After purchasing a portable basketball hoop, home basketball players are left with the decision of whether to fill up your portable basketball base with etiher sand or water. While the right answer is a matter of personal preference, here are some tips to help you make the decision that makes things easiest for you.

Overall Stability

If your number one concern is the stability of the basketball hoop, you should opt for sand. Because it is a much heavier substance than water, it can lead to less vibration and create a much more stable pole and backboard. Sand is also your best choice if you just plan on putting the portable basketball goal in a single place and never moving it.

Emptied Out Regularly

Many people have the need to empty out their basketball base regularly, either because they need to transport it from location to location or for some other reason. If that’s the case, your best choice is water, just because it is so much easier to empty out. Emptying out a portable basketball base filled with water just involves tilting it over with the cap off, while emptying a sand base involves a lot more hard work and digging.

Cold Weather

Cold weather is another major concern if you want to fill up your basketball base with water. If it drops below freezing where you live, it could cause the water in your base to freeze and expand, thus cracking the basketball base and rendering it useless. For this reason, it’s generally best to stick with sand if you are concerned with how freezing temperatures will affect your base. However, if you want all of the advantages of water while living in a chilly part of the world, you can simply add a little bit of antifreeze to your basketball base. You have to remember to add it every time you fill up your portable basketball hoop with water, however, otherwise you risk breaking your base when the weather gets cold.

Ease of Mobility

In many instances, it can be necessary to roll the basketball hoop out during the day to play on and roll it back into the garage at night. If this is the case for you, you should make water your top choice. Because it weights less than sand, it just makes it easier to prop the basketball base on its wheels and move to a new location.

Ease of Filling Up the Basketball Base

If you prefer the option that just makes things easier for you, you should probably prefer filling up the basketball hoop base with water. With water, you can just stick a hose in the base and fill it up in under a minute. Filling up a base with a sand is a little bit more labor intensive, especially if you are trying to pack the enitrley base tightly for maximum stability.