SKLZ Pitching Machine | Improve Your Swing | Ideal for Baseball & Softball Drills | Develops Hitting Power and Fielding Skills | Portable & Easy to Use

Outstanding product, and the best for multiple uses: I lay it flat for soft-toss with baseball in the cage. It is fantastic.I then tilt it slightly forward for use with wiffle balls with the spring fully tightened.They last about a year with VERY heavy use, and I am now on my third.PRO-TIPS:1. put bricks underneath the legs and bricks on top of the legs to hold it in place to shoot a faster wiffle ball pitch2. Use Skilz black and yellow baseballs to create a faster pitch3. buy a Christmas light extension cord with a foot switch to allow for solo batting practice. The pitches go to 24 feet, and you can elevate the machine to get a couple more feet out of that.4. If you want an even faster pitch you can insert a screw-driver into the mechanism and push the spring back even further (securing it there is a trick) to make the force even greater - this will likely put more strain on the motor.5. use the ball holders from your old machine or purchase another for $30 to make it an awesome 15-pitch pitching machine. Bringing it up to 22 still works, but you need a stick to support the weight when you lean if forward.SUGGESTIONS FOR SKLZ: please, please make a softball version of this for use with the SKLZ impact limited flight, black-and-yellow softballs.Try including three impact baseballs with this product to demonstrate a possible use and increase sales of your balls.There needs to be an ability to tilt the machine forward more, and this requires being able to tilt the ball holder back to give clearance for the pitches.A version on a tripod for added weight would be great for hitting practice.A plastic cage sold separately to go around the front of the product would possibly help for baseball soft-toss.This is such an awesome product at a reasonable price, I do not see why you don't make more variations on this.

UPDATE: I posted the review below on the SKLZ website, or at least I tried. They told me the review was "moderated", which meant deleted! They did not try to resolve the problem at all ... just deleted my review entirely. I won't be buying anymore SKLZ products.We got this for Christmas 2015 and we're already on our third unit trying to get one that works. Luckily Amazon has been good about the returns, but I'm embarrassed to return the third one.Issue 1: When we put in the batteries, the conveyor gear that releases the balls came on even though the switch is in the off position. We could not turn that part off. Only the spinning wheels would come on with the switch. This caused us to have to take the batteries out every time we were going to be done using it. Unacceptable, especially because the batteries require a small screw driver and are very difficult to put in. So we sent this back.Issue 2: This unit did not have the "always on" feature but instead had a wobbly wheel and was very inconsistent on the pitches. If I hadn't had the first unit which was very consistent on pitching, I might have thought this was just how it was supposed to be. Reluctant to return a second unit, I took this one apart. I discovered that two tiny screws that attach the motor to a plastic plate were not tightened. I could see that they were loose, but I couldn't access them to tighten them. This was definitely the source of the wobbly wheel because I could see the difference by looking at the good wheel. Therefore, had to send this one back too.Issue 3: Just got our third unit, and guess what? Same issue as our first unit - the batteries turn on the conveyor gear even in the off position. Uggghhhh! This was a Christmas present and my son really wants to keep it. What do I do?

Why did you pick this product vs others?:Throws tennis balls very well, struggle to throw real baseballs more than about 10 feet

10/10

the machine is great if you have patience. the pitching is a bit erratic and I feel you need to weigh the machine down so the motor doesn't change the path of the ball. the machine works amazing with the practice golf balls with holes in them.I use this machine with the thin practice power stick and light metal thin bat (slz sells them too)goes a long way to help hand eye coordination.if you can use a baseball donut around the top and the practice golf balls for some added success and life to the machine.sklz if you are checking these reviews weigh down the base.

First and foremost, you have to accept that this is NOT a pitching machine. It's a "soft toss machine". Its purpose is to lob a baseball up into the air just high enough that you can hit it with your bat or catch it and throw to someone else. Once you accept it as such, it does that job quite well. We use ours with batteries (an AC adapter is provided, should you have power nearby) and the trajectory does not change when the batteries run low -- there is just a longer break between pitches.I found two drawbacks of the machine. #1 is that it only holds 8 (or so) baseballs, so someone needs to be on hand to keep it loaded. That's not much of a problem because of #2. #2 is that the machine uses gravity to keep the balls ready to load into the "tossing ring". The baseballs sometimes get stuck and don't load properly. This also means someone has to be on hand to keep things moving.The biggest benefits are #1 cost, and #2 the use of real baseballs. You don't have to buy special baseballs for the machine. I picked up a bucket of baseballs and softballs on craigslist, and away we went. In case you wonder, no, the softballs don't fit. Too bad.This has proved to be a ton of fun with the kids (which is safer than pitching for Daddy AND the kids). Just be sure to wear batting gloves or you'll get blisters from all the batting you can do.