Liquid fluoro durability is a big question – many waxers tend to prejudicially avoid liquid fluoros because of doubts about their durability. Meanwhile, some wax companies claim very high durability, while others say something like “suitable for sprints” which is code for “good luck”. It hardly inspires confidence!
In fact, I think the variability in recommendation and in experience reflects the large number of different approaches to the chemistry of liquid fluoros by different companies. The trick is that you need to hold the fluoro compound in suspension in order to have an effective product. There is a wide array of carrying media in use with different products on the market. Appropriately, it seems that every company has its own recommendation for how to best apply their liquid product, and what to expect from it on the snow. But in general the skiing public thinks of liquids as a single class of wax, and so confusion reigns.
All of this would be easy to ignore if liquids didn’t offer such promise. Given legitimate concerns about health and safety ironing fluoro powders, a quick, easy, and safe fluid dispersion application method has a certain allure. All we need is a product with competitive performance and good durability. That’s why we run tests!
Vauhti makes liquid fluoros using a liquid perfluoro carrying agent, while the main glide waxes held in suspension are the same hfC fluoros that they use in the normal powders. This carrying agent has a low enough melt point that it can be ironed at a low temperature (125 Celsius), providing additional durability. Vauhti claims good durability from a normal cold application, and even better durability from a hot application. I had one 30K race last year on hfC15 liquid over hfC15 powder with great skis the whole time. But with the powder underneath, that’s hardly a surprise.
OK – without further ado, here is Mundahl’s unexpurgated report:
Hatcher Pass, Alaska – Continuing to have the only groomed skiing in the State of Alaska, the trails at Hatcher Pass were packed with skiers ranging from young juniors to Olympians and world champions.
Several inches of new snow had fallen in the last 24 hours. Air temperatures were at +1°C and snow temperatures were at -1°C. Light snow was falling intermittently throughout the day. The new snow was groomed and in some areas was well mixed with older, heavily transformed snow.
The theme of the day was durability testing on pure fluoro liquids. Four skis were prepared:
- Vauhti hfc9 powder;
- Vauhti hfc9 powder with a cold application of Vauhti hfc9 Liquid;
- Vauhti hfc9 Liquid hot application with a cold application of Vauhti hfc9; and
- Vauhti hfc9 Liquid cold application
The plan was to ski each pair for approximately 10km and see how the liquids degraded over time.
Immediate impressions were that the liquid was faster than the powder alone in all conditions present. This margin increased in areas where the new snow had been thoroughly groomed into the older, transformed snow. The hot/cold liquid application was marginally faster than the powder/liquid application. It appeared as though the powder was a slight liability.
Unfortunately, the durability testing did not go as planned. After 10km of skiing, there was no appreciable change. After 15km there was no appreciable change. Only after 17km did the cold application without an underlying powder begin to slow. From 17km to 20km, the wear on the cold liquid application became extremely noticeable and speeds slowed significantly.
Even after 20km of skiing, the ski with the hot liquid application did not slow at all. In fact, it was still faster than the powder/liquid ski.
With this testing we learned some interesting things. First and foremost that even a cold application of the Vauhti liquids will often exceed 10km of skiing with no fluoro powder underlay. This is noticeably longer than with some other liquids on the market. Even more exciting is the hot application of the liquids. The durability of this application process appears in these conditions to be just as good as with a powder underlay. After almost 30km on this ski, it did not begin to slow.
In a last, brief test, the hot/cold application of the hfc15 liquid from last weekend (this ski had approximately 15km put on it) was tested against the hot/cold hfc9 liquid application. The hfc15 was significantly faster. In the newer snow it appears that even in temperatures above the hfc15 range, the hfc15 liquid excels greatly.