Stiga Optimum 30 Indoor Table Tennis Table

I am no ping-pong "expert" -I grew up playing on a 1973 Sears special table, and the farthest I ever advanced was 3rd place in my high school's ping-pong tournament. But when my wife finally destroyed the old table "because it was between me and my beer", I decided I wanted an ITTF-approved table that would last another 39 years.

Boy, did Stiga deliver! This thing weighs in at over 250 lbs. Amazingly, it took only a couple of hours to assemble. The play is fantastic; you can actually FEEL the difference between one-star and three-star balls while playing. If a complete amateur can feel the difference between balls, that says something about the table. In terms of durability, I think I could store 1000 pounds of junk on this table and it wouldn't bat an eyelash. As one other reviewer put it, "Built like a Sherman tank, plays like a Porsche."

In spite of its solid build and hefty weight, the folding mechanism is fantastic. I can, quite literally, fold and store the table one-handed; the release mechanism and folding balance are that well-engineered.

So why only 4 stars?

Because the mechanism that holds the two halves together consists of two small pieces of plastic. $1400 for a table-of-the-ages, and you connect the two halves together with PLASTIC?!?!?! I expect the table to last 40 years. I expect those plastic parts to have to be replaced every year or two. Why? Would the extra $2 for steel interleaves really have bankrupted Stiga?

So I love love LOVE the table, and feel it was well worth the price, but I have my reservations about how long those plastic interleaves are going to last. Ask me in 2 years whether I still think the table was worth it, when I have to contact Stiga, get replacement plastic, and see how hard it is to replace...

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