Looking to find the best air hockey puck for your table? You're in the right place. As true air hockey enthusiasts, we've got helpful recommendations based on your table size.
In this guide, you should expect to learn...
- Why the weight and size of the puck matter.
- Which pucks you can use on small tables.
- Which pucks we recommend for large tables.
Let's begin!
Video Guide
Why Weight, Size and Shape matter?
Weight
How heavy should air hockey pucks be?
Having the right puck for your table is critical.
If you have a puck that's too heavy, the blowers won't be able to reduce the friction enough and you'll have an extremely slow game at best. At worst, the puck won't be able to slide at all.
If you have a puck that's too light, it's going to be constantly flying off of the table. This occurs when the power of the blowers on the table goes beyond the pucks they were designed for. It could also be an issue if you've got mallets or goalies that are too heavy.
Although size and weight are going to be reflective of each other, having the right size is important for different reasons. For example, the wrong size simply may not in the goal. On the flip side, if the puck is too small for the table and mallets, scoring is going to be far too easy.
Read Also: How to Fix A Puck that's Not Sliding and How to Stop Your Puck From Flying Off the Table.
Size
Air hockey pucks come in 4 main sizes:
- 2.5-inch - small-size puck designed for home-sized tables, and table for kids
- 3-inch - In-between size between small and standard.
- 3.25 (3 1/4 inches) - Standard/full-size puck for professional air hockey tables
- 3.5-inch - official air hockey rules (USAA) size
Shape
Air hockey pucks come in other shapes than circles, such as triangle, hexagon, octagon, or square.
While circle pucks are the most common ones and the only ones approved in official competitions, playing with other shapes can be fun. Here are some other shapes.
Courtesy of Billiard Evolution
Puck Recommendations
Large puck for full-sized commercial tables
So what if your tables blowers are just too weak to support pucks this heavy? Or what if you just want replacements similar to the pucks that they came with?
In this case, we would recommend trying some of the cheaper-made generic red pucks.
Check this set for the smaller 2.5-inch pucks as they are weight around 13 grams which gives you even more wiggle room for a low powered blower.
In the event that you’ve got a pretty big table (7-feet in length or above), then try these smaller 2.5-inch pucks by Dynamo.
Also, these smaller 2.5-inch pucks by Dynamo are definitely worth checking out. Because they’re a bit lighter, they don’t need as strong of blowers as the ones above. If you bought a large table and the pucks that came with it are constantly flying off of the table, then you should give these a try. Because this puck weighs around 18.5 grams, around half the weight of the bigger Dynamos, you can get away with having a less-than commercial blowers.
Lighter pucks for weak table blowers
So what if your tables blowers are just too weak to support pucks this heavy? Or what if you just want replacements similar to the pucks that they came with?
In this case, we would recommend trying some of the cheaper-made generic pucks.
Check out these 3.25″ full sized pucks or these 2.5″ small-size pucks.
The smaller ones are around 13 grams which gives you even more wiggle room for a low powered blower.
So what if your tables blowers are just too weak to support pucks this heavy? Or what if you just want replacements similar to the pucks that they came with?
In this case, we would recommend trying some of the cheaper-made generic red pucks.
or
The smaller ones are around 13 grams which gives you even more wiggle room for a low powered blower.
For true air hockey fanatics, games can rage all through the late hours of the night. If you've got other people sleeping in our house or live in an apartment with thin walls, this could be an issue. The "clack" sound of the bouncing pucks can easily wake someone out of a dead sleep and cause grounds for your neighbors or family members to complain.
If this sounds like a familiar scenario, then we've got the perfect solution. Dynamo makes rubber coated muffled pucks which provides the same level of game play without the loud sounds.
Quiet Air Hockey Pucks
For true air hockey fanatics, games can rage all through the late hours of the night. If you've got other people sleeping in our house or live in an apartment with thin walls, this could be an issue. The "clack" sound of the bouncing pucks can easily wake someone out of a dead sleep and cause grounds for your neighbors or family members to complain.
If this sounds like a familiar scenario, then we've got the perfect solution. Dynamo makes rubber coated muffled pucks which provides the same level of game play without the loud sounds.
These quite pucks come in two options:
3.25 inches in diameter as well as the smaller No products found..
Small Puck
If you've got a standard sized children's table (usually around 45" long or less), than odds are you'll need a smaller puck. The ones we've mentioned above are going to take up a large amount of room on the table and are going to be incredibly hard to strike with the mini-mallets that came with the table.
This pack of 2-inch pucks is designed specifically for playing on small/kids tables.
Glow in the dark Air hockey pucks
To make your game room night even more special, you can use one of these glow in the dark air hockey puck (also called fluorescent) from Valley-Dynamo.
Make sure to pick the right size for your table:
Alternatively, you can also customize your own puck, table and anything else you like by buying your own glow in the dark tape.
What Pucks Do Professionals Use?
Professional rules for air hockey are very specific when it comes to puck size. While the official rules state that a puck must be "exactly" 3.5 inches in diameter, all of the full-sized replacement pucks by the professional air hockey tables are 3 1/4 inches in diameter.
This doesn't mean that you should always use these pucks. We'll explain why professional pucks only work for certain tables, namely those with top quality blowers.
Read Also: Top Arcade Quality Air Hockey Tables
Frequently Asked Questions
Your Experience
If you've tried any of these pucks with your air hockey table we'd love to know about it. Please tell us the puck you tried, as well as the exact table you have, in the comments section. Because there are so many tables out there, we kept this guide focused on the basics of puck selection.
Your personal experience might be greatly valuable to other players. We look forward to hearing from you!