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Universal Ski Wax Recommendations

cantunamunch

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I don't understand. Are you implying it was rare to use fluorinated waxes? If so, then then what's the big deal with the ban?

No.

He's saying even if we had all been using fluoros at nordic racer levels (which we weren't) banning ski waxes but _not_ banning all those other compounds with *proven* environmental persistence and bioconcentration is just beating up on the little guy for appearances sake and zero real environmental impact.
 

RobHillsdale

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My most favorite universal wax is the Holmenkol Beta Mix Red. I have tried Hertel, Toko Performance Universal wax, Swix BP77, BP88, Briko Maplus and many others. Nothing beats the Beta Mix Red, imho. Well..... not counting all the high fluoro wax, Dominator Butter, and the powder overlay that's sitting on my shelf.
 

jt10000

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No.

He's saying even if we had all been using fluoros at nordic racer levels (which we weren't) banning ski waxes but _not_ banning all those other compounds with *proven* environmental persistence and bioconcentration is just beating up on the little guy for appearances sake and zero real environmental impact.
Fair enough.

Though I'll say that is' not just nordic racers - many of the popular paste waxes used by recreational nordic skiers like older Swix F4, were fluorinated. As was the solid universal wax he was using in lift-served skiing. As were many paste waxes used by recreational lift-served skiing like F4 and many small brands too. It wasn't that rare. Actually fluorination was super-common.
 

cantunamunch

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Fair enough.

Though I'll say that is' not just nordic racers - many of the popular paste waxes used by recreational nordic skiers like older Swix F4, were fluorinated. As was the solid universal wax he was using in lift-served skiing. As were many paste waxes used by recreational lift-served skiing like F4 and many small brands too. It wasn't that rare. Actually fluorination was super-common.

Not by weight percentage. All those recreational waxes had 10% fluorination by weight or less. And every rec skier in North America combined put less fluoro in the environment than 3 car washes using HF.
 

Philpug

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I have been duly impressed with the Toko Liquid Paraffins, obviously the Red is the most universal of the three and it is one of the few waxes that in doing A/B comparisons that I actually noticed a difference.
 

Daves not here

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I have had good luck with Purl Purple. Hope they stick around but have a few blocks stocked up regardless.
 

BC.

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I have been duly impressed with the Toko Liquid Paraffins, obviously the Red is the most universal of the three and it is one of the few waxes that in doing A/B comparisons that I actually noticed a difference.
When short on time….I’ve been using the liquid. I sprayed some blue on tonight for the cold day tomorrow. Big time saver…works well for a day.
 
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Spring1898

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Well I picked up some of the last of the Hertels, just in time for the next wax set. Once that runs out, I will see if Purl is still around.
 

snwbrdr

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Well, since I last bought ski wax a few years ago, it seems that there has been a bit of a Fluoropocalypse, and a certain home grown manufacturer of ski wax stopped producing waxes I used to buy, including non-fluoro variants.

Among the remaining manufacturers, any differences or recommendations in the universal wax side of things? Any Universal Fluoro waxes available anymore at reasonable prices for wet conditions?

I was eyeing up the 1lb block of demon wax for $25 after almost going through a 180gm block in the last 2 weeks.
I still got a couple of blocks left of the RaceWax FluoroMAX all-temp left. I forget how much I paid for them.

But...supposedly you can get Fluorinated Wax from Burton

 

tromano

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I have had good luck with Purl Purple. Hope they stick around but have a few blocks stocked up regardless.
I am using that too. Its easy to work with. And glide is about what I would expect. But it seems to last only about 3 days which is lower than other universals I have used. But we are skiing alot more manmade snow in UT this year so that may have alot to do with that.
 
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Spring1898

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We had some icy days, and the name brand Universal I had put on was gone after the 2nd day, so hard pack, or groomed icy nautral snow definitely scrapes off the wax sooner.
Weather was warm, but the snow was hard. One of those times a colder weather wax would have been better, but you never really know about those things until you are already up there. And I have my doubts whether rubbing on a colder weather wax would make a difference.
 
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Spring1898

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Fast wax apparently uses one of the fluoros that the EPA allows, so I guess they still have fluoro waxes but they are not producing anymore so what they have is all they have.
Maybe Burton is the same way.

Anyone have experience with them?
 

Daves not here

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I am using that too. Its easy to work with. And glide is about what I would expect. But it seems to last only about 3 days which is lower than other universals I have used. But we are skiing alot more manmade snow in UT this year so that may have alot to do with that.
Agree is is easy to work with and has good glide. I get about 4 days out of mine but it is really snow dependent. I will wax weekly regardless sign everything I am usually only skiing weekends. It is my bourbon time!
 

jt10000

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Fast wax apparently uses one of the fluoros that the EPA allows, so I guess they still have fluoro waxes but they are not producing anymore so what they have is all they have.
Maybe Burton is the same way.

Anyone have experience with them?
I used Fastwax a lot when I got back into XC skiing about 15 or 20 years ago. Seemed OK. Their regular waxes come in big blocks and work well. I also used their HF waxes in races and seemed OK relative to other middle-of-the-pack skiers.

Here is a cool video of a skier on a Fastwax LF wax just flying:

 

SpikeDog

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I loaded up on Hertel Hotsauce when I heard he was retiring. I even bought some Spring Solution, which I've never used before. Hertel is an easy wax to work with, especially if you are doing several skis.

I still have a puck of the Purl Purple from a couple of years ago; not impressed with it. Compared to the Hotsauce, it was far harder to scrape. I can't talk about how it works on the slopes, but I just didn't like how it went on, scraped, or brushed.
 
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Spring1898

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I would be interested in a comparison from someone who tried both hotsauce and purple. I have some hotsauce, seems very easy to work with. My iron didn't seem consistently hot at the low temp so I had to heat it up higher than the recommended temp to get the consistency. Would help me decide if I should grab some more before it is gone. Went through a quarter bar on the last 6 skis.
 

cantunamunch

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I would be interested in a comparison from someone who tried both hotsauce and purple.

What about them? Hot Sauce melts easily and spreads without small contact angle beading - that's always been its draw. Purl is far faster and more durable on fine cold snow (e.g. fresh at Altabird/ Breckenridge above Vista House, fresh snow at Mammoth) than HHS can ever be.

Apples and pomegranates. Scraping cold hard waxes is why we keep our stash of scrapers sharp.

Yes, there is a thing where you can do a drip-mix of HHS with a colder wax *but* it works less well with microcrystalline waxes like Purl than it does with old school hard waxes like CH6. 50-50 bead mix of HHS with Swix blue is still a thing that works (until it *really* gets cold, like in the NE right now).
 
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raytseng

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I wasn't really too impressed going through a couple bricks of hotsauce over the years; it seemed a little sticky and a little too soft and would just get worn off. I would just go with temp-specific Red from any other company instead of picking up more hotsauce.

I was happier with the FC739 which is a bit harder, and I still have a brick of it. When available was only like $8 more per brick over hotsauce, and I use it as universal or for friends skis.
Percentage wise maybe that $8 seemed a bit more, but per wax job, it's only like a few cents more in absolute costs; especially if you finetune your technique to use less than 10grams/skis. And the are laborsavings if it lasts 4days instead of 3 that balances it out; Unless you're running a ski shop for profit, the whole point why you are waxing is the performance, not necessary to get the lowest cost per job amirite?

Unfortunately, it looks like FC739 no longer in stock.
 
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