Thermoflex Liner ReDo

I destroyed my stock liners this season & decided to give the thermoflex idea a try. I purchase them from a reputable shop & had them fit in the store.

Not entirely sure the shop tech really knew what he was doing b/c the liner just never seems to fit right in the boot & my toes are like vacum packed into this sucker like i have never expereinced. I have done a ton of grinding to the shell & the boot fit well w/ the other liner prior to its destruction. The togues on the thermo liner are also all mushed up & not straight. they also don't appear to fit flat on the boot board either.

I really like the lighter wt of the boot & dont want to call the expereince a wash. I know you can re-cook these suckers easily. Does anyone have a better insight as to how to better fit them to the shells I really like? I basicaly need more toe room & to straighten out the togues/bottoms

thanks in advance :D

Did the guy use toe caps? You need to pad the shit out of the toe area to compress the material lots and leave wiggle room for the toes when the material sets. You really need to take care to make sure there are not wrinkles once you're in. Generally you need a bit extra room in the shell to manage a good thermofit fit.

Sounds like they might have not been heated enough, plus without toecaps the toebox will never have enough room. Were they heated in an oven? I use Intuitions which can be heated a few times, but I don't know about other brands.

Left foot got a med thickness toe cap.
Right got a very thin cap.

Neither foot really did well w/ the toe caps. I could barely get my foot into the boots. I was thinking of giving it another try using a shell spreader to make sure the liner actually gets into the boot & to use a bigger toe cap. :rolleyes:

It sounds to me like they weren't heated long enough or at a hot enough temperature, because it's exactly what happened when I did my liners the first time. Could barely get my foot in there.

They're pretty easy to cook.

First, get a foam pad, like a camping pad. Cut off little chunks and stick between your big and litle toes. Tape in place. Then, get a big thick heavy sock, and cut the toe part off. Stick this over your toes to form a toe cap. You can add more material if you want. Then, tape your custom footbeds to your feet (if you use em). Then, grab a pair of your mom's/girlfriend's/wife's nylons, and put them on over everything. If you don't have a mom/girlfriend/wife with nylons, a Safeway plastic shopping bag will do as well (it reduces friction so you can get your packaged foot into the soft liner).

Now, pull out the oven racks, and preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Get some aluminum foil, and when the oven is hot, turn the temperature down to 200, and put the foil over the heating elements (to prevent the radiation from burning the liners). Put in the COLD oven rack, and stuff the liners into the oven. MAKE SURE that there's enough room for the liners to expand without touching anything. I neglected to do this and put some holes in the tops of mine (no biggie, fix with duct tape).

Check the liners every minute after 6 minutes to see if they're ready. If they're all soft, warm, and mushy, they're done.

Shove the liners into your boots. Take a few extra seconds and make sure they're fitting well everywhere, without wrinkles, etc. Then, stuff your packaged foot into the shell. Pull up on the top of the liner, gently, and make sure the front of the liner is correctly folded, tongue in the right place.

Then buckle the boot lightly, kick your heel against the ground a few times, and stand around for 15 minutes.

Done.

The thick toecaps and toe spacers should give you the room you need. The liner will feel very tight when you first put it on. My toes are typically painful while the liners are cooling, but once I pull off the toecap and spacers, the fit is fine.

I would just go back to the store you got them done at and get them done right. I've heard a few stories of people fucking them up in their home oven. At least if the shop fucks them up, they'll replace them, if you mess them up in your oven, you're SOL. Get them done right!

Here's a video instruction, if you do it yourself:

http://www.telemarktips.com/video/thermofit.wmv

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Originally Posted by Darkside

I would just go back to the store you got them done at and get them done right. I've heard a few stories of people fucking them up in their home oven. At least if the shop fucks them up, they'll replace them, if you mess them up in your oven, you're SOL. Get them done right!

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You're more likely to get them done right (!) if you do them yourself.

Bah. I bet you don't even mount your own bindings. :the_finge

I've always had better luck using a different method. I heat up the liners and then position my footbed in the liner first. This allows me to get it lined up perfectly. Then I put my foot in the liner (which already has a super thin ski sock with toe cap underneath). Then I'll slip my foot with the liner already on into the boot shell (just make sure everything goes in smooth and pull up on the rear cuff). Sometimes I'll slip the liner into thick nylons first to hold everything together - depends on the shell (some are too "catchy" to use the nylons method).

No shop has ever done a better fit on Thermoflex liners for me than I can do at home.

Thanks for eveyones' input....i think i'm going to go w/ the home route. The shop i tend to deal w/ does not do em & w/o any disrespect to the hardcore shop folks outhere, it's really getting difficult to get find people who know what they are doing anymore...but we get shit cheap on eBay!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by iriponsnow

Thanks for eveyones' input....i think i'm going to go w/ the home route. The shop i tend to deal w/ does not do em & w/o any disrespect to the hardcore shop folks outhere, it's really getting difficult to get find people who know what they are doing anymore...but we get shit cheap on eBay!

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That cheap shit on ebay/internet is why you can't find good peeps in shops anymore. We've lost most of our good customers to that cheap shit and can't afford to pay good people what they're worth anymore.

Yeah, next thing you know, all our labor will be farmed out to China.


Wait, what were we talking about?