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“This is a review of the Rhino Play Air-powered 7.5 ft...”

written by bmathew on 15/09/2005

Good Points
Affordable, sturdy construction, easy to assemble, sleek, automated scoring.

Bad Points
Motors underpowered for the supplied pucks.

General Comments
This is a review of the Rhino Play Air-powered 7.5 ft Hockey Table, Model G03996, made by Escalade Sports. It was purchased from Costco for $389.99 in August, 2005.



There is no information that I could find regarding this product on the web at this writing.



Disclaimer: I am not a very experienced table hockey player.



The table looks nice: black with silver trim, with a bright blue playing surface. It weighs about 260 lbs.



Assembly takes about 3 hours and requires about 3 adults to turn the table upright without rotating over the legs. The assembly is well documented and fairly straight-forward. The only issues we had was one of the screws for the legs was difficult to insert and the corner pieces were also a little tight. Moving the table will be quite difficult once it is installed, so be sure to have it in the right place before assembly.



The table works well. The edges of the playing surface is made of aluminum and seems sturdy. There are two motors providing the air-flow. The scoring is automatic along with the time keeping. Some audio is played to recreate a hockey rink, including an announcer who signals goals.



There are four strikers and 4 pucks supplied.



The table is fairly stable during play. The legs can be leveled individually to keep the pucks movement unbiased.



The downside for our table was that the puck would simply stop moving in some parts of the table. Calling Escalade Sports support provided some suggestions which included vaccuuming the surface holes, and applying Pledge to the surface to make it more slick. Neither solved the problem. I felt the motors might be underpowered, so they sent out a pair of motors. This made no difference.



Finally, I purchased some Carrom brand lightweight table hockey pucks ($2.50 each online). They weigh about 8 oz instead of 22 oz as the original pucks shipped with the table. The lighter pucks float much better and do not stop moving. They work well with the automated scoring also.



The game is a fast-paced and a lot of fun. Well worth the money. I would recommend it, if you buy the lightweight pucks.



Manufacturer's website: http://www.escaladesports.com