Lobster Sports Elite Liberty Tennis Ball Machine

I have been using mine for 4 years, and it's been brilliant. I wanted to invest in my tennis after moving to a new area, and it turned out to be the best purchase. I use regular Wilson US Open balls (I buy 72 every Quarter), and this thing usually lasts a couple of hours 3 times a week (and yes, I do also play against real people). It's a very fulfilling workout when on full settings, and has improved my game immeasurably.

Lobster tennis machines have spare parts which need replacing every year (rubber membranes) and they cease to stock them as soon as they change the product. So a big expensive machine ends up in landfill and they want you to buy another one. A oid like the plague

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.

So here's the deal. I am a 40 year old 3.0/3.5 player with a goal of being a 4.0/4.5 player in two years (that's what my coach says is a reasonable goal). I wanted to buy a tennis ball machine so I could practice my forehand and backhand over and over and over again without having to go to a drill or lessons. I bought the machine after spending two hours at the club with a machine at $40 per hour, and doing the math. The resale of these things on craigslist also appears to be pretty high, so it seemed like a relatively low risk purchase, that would pay for itself if I used it 25 times or so, and which I could always unload if necessary with little financial loss. I bought the elite liberty on November 2, 2016. So far I really like it. The machine throws out relatively consistent shots in quick or slow intervals. You can add topspin or backspin or keep it neutral. The dial says 0-80 mph -- though the official product description says it tops out at 70mph (not sure if it really goes 80 or if it just says 80 (that is, if they didn't want to create a specific 70mph dial for this one machine or whatever)). It can do random horizontal back and forth shots as well, though the sweep is pretty wide and will keep you running like crazy. Battery works fine...my one objection is that you never really know how much juice is in the battery...it's either solid green (charged), blinking green (kinda charged) or red (needs charge) but there's obviously a lot of variance in each of those categories that you are effectively blind to. Effectively does pretty high lobs. Only a couple of downfalls I can see so far: 1. When you add a lot of topspin to the delivery, the speed goes down pretty significantly. I wasn't expecting that to happen as much as it does. When you set max speed and zero topspin, the balls are coming out pretty darn fast, but when you put a lot of topspin on it, they slow WAY down, maybe even 15-20mph or so. I'm only a 3.0/3.5 player, and full speed at full topspin doesn't seem particularly fast to me (though neutral spin top speed is pretty fast). I usually practice at almost top speed and a little bit of topspin. 2. There's no way (that I can see) to limit the degree to which it spits them out horizontally, or to make it alternate forehand-backhand-forehand etc...That is, the only setting is random delivery (not alternative), and the only width setting is the entire court (not more narrow). There's no way that I can see to narrow the tosses so you're not running from side to side in the entire court, or to make it alternate forehand to backhand. The playmate machine at my club does this, but i'm sure it's a far more expensive machine. So the liberty may deliver two identical forehands in a row, or a forehand on the extreme right line, then a backhand on the extreme left line. You never know. It's a good workout, but not best for alternative practice shots. It looks like you have to go up to the elite 3 to get the two line alternative narrow oscillation...not sure if that's worth the $700 upgrade. (And to be clear this is no fault of the machine; it's my fault for not researching it enough on the front end, though the illustrations on the Lobster website are not 100% clear on this point.) A couple of things I was worried about that are fine: Some folks complained about the wheels and I was worried that they were going to be some cheap, breakable plastic. They're not. They're big and tough rubber wheels. I haven't had, and doubt I'll have any problems. I was worried about not getting a remote, but it's not that big of a deal. When you turn it on, it gives you a good 10-15 seconds before it starts shooting balls, so you don't even have to run, you have plenty of time. Lots of folks say it just tore the fuzz off of the balls. It does a little bit, and I'm sure it will do it more over time, but it's not extreme or anything. (For reference, i bought a bucket of Penn pressureless balls and they work great.) So overall I'm really happy with it. I wish it were a little faster, and it would be nice to have it alternate left/right and have the sweep be a little more narrow. But I'm sure to get my money's worth with the lobster elite.

I've had this machine for only a couple of weeks now so this review could use with more experience on part of the reviewer. I'll try to post updates as I go along later. On the whole, I like this machine and would recommend it someone who has the discipline to be able to hit hundreds of balls at a stretch. The ONLY way to learn is via repetition. Playing rallies/games with friends will more or less keep you at the same skill level. One needs to understand weaknesses in technique, practice the proper strokes over and over again till it becomes muscle memory. Only then can you take what you have into a game to play well. This is where a ball machine comes in handy. This one does a pretty good job of being a dumb ball feeder. It will not tell you what you're doing wrong. It cannot correct your technique. It cannot do advanced play in challenging you. What it truly excels is at repetitive motions, like all robots. I read the reviews and most of the criticism seems to be directed towards the bad battery but not too much towards the machine itself so I decided to get one. The good: 1. The machine is inconsistent. I love this about this machine. I also have a table tennis ball machine by Newgy. That thing is so accurate that if you don't have oscillation, it'll put the balls on a dime every single time. This has the disadvantage that I can literally hold a paddle in place and do nothing else to get successful returns. The tennis machine, on the other hand, drops the balls within a certain radius of a central point. That might not be a 100% accurate description but you get the idea. This forces me to judge every single ball and adjust my footwork and body position before attempting a stroke. This is pure gold. Even with no oscillation switched on, I can't stand at a point and play. I love this about this machine. Also, I have a mix of new balls, old balls, pressureless balls, regular balls in the hopper. That increases the inconsistency. 2. The feed rate is good. At the slowest, I can hit an entire hopper without getting much tired. At a fast clip, I gotta really work hard to get my strokes in and recover for the next ball. No complaints about the feed rate. 3. Speed is pretty strong. 80 mp is pro level ball speed. I don't need this. I usually stick to a lower speed. 4. Option of topspin, flat and underspin. Choose what you want. It works well. 5. Elevation control is decent. It'll let you practice overheads all the way from the net to the baseline. Can set it to high bouncing balls too. Or just skimming the net. 6. At a decent speed, you can step in to take a volley and step back to play baseline. Quite useful. 7. I mixed up old/new, presureless/regular balls. Not a single misfeed or jam in hundreds of throws. I'm very careful not to play in the rain or use moist/wet balls as other reviewers have mentioned that it jams with wet balls. I have no intention of finding out if it does or not. Even if it does, I wouldn't count it against the machine. 8. Reasonably quiet and smooth. But then you're out on a tennis court and sound shouldn't be an annoyance anyway. 9. Not a machine feature but you can set it anywhere across the net to determine what kind of feed you want. The recommendation is to put it on the "T" demarcating the ad/deuce courts but I think you can put it at other spots to make for more interesting play patterns. Cons: 1. $169 for an on/off remote???!!!! Seriously? Just because of this single issue I thought of giving 3 stars but the machine itself is pretty decent so I relented. This is a total rip off and guaranteed customer annoyance. I feel the customer is being taken advantage of. Bad, bad, bad move. Like that pharma exec who decided to pump up the price by 500% of key drugs. Or the EpiPen. Just plain immoral and wrong and unethical. Do you know what a remote costs nowadays for most standard electronics, Lobster? This is probably not mass produced enough to make it worth a third party to offer a remote. 2. The way to lift the machine is to grab the finger holds at the very bottom of the machine. Perhaps they could've made handles on the side or something. Lift with your legs! It's reasonably heavy but not too much. 3. The wheels are large but not large enough to let you climb a 4-5 inch curb. If you need to climb a curb or steps, you'll need to carry the machine. Minor annoyance for me as I only have one curb to climb between the parking lot and the courts where I usually practice. 4. The elevation control is achieved with a knob on the side of the machine. Some sort of markings to indicate which way to turn for up/down and possible range of turn would have been helpful. Minor annoyance. After you use it a few times, you'll get it. 5. A big issue for me: How about having a full control remote? If I want to stop the machine and switch over from topspin to underspin or increase/decrease the speed or elevation or oscillation, i'll need to walk over to the machine to do it. If they can come up with a remote that allows these features, I'll be happy to pay a higher price for that one. Currently, once you set it up and walk over to the other side, it's better to finish the whole hopper on whatever setting you have. Next round, you can vary it. 6. The fast charger is $129. Another gripe about price gouging. 7. Would you like to plug it in and play? Forgot to charge the battery? Battery is old and won't hold charge anymore? Since the battery isn't all that wonderful, this would be nice. Yes, $120 for that, thank you very much. 8. This is a big thing: no range of oscillation. If you switch on the oscillation, it'll sweep a wide arc from deep backhand to deep forehand. You need to be in top shape to play a 100 balls with that kind of range. My TT robot has options to limit range to do only FH only BH, shallow FH, shallow BH, etc. It has a range limiter between 1-6 that determines a whole lot of range options. This, I think, is a must have feature. It's probably just a mechanical thing to implement. Can't need a clever idea or need expensive parts. Sorely missing feature, at least for me. Lobster is SERIOUSLY taking advantage of their customers with price gouging. Like an auto dealer will charge $500 for a lost key. They need to do something about their pricing and be more customer friendly. They'll have happy customers, better reputation and larger sale volume. That's it for now.

I have had this model since Sept 2015 and use it twice a week for an hour to practice. I can practice my forehand, backhand, lobs, and volley.. and you can set the machine to topspin and backspin. I always set the machine to oscillate, speed to 60 and top spin to +3/4. Note the more topspin you dial in the higher speeds you might need, use reverse logic for backspin. You need to use good quality pressure less balls, you can buy those on here and they last a long time. When the felt starts to shed its time to replace, I would not recommend using regular balls in this machine. I have done regular cleaning and maintenance, and never had to replace any part including the batteries. Recently I have noticed that he batteries are not holding charge like they used to .. but I can still get a decent 1.5hrs of continuous use our of it .. I might have to replace batteries by the end of the year. Also, as of couple of days ago the machine stop to oscillate randomly and resumes again after a couple of minutes, I need to look into that, may be the batteries are too weak to drive the oscillate motor. I would definitely recommend getting the fast charger and charging the machine for (not more than) 3hrs prior to play. The features on this model are plenty enough for 3.5/4.0 player, you can spend more money on fancier features.. its your money. At least once during my practice session I find myself hitting the ball back directly into the hole where the balls come out... if I don't stop and remove the ball bad things happen inside the machine like felt all over and balls don't get fired consistently. I have had no problems transporting the machine, it is a little awkward to pickup and it has no carry/lift handles, I wish they had molded the plastic/metal parts to give the user a better grip while lifting the machine. As a long time user of this model, I am pretty happy with it and hopefully this review helps you make your buy decision.

I've owned my lobster for 4 months and have used it 20 times. I've become increasingly disappointed with it and would like to share my reasons so others don't make the same mistakes. #1 I called Lobster right before buying their machine. I asked if there were any discounts or promotions, to which I was told 'no'. One week after receiving my ball machine, I began receiving pop-up ads stating that a remote control would come free with purchase. What the heck?!?! I would have made a different buying decision had I known a $200 add on would be free the very next week. I called and they wouldn't include one for me. Very disappointed with customer care. #2 The ENTIRE machine oscillates from left to right, rhythmically. When I first got my lobster, I felt the corner to corner feeds would be excellent exercise for me. But after a couple of outings, I realized it was easy to watch the entire machine rotate and to know exactly where the next ball was going to land. In fact, I could pre-predict where the next two balls would land. The 'random' balls were no longer random. If I set the timer to launch a ball every 2 seconds, and the machine does a complete rotation in 4, I'd know one would be at the corner and the next would be right down the middle. Even when I force myself to return to the center line after every shot, mentally knowing where the next ball will land makes me lean in that direction. I can no longer simply blank out and have a great workout. If I do that, I'll find myself drifting to where I know the next ball will be, and I won't even break a sweat. If you want 'random' shots anywhere on the court, the Elite Liberty won't do it for you. #3 Carrying in/out of car: Yes, the machine is light, but it's quite bulbous, and the grab points on the bottom are hard to get to around the big body without putting yourself in a dangerous, 'bent over' position. For someone who tries to always bend at the knees to avoid injury, it is impossible to get this up off the ground easily. #4 The lobster only works reliably with pressureless balls. When I first learned that the lobster used pressureless balls, I was happy. They last forever! But when I started hitting 500 ball sessions, I realized that they impact the racket differently. They feel heavier and the impact is sharper. There's more jolt to the hand. During a regular tennis hitting session, I can easily go 1.5 hours. With the lobster's pressureless balls, I begin to feel wrist fatigue after the 500. To avoid tennis elbow, I stop there...after about 35-40 minutes. I tried switching to regular pressured tennis balls. I thought mixing old and new balls would add a level of challenge....some would bounce higher, some would travel further....to break the monotony and add a level of challenge. Unfortunately, the lobster tends to jam with the older balls, making this a frustrating experience. #5 feel lags. As I near the end of each hopper, there is inevitably a feed lag. Sometimes 20 or 30 seconds will go by with no balls being fed. I'll start to pick up balls or kick them towards the lobster, when out of the blue, more balls will start shooting out. I've been hit in the groin on more than one occassion. I didn't know that immediately after selling me mine, lobster would upgrade their line to clear hoppers! A clear hopper would have helped me know that there were still more balls to come! #6 2-3 balls don't feed: At the end of every hopper of balls, there are always 2 or 3 remaining in the hopper that don't make it to the motor. This is just a pet peeve of mine. My ball grabber holds 80 balls. If I'm picking up after every 80....I want to hit 80! Not 78 or 77. Poor design. #8 Basic Battery Charger: I don't mind if this thing takes 8 or 16 hours to charge. I only use it once per day. But what bugs me is that if I forget the thing plugged in, I could ruin my battery. Who designs something like that? I get cold sweats every night after I've used the lobster, thinking I've forgotten to unplug it. It's one more thing in life to stress out about. If I were to do this again, I'd buy a machine that could vary the time in between feeds, or one that hid which way the ball was coming so I'd be more challenged on the court. I'd buy one that would feed all its balls, without pause, and one that could handle regular tennis balls instead of only pressureless. I tried to go cheap and save $500 or so. I thought I just wanted it for exercise, and now I've outgrown my ball machine after just a few weeks. Disappointed