Buying Guide Brush Heads

There are a lot of different curling brush heads, pads, covers and sleeves to choose from, and it can get a bit confusing at times. Here's a quick explanation that might help.

Recreational or WCF fabric? For most curling (club play and non-cash bonspiels) the recreational fabric is the way to go. It is generally cheaper, it lasts longer, it is more effective for sweeping and it comes in lots of colors. The WCF fabric is all a kind of mustard yellow color and will have a code on it. This is for play that directly or indirectly leads to national or world curling championships. All of the approved fabrics on this site will specifically say WCF somewhere in the title or description and be yellow, recreational fabrics won't say that and are available in many colors.

Pads, heads, covers, sleeves? All of these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Hardline brushes have covers (Maxim are WCF approved and Pro are for recreational play), BalancePlus brushes have heads/pads and sleeves. Heads/pads are fabric that is attached to plastic and foam, if you have the RS (replaceable sleeve) system from BalancePlus you just need a sleeve. You pull the insides out of the old sleeve and put the insides inside the new sleeve and reattach it to your brush. All of the other brands have heads or pads, for these you are replacing the whole thing, not just the fabric and they attach either with screw knobs or snap in (Goldline Air).

Size and Shape? There are different sizes and shapes to some of the replacement heads as well. Generally speaking there is no advantage to one versus another in performance, it mostly comes down to personal preference. BalancePlus has 7" and 9" heads and sleeves for newer models, older models may have oval which is about 9". Goldline has the Air and AirX, the Air is about 7.5" long and the X is about 8.5" long, your plastic brush head should say X if that is what you have. We get a lot of people throughout the year who order the wrong heads and have to exchange them, so please look closely when shopping and if you have any questions please give us a call and we'll help you figure it out.