $10 rubber into a monster with performance like a $50+ rubber! Other boosters could only offer the effect for days or weeks, but this one is unique offering effect for many months!
I dug up a new sheet of 007 (Japanese sponge 40-43deg) to test the booster. Since I used the same rubber in my review of the regular Falco Tempo Booster, I thought it would make a useful comparision.

Here is the sheet and the booster:

As you can see, the sheet has no dome at all to start with.

I removed the plastic protection sheet from the topsheet (so that the whole sheet can stretch) and started to apply the booster. The liquid is slightly yellow in colour, and is of a thick oily texture:

I applied quite a thick layer to the whole sponge surface as shown below.

After about an hour or so, the booster started to be absorbed by the sponge. In hindsight a thinner layer would probably have been better, as this tends to soak in more evenly, and more layers can be added if required.

Unlike the regular Falco Booster, the dome took a very long time to appear, as even after about 2 hours there was only slight signs of a dome, and the liquid was only starting to soak in.
Here it is after 12h:

As you can see, there are still a few wet spots where it has not soaked in completely.

After 24h, there was no sign of wetness any more, and the dome had grown even further:

Although the dome was already quite big, I was determined to try multiple layer as suggested by the instructions, so I added another layer, this time thinner.

The dome continued to build, here it is after to 48hours.

I continuec to monitor the rubber, but did not add any further layers, in the fear that the dome will be too huge to glue on, even after it started to settle.

After 5 days, the dome is finally starting to come down a little, although it’s got quite a way to go yet 😉

What I forgot to mention in my initial review is the sponge hardness that I measured with my Shore C durometer. Here are the numbers:

Hardness:
Initial: 48deg
1 day: 45deg
2 days: 44
5 days: 42

I was very surprised that after 5 days, it still continued to get significantly softer. This might also partially explain the reduction in the dome.

Day 7, dome continues to drop:

Finally, after 2 weeks of the initial boost, I got around to trying this boosted rubber.

The hardness reading had not changed in the last few days, but dropped quite a bit from the initial state, as posted earlier. The sheet was stretched from 168x168mm to 172x172mm, which is quite a bit for a Chinese rubber, as Chinese usually have a thicker and tougher top-sheet, so they don’t stretch or expand as much.

When I glued it on, there was still a significant dome on the rubber. This is not unusual for Chinese rubbers, as the topsheet tends to be tougher, making it harder to stretch with the sponge. Still it glued on fine with Donic Vario, which is certainly not the strongest glue on the market, so it’s not too bad.

Once I glued it on, the rubber really felt much softer (compared to unboosted), which is consistent with my readings. The topsheet looked fine, and it was still as tacky as before (as expected), so there was no negative effect on the topsheet.

I hit some balls against the ball machine… the ball came off much faster and when hit harder, it had the familiar loud popping/cracking sound of a speed glued rubber. I did not feel there was any loss of spin, and my loops had good arcs. I would have to try the boosting on a non-tacky rubber to see how much increase there is in spin, as tacky rubber get most of their spin from the topsheet, which has not changed much apart from some extra tension.

So the booster certainly works very well… I would estimate an increase in speed of at least 30% perhaps more. Softening of the sponge is real nice, as this tend to add to control, and add to spin particularly for non-tacky rubber. On soft contact the tacky on the rubber still offered very good control, but as soon as it was hit a little harder the lively sponge kicked in.

I could still do slow spinny loops by brushing the ball lightly, but dig the ball in only slighty and you get a lot of extra power.

I will now test it once a week to see when the effect drops off and how long it seems to last…

I’ve just tested the boosted rubber again, it still plays exactly the same after about 5 weeks. It’s certainly starting to live up to it’s reputation!

Review by haggisv:

Although it does not bother me in the least if other people use boosters, I don’t use any booster/tuner for competition, nor do I encourage it’s use, but I do love to experiment with them … I always have.

I love the idea of being able to revive on old and useless rubber, or a rubber that’s dropped in performance, back into something that can be used again for some time. Similar it’s great to be able to turn a $10 rubber into a monster with performance like a $50+ rubber! Other boosters could only offer the effect for days or weeks, but this one is unique offering effect for many months!

I dug up a new sheet of 007 (Japanese sponge 40-43deg) to test the booster. Since I used the same rubber in my review of the regular Falco Tempo Booster, I thought it would make a useful comparision.

Here is the sheet and the booster:
Image

As you can see, the sheet has no dome at all to start with.
Image

I removed the plastic protection sheet from the topsheet (so that the whole sheet can stretch) and started to apply the booster.
The liquid is slightly yellow in colour, and is of a thick oily texture:
Image

I applied quite a thick layer to the whole sponge surface as shown below.
Image

Image

After about an hour or so, the booster started to be absorbed by the sponge. In hindsight a thinner layer would probably have been better, as this tends to soak in more evenly, and more layers can be added if required.

Unlike the regular Falco Booster, the dome took a very long time to appear, as even after about 2 hours there was only slight signs of a dome, and the liquid was only starting to soak in.
Here it is after 12h:
Image
As you can see, there are still a few wet spots where it has not soaked in completely.

After 24h, there was no sign of wetness any more, and the dome had grown even further:
Image

Although the dome was already quite big, I was determined to try multiple layer as suggested by the instructions, so I added another layer, this time thinner.

The dome continued to build, here it is after to 48hours.
Image

I will continue to monitor the rubber, but will not add any further layers, in the fear that the dome will be too huge to glue on, even after it started to settle.

After 5 days, the dome is finally starting to come down a little, although it’s got quite a way to go yet ;)What I forgot to mention in my initial review is the sponge hardness that I measured with my Shore C durometer. Here are the numbers:Hardness:
Initial: 48deg
1 day: 45deg
2 days: 44
5 days: 42I was very surprised that after 5 days, it still continued to get significantly softer. This might also partially explain the reduction in the dome.


 

Day 7, dome continues to drop:


 

Finally, after2 weeks of the initial boost, I got around to trying this boosted rubber.

The hardness reading has not changed in the last few days, but dropped quite a bit from the initial state, as posted earlier. The sheet was stretched from 168x168mm to 172x172mm, which is quite a bit for a Chinese rubber, as Chinese usually have a thicker and tougher top-sheet, so they don’t stretch as much.

When I glued it on, there was still a significant dome on the rubber. This is not unusual for Chinese rubbers, as the top-sheet tends to be tougher, making it harder to stretch with the sponge. Still it glued on fine with Donic Vario, which is certainly not the strongest glue on the market, so it’s not too bad.

Once I glued it on, the rubber really felt much softer (compared to un-boosted rubber), which is consistent with my readings. The top-sheet looked fine, and it was still as tacky as before (as expected), so there was no negative effect on the top-sheet.

I hit some balls against the ball machine… the ball came off much faster and when hit harder, it had the familiar loud popping/cracking sound of a speed glued rubber. I did not feel there was any loss of spin, and my loops had good arcs. I would have to try the boosting on a non-tacky rubber to see how much increase there is in spin, as tacky rubber get most of their spin from the top-sheet, which has not changed much apart from some extra tension.

So the booster certainly works very well… I would estimate an increase in speed of at least 30% perhaps more. Softening of the sponge is real nice, as this tend to add to control, and add to spin particularly for non-tacky rubber. On soft contact the tacky on the rubber still offered very good control, but as soon as it was hit a little harder the lively sponge kicked in.

I could still do slow spinny loops by brushing the ball lightly, but dig the ball in only slighty and you get a lot of extra power.

I to test it once a week to see when the effect drops off and how long it seems to last.

Update: I’ve just tested the boosted rubber again, it still plays exactly the same after about 5 weeks. It’s certainly starting to live up to it’s reputation!

Author:

 

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