What is the Difference Between Drop Pockets and a Ball Return? - Pool Table Buying Advice 

I agree Stuart. Makes life far easier I think. The benefit of drop pockets is the lack of noise, cheaper table price, and a shallower cabinet if use for pool dining tables.

@@HomeLeisureDirect Hi, maybe my comment is a little late, i know, just watched this now because i was interested in what you might say. Well, i´ll be playing pool myself for about 25 yrs now, played in the highest national league here in austria, as you might will imagine, facing opponents like Albin Ouschan, Mario He and Max Lechner. I like the game of Straight Pool most of all, a perfect training game also, you can play it alone. And even better, when your skill is improving in straight pool you´ll automatically improve at 8,9 or 10 Ball too. It is always a pain in the a.. when having no gully return and playing alone as you can imagine. The downside on this system is also that you always have to wait for the ball to come out, mostly the "albino" :-) Mean, that you have to wait and/or to go down the table. For racking our little guys of course it´s the best. Anyway, gully returns dissapeared round here in austria, i got used to it quickly but still miss it. Some of those Gully Returns have had a beautiful sound, supporting your rhytm while playing. Especially the Brunswick Gold Crown III. The gully return was made out of 3 metall rods, i enjoyed it even it was a bit loud. The most pretty sound nowadays delivers of course the Diamond ProAm with gully return, it´s silent but you can of course hear it and it´s relatively fast. Sry for this long comment... :-))) Kind regards from Carinthia/Austria, Christian

@@HomeLeisureDirect theres nothing like the sound of potting a ball in a ball return though

My aunts (and everyone else) have a pool table with the drop pockets, so it felt weird that one of my dad's friends had a ball return where all the balls go into a drawer

I like the noise of balls running through the tabl. Feels satisfying

Cue balls in English Pool Tables are a little bit smaller than the object balls, and allows the cue ball to be separated so that the cue ball is returned to its own little collection hole and not to the general object ball storage (assuming it's a coin operated table).

Generally because they're simply not needed in that kind of environment. It typically means that the table makers can focus exclusively on other aspects (such as the slate, cushions and set up) to make sure the table plays the best it possibly can in that setting.

@@HomeLeisureDirect oh. Ok. Thancc. Cool and good.

alternative media couldn’t you just get some foam fitted into the pockets so it doesn’t go into the ball return?

It's easy I'm converting an old valley coin table into a drop pocket...I just gutted it and ordered new felt,k66 rubber for the rails, and rubber drop pockets....

Hey there, Pretty much all pub-style English pool tables (with the deeper cabinets) will utilise a ball return. You may have better luck with certain pool dining tables if drop pockets are important in your decision, namely some of our luxury pool tables (like the Montfort range).

It's definitely a pesky problem when it happens, but thankfully blockages are very rare if there is a reduced risk of foreign objects getting dropped down the pockets (which is typically more likely in commercial venues). Good thing there's often a choice!