MD Sports 4Piece Table Tennis Table Review

The MD Sports 4Piece Table Tennis Table is just about the least expensive full-sized table you can buy. Unfortunately, the price is just about the only great thing about this table. While not always the case with mid-tier and top-tier ping pong tables, when looking at extreme low-tier ping pong tables, you must really set your standards low.

The MD Sports 4Piece Table feels cheap in almost every sense of the word. The frame, playing surface, accessories and overall quality of the table leave a lot to be desired. However, it does deliver a playable table tennis experience at a price that often falls below $140. If price is the only important factor you care about, this might be a good ping pong table for you.

Specifications

• Official tournament size 9’ x 5’ table
• Fold-up design for easy storage and transportation
• Standard 5/8” play field and 1-1/8” aprons for additional support
• Full accessories included: 1 net, 2 net posts, 2 paddles, 2 balls
• Assembled dimensions: 108”l x 60”w x 30”h

Table Construction

The MD Sports 4Piece is a full 9 ft by 5 ft table with a decently thick 5/8” MDF table top and a 1 and 1/8-inch apron that secures the top to the frame. The frame is made up of cheap looking electrical conduit style metal lengths that bolt into the apron and table top. Plastic supports hold together the two table halves, which definitely seems like a weak point as far as stability goes.

The most notable aspect of the MD Sports 4Piece Table Tennis table is, as the name describes, the fact that the playing surface is made up of 4 separate pieces of MDF. This reduces production and shipping costs substantially but obviously is a significant detriment to the playing experience and overall, a bad design decision. There is a very good reason why pretty much all table tennis tables have a two piece (or even one piece) design.

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The four piece design as shown above breaks the table into 4 separate quadrants that each can become misaligned or expand/contract at different rates. This can be a huge problem over time and basically, make the table become unplayable as you will not be able to predict the direction the ball bounces off each of the misaligned quadrants.

Assembly

The assembly process for the MD Sports 4Piece Table Tennis Table is definitely not easy or straightforward. The process itself is pretty involved and requires assembling a lot of the table yourself. Pretty much every screw, nut, and bolt will require you to manually attach and tighten it. The instructions tend to combine several distinct steps into one so that it can be tough to figure out exactly what needs to be done. Be prepared to dedicate anywhere from 2 to 6 hours to properly assemble and adjust this table before you can play on it.

Playing Experience

After you get past the difficult assembly process, the actual playing experience of this table may vary depending on how well built your table happens to be. Many customers find that the pre-drilled screw holes are misaligned causing the center line of the table to not line up across the table halves. Also, many customers report not having enough parts to properly assemble the table and having to make a trip to the hardware store to get them. Due to poor quality control, many customers have received incomplete or defective tables. This is a risk you should be willing to take if you decide to purchase the MD Sports 4Piece Table Tennis Table.

For those who received functional tables without missing pieces or defects, the playing experience is ok. Even without defects, the table is not perfectly aligned with itself and the frame tends to wobble during play. The way the ball bounces off the 4 separate pieces can be hard to get used to and unfortunately can get much worse over time.

Conclusion

The MD Sports 4Piece Table Tennis Table is the epitome of a budget table. It uses extremely cheap parts and materials and cuts corners to save cost by implementing a four piece design. The assembly process for this table is extremely difficult and time-consuming and the overall quality control for this product is not good. Even at an extremely low price, we cannot recommend this table even for those looking for a ping pong table on a tight budget. We highly recommend spending the couple hundred dollars more and getting something like a Joola Inside table instead.