Customer Reviews

Wilson Ball Pickup 75

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

If you play a lot of tennis and practice a lot, seriously consider getting a ball hopper like this. Why do you need one? Basically because it's a more efficient way to pick balls up off the ground and will save your back. How does it do this?

Well, with the handles in the "up" position, the hopper is pretty close to the ground when you carry it, so all you have to do is set the thing down over a tennis ball. Since its got this neat little one-way trapdoor on its base, that lets balls in the cage but not out- whallah- you just picked up a ball without ever bending over!

As you can tell, hoppers are great inventions, as I can't imagine trying to bend over and pick up 20 or 30 (or more) balls off the ground without one. Also, when the hopper is full of balls, you can fold the handles down into legs and use it as a stand to hold your balls while you practive serves and such. Sturdy and easy to put together (4 screws), its definitely a must if you're into tennis. Other items I can recommend for tennis players include Treat Your Own Tennis Elbow.

I use this basket several times a week. It drives me crazy every time.
1) Washers/Screws falls off and basket falls apart. Fixed it with zip ties but I didn't buy this to have to do that.
2) Handles constantly popping off. No fix for this.
Please save your money and buy something else!

I bought this item because of the Wilson name and what looked like convenient, sturdy construction. Putting it together was easy enough, but it turned out the legs did not lock in place because the span of the hooks was smaller than that of the legs. My husband was able to force the legs into the hooks but then even he couldn't unhook them easily. I envisioned 70 tennis balls spilling out across the court during such a struggle. I exchanged the item, thinking it may have been a fluke, but its replacement was exactly the same. Not only that, one of the bolt caps broke off when my ten year old daughter was hand tightening it. This is not the quality I expected from Wilson.

1. way too heavy.
2. not easy to convert between picker and basket.
3. screws are always loose.

Hard to review a product like this... it's like reviewing a pencil, if it writes, it worked.

In all seriousness this is a nice hopper, I like it better than the Gamma hoppers you see everyone walking around with if for no other reason than the clasping nub at the top of the handles that will "lock" the hopper closed, that's a nice touch.

The metal used is on the thick side and the hopper has a perfectly sturdy feeling. You also assemble it by fastening 4 bolts that you can do up pretty tightly to give the thing a "never going to come apart" feel.

The ONE thing I didn't like, is that the lid doesn't *latch* closed, it just lays closed. I think it's suppose to latch, but as you tighten said bolts during assembly, the metal flexes a bit and bows inward on the side just a hair, making the top stop snapping closed and only lay closed.

I thought this would be a problem for me since I lay this thing down in the back of my car when I'm not using it, but because the top handles latch closed, they sort of keep the top flap from coming open, so I haven't really had any issues of the top popping open and balls emptying out into my trunk.

The only modification I would have made to this hopper (and I've had a few hoppers) is to put a little metal knob on the top lid *just like* the metal one on the handles, so the top would snap closed... other than that I'm very happy with it, would definitely get it again as opposed to the Gamma one.

One last note, the handles do come with rubber handle guards on them which is basically just some rubber hose (I noticed a lot of hoppers do this), I'd suggest taking this off... even though it makes the handles more comfortable to carry, when you flip the handles around and stand the hopper up on the handles, the little rubber guards can cause the legs to slowly spread out from under the hopper until it eventually falls over (sort of like someone on skates for the first time where their legs will slowly slide out from under them into the splits).

If you never prop your hopper up like in the picture of this product, don't worry about it. Just wanted to give that heads up incase you do so you don't have to chase 75 balls around the court like I did during serve practice.

First off, we bought two of these because of price, size, and look. They are cavernous and hold a lot of balls. For the occasional player that may use it a couple times a week, emptying and filling the hopper a couple times each use I am sure that this hopper would hold up.

Unfortunately we use these every day, and fill and empty the hoppers at least 20 time a day since my wife teaches lessons. Here are the major drawbacks:

1) The nuts come loose very easily and will rattle off and get lost regularly. This requires constant attention so as to assure that the nuts remain in place and tight. I finally bought some thread lock to prevent this, but it was still frustrating to have to purchase something else to make these hoppers functional.

2) The welds that hold the leg holders to the basket are very weak and WILL break. Quite frustrating that after 2 months of use one of these is unusable.

3) There are 2 clips per leg to keep the hopper from tipping over, or the legs slipping on the ground. These are nice, but because the clips are too close together for the legs it is only practical and convenient to use only one of them for each leg. Trying to force the legs into place is very inconvenient.

Overall I would not buy this product again. Nice, but for the amount of times we use it, it is not rugged enough.

So after waiting to purchase for over a year the darn thing went on a bit of a sale. We bit and it was worth it. Probably should have purchased at the few dollars more last year or when we first saw it. I'd say it's worth $25. Super easy to assemble with just a wrench or pliers. Sturdy and quite efficient. We emptied out at least 10 cans of "practice" balls and it barely looks one-third full. Anyway, it is easy to assemble and once that's done you're good to go. There may be a bit of a storage placement issue as you have to keep the handles in the up or down position to be efficient. We have an Escape and it's fine on the backseat floor when transporting to a court. I don't know how well you can transport in a little car. There is a cover intertwined as part of the unit and it's fine. If you had to transport on a back seat you'd have to have the handles at 90 degrees and there would be no room for a passenger there. Worth the purchase.

Buy everything but not this Wilson basket. Its screws are loose from the very first day. They drop and get lost frequently, then your basket falls apart and the balls scatter on the court. Don't waste your money and your nerve for this item.

I should have read the critical reviews more closely. This is a wobbly ball hoppper from the start. It is very hard to lock the legs in place. In doing so, you almost need to empty the ball hopper and muscle the legs into the locking mechanism. The caps of the nuts fell off the first time I tightened them. It is not cost effective to ship the item back so I will keep it but will not buy from Wilson again.

The parts to hold this thing together continue to come off and loosen making the basket a total piece of junk.