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Check Out This 'COOL' Pinball Mod!

Cary Hardy·video·18m 16s·analyzed·Jan 26, 2023
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.015

TL;DR

PenMonk flipper cooling kit review: effective but niche product for extended-play users only.

Summary

Cary Hardy reviews the Tibetan Breeze Zen 2 Flipper Cooling Kit from PenMonk, a product designed to reduce flipper coil heat degradation during extended play. The video provides detailed installation instructions and performance data, concluding that while the product works effectively, it's only necessary for heavy players (40+ minutes) like streamers and tournament competitors, not casual home players.

Key Claims

  • Flipper fade is not a new phenomenon; it's been observed since the 1980s during tournaments and was particularly severe on Lord of the Rings, where it prevented players from making the ring shot.

    high confidence · Cary Hardy discussing historical context of flipper fade in pinball

  • The Tibetan Breeze Zen 2 Flipper Cooling Kit works by speeding up the cooldown rate of flipper coils, maintaining consistent flipper strength during extended play.

    high confidence · Product description and installation demonstration by Cary Hardy

  • Flipper degradation due to heat typically occurs after 40 minutes or more of continuous play.

    medium confidence · Cary Hardy discussing product necessity criteria

  • The temperature data from PenMonk's testing is typically measured at the 90-minute mark to show maximum effect.

    high confidence · Cary Hardy referencing PenMonk's provided performance graphs

  • Heat increases metal resistance, which slows current flow and reduces flipper strength.

    high confidence · Technical explanation of flipper fade mechanism

Notable Quotes

  • “You probably don't need this product. Well, now that's a hell of a way to start out a sponsored video.”

    Cary Hardy@ 0:13 — Sets the tone of honest critique despite sponsorship; frames the review as consumer-focused rather than promotional

  • “Flipper fade is not a new thing. It's been around since the 80s. During tournaments, there were players that were commenting about how they were starting to notice that the flippers seemed weaker.”

    Cary Hardy@ 1:39 — Establishes historical context for flipper degradation as an established issue in pinball

  • “Pinball streamers are a prime customer for this product because they play for hours straight.”

    Cary Hardy@ 1:08 — Identifies key market segment most likely to benefit from the cooling kit

  • “The box. This is a little ridiculous. I mean, that's the built-in magnetics, all that kind of stuff. It's just really pretty. And I have to question why?”

    Cary Hardy@ 2:53 — Critiques PenMonk's premium packaging strategy as potentially manipulative

  • “I don't feel like this is a product that a lot of you are going to need. But for those of you out there that feel they do need this product, then I will honestly say that I feel it will do a great job in meeting your needs.”

    Cary Hardy@ 17:44 — Final verdict positioning the kit as niche but effective for its intended audience

Entities

Cary HardypersonPenMonkcompanyTibetan Breeze Zen 2 Flipper Cooling KitproductCactus CanyongameLord of the Ringsgame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Content creators (streamers) identified as primary market segment for flipper cooling technology due to extended play sessions

    high · Cary Hardy explicitly states 'Pinball streamers are a prime customer for this product because they play for hours straight'

  • $

    market_signal: Aftermarket cooling solutions emerging for extended-play use cases, indicating market recognition of flipper fade as a real pain point for specific user segments

    medium · PenMonk has developed and is selling a premium flipper cooling kit with detailed performance data and professional packaging

  • ?

    product_concern: Flipper fade (heat-induced coil degradation) identified as a persistent mechanical issue affecting extended-play machines, particularly relevant to streamers and tournament players

    high · Cary Hardy discusses historical flipper fade observations since the 1980s and provides temperature data showing coil heat reaching critical levels during extended play

  • ?

    technology_signal: Aftermarket thermal management solutions emerging as product category within pinball modification/upgrade ecosystem

    medium · PenMonk's Tibetan Breeze cooling kit represents new category of thermal optimization products targeting specific gameplay scenarios

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.055

0:00
I'm going to be honest with you. You probably don't need this product. Well, now that's a hell of a way to start out a sponsored video, Kerry. I know, but this isn't just me stating this. I mean, it's even on the Penmonk website. So what is the product? Tibetan Breeze Zen 2 Flipper Cooling Kit for your CGC remakes. I mean, what's its purpose? It speeds up the cooldown rate of your flipper coils, so that way they're consistently kicking at their fullest potential. What does that even mean? Well, if you heat metal, it's going to get a higher resistance value. And a higher resistance means it's going to slow your current. And when you have a slower current, then that's going to hinder how strong your flippers are. Well, how do I know if I even need this? Well, if you play your games for an extended amount of time, like 40 minutes or more, then the chances are you may start to see some flipper degradation. I mean, pinball streamers are a prime customer for this product because they play for hours straight. I mean, have you found yourself struggling to make it up particular ramps that you would normally not have an issue with? Let's backhand this shot, get into our next mode, and get light extra ball in.
1:28
It was at this moment that he knew. He f***ed up. Oh, don't die on me like that! No! No! No! Flipper fade is not a new thing. It's been around since the 80s. During tournaments, there were players that were commenting about how they were starting to notice that the flippers seemed weaker. But the games had been played for hours by that time. I mean, the first well-known game with flipper fade that people would notice at their homes was Lord of the Rings, which notoriously had fade so severe that you wouldn't be able to make the ring shot, which is the primary shot of that game. So you are a casual player. You are not utilizing your game as a tournament game. You are not a pinball streamer that's playing for hours. and you don't see your gameplay being diminished by the flippers just not being as strong as normal, then chances are you don't need this product. But with that being said, let's do an unboxing, shall we?
2:37
Hold up. Now, I've done unboxings and reviews on plenty of products, But this one was different mainly because how the product was presented to me. The box.
2:53
This is a little ridiculous. I mean, that's the built-in magnetics, all that kind of stuff. It's just really pretty. And I have to question why?
3:06
You don't need to have this nice of a box in here. And I think I know why you did it. I know why. it's because you want me to feel guilty if slash when i throw this box in the trash well the joke's on you because the only thing i gotta do now is uh find a place to like display this okay let's get back to the unboxing what you will find in your kit are as follows instruction for installation manual a microfiber cloth that says pen monk now i gotta stop again on this because once again why hey i've included something in my product so you can make sure that the stainless steel is all nice and polished and looks sexy you're never gonna see it it's one of those things where it's a little touch of like okay it's in there if you want i mean the product that way if you ever do lift your plate build up they're gonna look damn good But, I digress. Precision cutters? Very nice. I could always use another pair of these. Premium stainless steel brackets and a quiet fan mounted with the Karma Glide mounts. Penmonkey keychain, a 7.5 foot wiring harness, golden zip ties, loctite, and a dual lead 12 volt power splitter. Comes with a changeable fuse to protect the fans and your game
4:50
Now let's begin with the installation process and as per usual I need to stress to you that you need to do this process with your machine turned off. If not, unplug it from the wall as an extra precaution.
5:26
all right so we've gotten to the part that's going to be difficult for me to get a good angle and record but I need to be hooking up this portion right here we have black for negative and red for positive the negative for this connector is going to be going on the negative voltage right here right next to that is the positive voltage where we're going to be hooking up the red one in order to connect these I need to remove not really remove but loosen up these Phillips head screws and then slide these in there and then tighten them back down again all right so we've got this connector in here now. It is now where it needs to be all nice and tightened down.
6:56
That was not easy to get you guys a good visual on the whole process. What I did in order to make it easier is bend the leads at a 45 degree angle. This gave me the ability to slide the leads in because wire clamp plastic protectors are a little thick to triple stack so we're ready to start installing the fans and i can already tell that i'm going to need to clip this particular zip tie right here kind of hard to see from this angle but it's connecting this LED board to this switch and it's gonna be restricting me to have movement so I'm gonna be getting rid of said zip tie obviously be very careful not to actually clip the wire. So now I'll have much more room to move around this particular end of stroke switch and everything in the bracket once I unscrew it. Now I can't access these screws right here for the end of stroke switch itself due to the nature of everything in my way. So I need to remove the bracket first. So we're going to start by taking out the two screws that hold this in. Now remember this is being held and it's got a spring attached to it right here so you don't want to lose that.
8:52
sitting right there for right now we'll move on to the next step all right guys for this next portion we going to need to actually remove this spring entirely from the bracket i not going to lie removing that spring can sometimes be a pain I know I made it look easy but trust me, it could be a pain. So now we're free to remove these two screws.
9:23
Now, before I go removing that last screw, let me specify guys. Oh, oh, oh, oh, get back up here. These are all layered together right here.
9:38
If I take this screw off, then all of this stuff can just fall apart and land inside your machine. So I'm gonna get the replacement bracket ready to go.
9:49
Let me go get that real quick. So I've got my replacement ready to go. Now, let's get this last screw out of here.
10:06
All right. This bracket is no longer gonna be used. Notice how I'm still holding all this stuff together, otherwise this would just fall apart.
10:22
This is gonna go on here like that line up with the screw holes trying to get this in here so I don't have to hold on to it as much All right. Now I got that. Now I get the other screw in there. All right. your spring is going to reattach to the one closest to the leafs so it's going to attach into that inner portion right there but before we go putting this back on here I need to get the Loctite on these screws alright so I've twisted the lid off of the Loctite and as you can see the blue Loctite and all I'm gonna do over here to the side is apply just literally like a drop let's see if I can get that on camera where you can see that I literally applied a drop and I went through all the threads like that place it over here out of the way and And then, gonna start mounting this thing back to
12:04
the flipper bracket. All right, let's get the other screw ready. All right guys, once again, merely a drop of Loctite is going on here.
12:29
All we need to do now is get the spring mounted on this area right there. You may end up stretching out the spring a little bit whenever you remove it. So you may want to tighten it back up a little bit so it doesn't accidentally come off. we go I like that better. Alright so all that's left to do is connect the power to that and we're gonna rinse and repeat on the other flipper right here now. Alright all we should have left now after getting those all connected is hooking up the power which should be this cable right here all right so here are the power leads to the fans and here is the wire harness that connects to the power supply that we connected earlier I'm just gonna connect those in there make sure they're nice and snug there we go we now have power so what I'm going to do now is organize these wires all the way down into the wire loom and everything make it look all nice and pretty and then we should be good to go so this is how I ran my wires I'm going here through this first loom and then I just use the wire harness, just go through each one of these all the way down. I only used one of his zip ties right here and then it trails off with the rest of the wiring harness and it goes to the power supply right there. We should be good to go. All that I can tell you to make sure of is that whenever you're sliding this plate field that's not up here wrapped around your shaker motor or your speaker. So I may do some more wire management to make sure this thing is not going to be catching on anything else. But you shouldn't have to lift your plate field this high or anything like that very often. So there you have the install on my Cactus Canyon remake. So let me give you just a little bit of data here when it comes to the variances between machine to machine. I even have a little bit of data for my Cactus Canyon here. Now remember you don't see temperatures getting up this high unless you're playing for a very extended amount of time like I said 40 minutes or more but I want to say a lot of the graphs that Pin Monk has are at the 90 minute mark but here are the pre-readings and in order to get the temperature this high in a short amount of time I had to really go to town on hitting my flippers over and over and over again holding them up I'd say I got up to this temperature with really abusing my coils in about five or ten minutes
16:16
And then after the install, these are the readings that I was getting. now I was once again abusing my flippers to try to get the temperature up as high as I could but I found it very difficult to get the temperature up as high as it was before the install because the fans were cooling them down. So the product obviously works. It does what it's intended to do by keeping your coils cooler than they would by just regular dissipation. Now like I stated earlier I don't typically talk about product presentation but when it comes to this particular product via pin monk it's an A plus on product presentation. It doesn't need to be this good but it is the fans don't need to be shiny and have the logo on there and look as good as they do but they are the setup and install was fairly easy the instructions were pretty damn straightforward the price on this product is up there but it's not out of the question i mean he's obviously got the quality and the effectiveness of the product is there but like i stated earlier i don't feel like this is a product that a lot of you are going to need. But for those of you out there that feel they do need this product, then I will honestly say that I feel it will do a great job in meeting your needs. A special thank you to PenMonk for sending me this product so that way I'm able to show everybody how to install it and how it looks. Now where the hell am I going to put this box?
18:14
you