Cold weather wax

[epicentre]

What do you like for a cold-weather wax? I use either Swix Universal or the Hot Sauce, but I need a wax for those really cold, low moisture days. I like to keep things simple and cheap, but people keep telling me the only waxes that really work all that well for those conditions are expensive waxes with fancy additives like graphite and moly. I'll dish out for specialized wax if that's indeed true but I thought I'd get some feedback here first.

 

[raytseng]

i got a big 150g brick of the holmenkol blue ultramix wax.

But to be honest I'm not fusssy and my main base wax goes on as a crayon, and then I hot touch/crayon the edges with the blue and it all semi-mixes together and hopefully bonds during the melting process instead of just cracking off.

 

[cantunamunch]

I'm really not sure of the scope of your question since in my idiom a) both of the uni waxes you name stop working 'well' pretty high up on the temp scale and b) the additives you name are about the simplest possible dry lubes - and the proof is they were used in WW2 era axle and driveshaft greases. Your Hertel already has a much fancier lube in it that was invented to make bath soap slicker.

So my recommendation is to start with a wax smack dab in the middle of the cold wax spectrum - Swix CH5 if you want to stay with Swix, for example, and figure out what works for you. Go harder if you need to, add additives if you need to.

 

[Daves not here]

I use Purl Purple as my daily wax - seems to cover the best range for my area. When it is really cold - I use Purl Blue.

 

[KingGrump]

I am cheap. I use Swix CH4 or CH6. Nothing fancy.
Have a bunch of LF4 floating around also. I use that when I remember. Don't really care that much.

 

[Sibhusky]

Part of my pre season prep involves Swix CH4 right before the final wax, so since that stuff is like varnish, it's under whatever is on top. For those single digit + and - days, it's usually Race Wax green hydro, might sprinkle some CH2 into that if it's sub zero F, but usually the 4 is still lurking during Dec - Jan anyway. I don't know if we've ever had sub zero days in February. Don't remember any quite that low. Usually the RaceWax green is good until March.

I think the OP needs to define what cold weather is. I might think his cold weather is balmy. Wait, he's local. His cold should be my cold.

 

[epicentre]

I find the universal wax is fine for my recreational purposes down to about 15-20 F. I used to get local shops to put a cold weather wax on my skis and it would improve performance a bit. I know you can get really specific with waxes and technique but I do not really enjoy or have time to maintenance my boards a ton so simple and utilitarian is what I'm after. I'm trying to keep it to two different bars max. Perhaps I'll go with that Purple / Blue setup or something similar. At any rate my question about the additives is whether they were worth the price or make any big difference; seems that may be conditional and I should just experiment. I appreciate the suggestions everyone.

 

[cantunamunch]

Two points:
a) just about any wax will work better at the limits of it's temperature range if the ski is run through multiple wax-scrape-brush cycles. I appreciate that you want to limit the time you spend on waxing but this does offer the possibility of making cheaper and fewer waxes work better for you. It is up to you to pick where the time - expense optimum is.

b) If you're going with 2 bars max, pick 2 from the same lineup (Swix, Toko, Holmenkol, Briko, Dominator - doesn't matter) _or_ pick 2 that can be meaningfully blended.

For example, CH5 and CH6 will blend with Hot Sauce and make Hot Sauce ski 'colder' but CH2, CH4 and LF4 will not (they are too hard). Purl blue will blend with Hot Sauce; don't know about the purple but there is a lot of overlap there so it may be pointless.

 

[Sibhusky]

Well, once I've finished my obsessive pre season thing, I just put on Racewax red (> 25°) or green (< 25 °) the rest of the season until things start getting grabby in the spring. At which point in addition to making sure the structure is fresh, I might add a bit of universal fluoro. Generally, I haven't found moly or graphite to help much. Our snow just isn't that dirty when we close. I try to wax every 60,000 feet, give or take. I buy wax in bulk during sales.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Part of my pre season prep involves Swix CH4 right before the final wax, so since that stuff is like varnish, it's under whatever is on top. For those single digit + and - days, it's usually Race Wax green hydro, might sprinkle some CH2 into that if it's sub zero F, but usually the 4 is still lurking during Dec - Jan anyway. I don't know if we've ever had sub zero days in February. Don't remember any quite that low. Usually the RaceWax green is good until March.

I think the OP needs to define what cold weather is. I might think his cold weather is balmy. Wait, he's local. His cold should be my cold.

I've used hot sauce in the past, but this year I plan on using CH4/6 for most of the winter for its durability. Last spring after prepping the bases I loaded them up with hard wax and let them bake in the garage all summer. They're now rock solid.

If we have a wet snow I might put on some universal, but for the most part the durability of harder waxes makes them worth the extra time and effort.

 

[trailtrimmer]

LF5 is my favorite do-all wax from 10F to 25F. A little easier to apply than CH4 and we get a lot of high moisture lake effect and man made snow do the Flouro is helpful. I don't even apply 6 anymore.

 

[hbear]

CH4, but it's a huge PITA to scrape....sets up like granite. Hope your scraper is sharp.

 

[Sibhusky]

When I'm using CH4 mid season, I use the warm crayon method to apply it, so minimal scraping is needed. Pre season when I'm really coating the skis to create my "shield" so to speak, I warm scrape, cool, warm scrape again, and keep scraping as it cools before the brushing. But I admit the first time I used the stuff, which I'd had for years, I thought I'd destroyed the skis because the wax was so old. A few weeks later I realized it was extending my wax life in general. But it's over kill if you're the kind of person to skip a day because it's "too cold". Its range is 10°F to -25°F. To my great joy, a lot of people stay home those days. There's cold waxes for slightly warmer conditions that are way easier to work with.

 

[focker]

I usually just use CH6, but if it's going to be really cold i'll melt CH4 and CH6 together. I find CH4 by itself is pretty hard to work with, although a warm scrape does help a lot.

 

[epicentre]

I have a lot of Hot Sauce left so I'll probably be using that for a while. But I'll go ahead and pick up one of these harder waxes. I like the argument for durability. I'd rather spend a little extra time when waxing my skis than having to take them off the hill more frequently. For you folks that use a hard wax for base prep, is that for durability reasons also? Because I thought most base prep waxes were soft.

 

[Jacques]

What do you like for a cold-weather wax? I use either Swix Universal or the Hot Sauce, but I need a wax for those really cold, low moisture days. I like to keep things simple and cheap, but people keep telling me the only waxes that really work all that well for those conditions are expensive waxes with fancy additives like graphite and moly. I'll dish out for specialized wax if that's indeed true but I thought I'd get some feedback here first.

For cold dry snow get some Graphite Zoom and blend it with some Bullet. You will then be golden. KISS.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

I pretty much just use CH5. As someone stated earlier, it melts and scrapes more easily than CH4. Seems to work just the same on snow.

 

[cantunamunch]

. For you folks that use a hard wax for base prep, is that for durability reasons also? Because I thought most base prep waxes were soft.

They are - and that is to save time too.

My strongest reason to use hard for prep holds on occasions when the Wax of the Day is going to be so hard that the iron on the WoD setting will smoke soft wax that's already in the base. So I use the softest (for penetration) wax that is hard enough to not smoke.

So no CH10 and no Toko moly prep on LFG4 days. Maplus Race Base medium doesn't smoke at that point - so that is what gets used. And the WoD/Prep waxes get Sharpied on a piece of tape and stuck to the ski for future reference.

But this is all going way beyond what the scope of your questions and the scope of your intentions are.

 

[Sibhusky]

I'm layering things really. There's three hot scrapes and then a wax and cool with softer wax to penetrate. Then the hard CH4 wax, then the wax for the next few days. Really, for the most part they are melting together, but the soft wax is to get down into the base. The hard wax will bind with that and act as a protection, then, for our coming week I have a warmer hard wax because last week when I stocked the locker it looked like the weather was going to be somewhat colder than the current forecast. If I'd done it today, it would have been the red wax. Oh well. When I bring the skis home in a couple days, I'll be slapping on a layer of red, I guess.

We all have our theories.

 

[Jacques]

I have a lot of Hot Sauce left so I'll probably be using that for a while. But I'll go ahead and pick up one of these harder waxes. I like the argument for durability. I'd rather spend a little extra time when waxing my skis than having to take them off the hill more frequently. For you folks that use a hard wax for base prep, is that for durability reasons also? Because I thought most base prep waxes were soft.

Hard waxes won't adhere well or last very long without a soft wax to cling onto.
Soft waxes first to prepare, then move to harder waxes.
You don't need to do that all the time.
If you got late on a re-wax, then you should do a soft wax again before the hard. Good luck.