I have bows with both and I far prefer the plastic slide over the roller guide. The rollers tend to have the following problems:

- the rollers, ironically, tear up the cables worse and sometimes much worse than a plastic slide. I suspect this is because of the cable flopping out of the groove and scraping against the edges of the spools or even catching between the spool and holder on the outside, on the shot. You generally need to serve the cables in this area to fix this.
- roller guides are significantly heavier than a plastic slide because of the spools, bearings, screws etc - at the speeds they have to move on a shot, I suspect that inertia contributes to tearing up the cables.
- the PSE guide has rollers too where it goes along the guard rod; these develop flat spots and wear out causing roughness on the draw. A plastic slide is just friction and will stay smooth.
- more expensive than the plastic slides, sometimes way more expensive.

That said, a roller slide wouldn't stop me from buying a bow I like - I went ahead and bought my Shootdown knowing it had the roller gaurd on it. But when my roller finally wears out I'm going to replace it with a plastic friction slide. Of course, if the bow comes stock with a plastic slide, so much the better....

lee.

 

I like rollers over a "plastic" slide. A proper tuned bow the cables won't wear prematurely. Smoother, they don't wear flat spots unless the bearing fails, very, very rare. A plastic slide will wear twice as fast on the cables and develop a flat spot on the inside from sliding on the rod and give you chatter. When that happens replace it with a teflon slide.

 

I also have both types and it doesn’t amount to any difference as long as you have a Teflon slide vs a plastic one. People will claim faster on a roller but that’s just not true. I personally didn’t like the PSE roller as I laid my bow down in the leaves once and I got some debris in the roller and put a burr on the roller. If I were you I wouldn’t let a roller or no roller influence your purchase, there are other things much more important to think about.

 

PS: good points by the other guys about teflon vs plastic. There's a price premium, though it's small and they will last longer. But on the shot itself, at the speeds they move, there won't be any noticeable difference in terms of friction. Plastic, teflon and rollers will all be equally slippery on the rod. The WA channel has some good slo-mo video that shows slides in action, both the cheapo PSE and Hoyt plastic slides I prefer and teflon ones like the Sims Limbsaver, etc...

But I also totally agree that which one is minor enough that it shouldn't bother you on the line or really affect your decision on which bow to get:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woR_NpKJr3s&index=8&list=PLnGbQXzYstgEgxrIuyw45OPRq_K6NXjGx

lee.

 

I had a Hoyt 2010 Carbon Matrix with a slide, I hadw a 2011 Matrix, a 2013 with a roller, and some carbon Spyders with the ZT poller (2015) Never had any cable wear issues with any of them, I think the ones with the sliders shot the best (in fairness, they did have came with shorter valleys and less let off). I currently have some Xpeditions that do not have rollers and they shoot great and have no cable wear. So i'm going to say I don't see where it matters very much!

 

Teflon slide if I had to choose.

 

My favorite slide just happens to be one of the cheapest. It is the GWS Pro Hunter Cable Slide at $3.99 each from Lancasters! 60X used to sell them as well. I get smoother draw and less string wear with these slides than any other slide I have tried, including rollers. Sometimes, you get more than you pay for! As long as the cable rod is adjustable, this is my #1 go-to slide. But, on bows like the Carbon Air with non adjustable cable guard, the distance between the ends of the string grooves and the cable hole is TOO SHORT, but then again, so it the stock PSE slide they put on that bow in 2016. I had to machine my own slide for my C.A. from Delrin plastic because the string was barely hitting near the top edge of the cable stop on the top cam. 3/16" Longer slide = problem solved and still more fletching clearance than I need and still not interfering with my sight window. I could go even longer for even less torque! PSE should have made entirely different slides for these bows that are much longer than the standard stock slide! See below how much longer my machined slide is than the stock PSE slide. The Delrin functions just like the Teflon slides, maybe better. It is very slick.