SWIX UR8 Wax

[GB_Ski]

My buddy moved to Florida, he left me 2 bricks of SWIX UR8 (red, 14F-36F) wax. As far as I know, they are basically just basic SWIX universal wax. Is my understanding correct? I don't race but I do like going fast, east coast, mostly on man-made groom snow. I can't find much information on it. Are they good enough for what I ski? It's free, so I can't really complain.

 

[cantunamunch]

Eh, it's OK. It's slippy enough in semi-warm weather, but you will notice fresh snowblower patches and you will notice a fall off in glide by the end of the day. Not so much a universal as a warm-universal. Perfect wax - for Snowshoe.

One tip: Be super-generous with it. In other words use LOTS. Don't try to save wax. Don't try to be fastidious about having too many scrapings. If you don't have UR8 slopping over onto your side edges and sidewalls, that's too little.

 

[GB_Ski]

Eh, it's OK. It's slippy enough in semi-warm weather, but you will notice fresh snowblower patches and you will notice a fall off in glide by the end of the day. Not so much a universal as a warm-universal. Perfect wax - for Snowshoe.

One tip: Be super-generous with it. In other words use LOTS. Don't try to save wax. Don't try to be fastidious about having too many scrapings.

So perhaps I should reserve the wax for March skiing (if covid doesn't shut it down)? I still have some racewax's universal wax that'll last me the season. Any suggestion for a pure east-coast ski wax?

 

[cantunamunch]

So perhaps I should reserve the wax for March skiing (if covid doesn't shut it down)?

Sure, it can work for that. It would have worked in the NE up until last week, it was certainly warm enough.

I'll let others make suggestions - my current best choices are from previous seasons.

 

[sparty]

So perhaps I should reserve the wax for March skiing (if covid doesn't shut it down)? I still have some racewax's universal wax that'll last me the season. Any suggestion for a pure east-coast ski wax?

Any hydrocarbon wax rated for about 10 degrees cooler than actual air temp is a good starting point. Honestly, whatever Swix has replaced CH5 with at this point would probably work fine 90% of the time, and you could hit it with a spray overlay for warmer temps (I've used both the Swix and Toko spray waxes with pretty good results).

If you're willing to deal with scraping and brushing it, CH4 or CH3 (or their modern replacements) might also be reasonable, but unless I'm actually racing on cold snow or really need protection from base burn, I see no reason to put that much effort in.

 

[Zrxman01]

The first three on the list are the Temp ranges and notes on the UR range.

As noted by others it’s an Ok wax for daily use.

Hey it was free... use it up and enjoy.

 

[Tony S]

My buddy moved to Florida, he left me 2 bricks of SWIX UR8 (red, 14F-36F) wax. As far as I know, they are basically just basic SWIX universal wax. Is my understanding correct? I don't race but I do like going fast, east coast, mostly on man-made groom snow. I can't find much information on it. Are they good enough for what I ski? It's free, so I can't really complain.

UR Lucky that you got free wax. Worst case use it for a cleaning wax.

 

[ScotsSkier]

I will differ slightly from some of the previous comments. i have been using UR8 and UR6 on my daily skis (not my race skis) since last season. I actually found that the UR8 works better and over a wider range than the previous CH8 (plus it is usually available cheaper, I have bought it in the past at $5 for a 150gm block) . It is not quite Beta (it doesn't seem to go as far down the temp scale), but nearly as versatile. The UR6 also has a decent range, it seems to start a little higher up the temp range than Ultra. In fact I think UR6 is the only thing i have been using this season for the last 5-6 weeks.