Tip for those who want excellent but inexpensive Binding Lube

[DangerBoy]

This would be of interest to people who use binding lube and know others that do and for ski clubs who have members that use it. Your club could buy the product in bulk, pour it into squeeze bottles and sell it to members at a very reasonable price and still make a profit for the club.

 

Back in 2014, I did some research on the possible use of cable pulling lubricants as a less expensive source of binding lube. What I found was that most of them contain various additives/ingredients that you don't really want going on you and/or in your lake but I decided to call up a rep at American Polywater, a company that manufactures a large variety of those products, and ask them if they had a product that would work well for that application. She told me that they, in fact, did have a product that was perfect for that application. She said it was the first lubricant product they ever produced and it was made to fill a contract they had to produce a large quantity of wetsuit lubricant for the US Navy many years ago. She told me that it's 100% water based and there are no additives in it so it's basically just "gelled water"; completely harmless to the environment.

 

I ended up buying a 5 US gallon pail of it for about $90 CAD. That broke down to a cost of about $4.75 CAD per LITRE (1,000 mL). In comparison, my local water ski shop sells a 946 mL (1 US Quart) bottle of Slime for $30.00 CAD. They also sell an 8 oz bottle for even more on a cost per oz or mL basis.

 

I sold a good share of the 5 gallon pail to an Alberta Ski Club, a bunch more of it to some neighbours out at the lake where my cabin is and kept the rest to use. Years later, we're still using it and it's still working great. It's not the absolute most slimiest and slipperiest binding lube I've ever used but it's still very very, slimy and slippery and does the job very, very well. For the price you just can't beat it.

 

Here's a link to the product page on the manufacturer's website:

 

https://www.polywater.com/product/polywater-a-clear-liquid-lubricant/https://polywater.com/product/polywater-a-clear-liquid-lubricant/

 

You can order a case of a dozen 1 quart squeeze bottles (Product No. A-32), a case of 4 1 US gallon jugs (Product No. A-128)or a 5 US gallon pail (Product No. A-640). In Canada, you can order it through an electrical equipment and cable supplier called Eecol Electric. I don't know if they have locations in the USA or not. For a list of US distributors/retailers of their products go here: https://polywater.com/usa-representatives/

 

What I did to get it as cheap as possible was to let Eecol add it on to and bring it in with a regular shipment of cable running lubricants from American Polywater. Eecol didn't incur any extra shipping charge for adding that one pail to their order of many so they didn't charge me any shipping cost on my pail.

[MDB1056]

Might give it a try if I weren’t a Babes Boot Butter fan for life. Kelp based and inexpensive and much better than soap/Dawn . Buy it by the gallon via Amazon

[DW]

@MDB1056 - curious, what makes it better in your opinion over soap/dawn. How does it compare in the following: slipperyness, easyness to wash out once the boots are on, other factors that are on your list. Thanks.

[pregom]

@DW I have tried both soap and Babes Boot Butter. BBB is very easy to wash off your hands and also off your foot once you put your boot on. Soap takes much longer time to wash off.

[RGilmore]

For my money nothing beats Suave Green Apple shampoo. I would never let this stuff anywhere near my hair, but my feet love it and my bindings smell great.

[lpskier]

I use Dr. Bronner’s pure Castile soap. I dilute it in a spray bottle. It’s very slippery, dissolves in a heartbeat, and is biodegradable. Plus you can take a bath with it after you ski. In fact, I washed my dog with my binding lube spray bottle last night. Really.

[Cooper_Trelawney]

Does anyone still use shaving cream? That's how I used to get into my jump wraps on my jumpers. Without it, it was hopeless.

[Jody_Seal]

 

We use the most expensive s##t known to man!

 

[jhughes]

50/50 Ivory and water in a spray bottle lasts forever and doesn't seem to have any downside in my boat.

[MDB1056]

@DW - Babes is slipperier and dissipates MUCH faster than Dawn once in the water. I really don’t like Dawn and most soaps as they tend to stay on your feet even once in the water for a while, so my feet feel like they’re sliding around in the binding for a bit. Using double Tfactors I lube the inside of the bindings and each foot . They slide in great and it’s gone as soon as I’m in the water. My kids even like it better than anything we’ve used. Agree 100% with @pregom

[markn]

Barbasol shave cream. Cheap, rinses easily. Secret is to keep your feet and binder as dry as possible prior to inserting your foot into the binder.

[TomH]

Our ski team has been using Polywater for over 10 years for jump bindings - stuff works great and dissolves immediately. We've got a few electricians on the team, so they turned us on to that one long ago. It helps that it's made right here in MN, so we can easily get it

[dvskier]

Shaving cream from the dollar store.

[WDKinley]

I use the warm and tingling stuff because it's inevitable that I'm screwed at one ball

[skimtb]

I like the babes as well, by the gallon.

I was finding that soap seemed to be making my feet crack / dry out more. Or I made that up in my head to justify the babes....

It does for sure go away faster than soap which is nice.

[ALPJr]

I used to use a few squirts of Palmolive in water in a quart spray bottle. Always lubed and washed away well.

[GaryJanzig]

I just use Joy, cheap and washes away easy.

 

[Vernon Reeve]

Costco has a gallon of a biodegradable dish soap that will probably last me a life time. Prior to that I used Suave Green Apple. They work nice mixed with mostly water in a spay bottle.

[klindy]

Hard shells.

[DangerBoy]

Many of the things being suggested such as soaps, shaving creams and shampoos are polluting to one degree or another and have ingredients that are not biodegradeable and are long lasting in the environment. Barbasol has a toxic disinfectant in it. Read the ingredients lists/SDS sheets. The Polywater stuff I suggested is just water with a little biodegradable protein mixed in. It's quite slippery and slimy but washes away almost instantly in the water and breaks down 100% very quickly and naturally. I contend that it's the most environmentally friendly/least harmful option of all those suggested and it's also very inexpensive on a per mL basis. As @TomH's ski team will surely testify, it is an excellent product for this application. They've been using it for over 10 years and they haven't gone away from it. Methinks that says a lot.

 

At any rate, all I wanted to do was put this information out there so people would be aware that this option is out there and would know how to get the product if they wanted to try it. I have done that. People can venture to try it if they want or just stick with what they've always used in the past.

[Nando]

What I liked about Polywater, which I used before switching to Reflex bindings, is that it rinses out almost immediately once you hit the water- as DangerBoy says. The CEO was a high school classmate of mine (he retired a couple of years ago) and they once filled a bunch of small bottles for me for free so I had a several year supply. I've tried other wire-pulling lubricants and they didn't work very well.

[MDB1056]

Babes is made from kelp. 100% safe and biodegradable .

[kylegansel]

Use Babes Boot Butter. It’s made from kelp and it’s 100% biodegradable.

[Zman]

The cheapest, large bottle of liquid hand soap currently at a dollar store, well diluted in a spray bottle. Don't really need the degreasers in Dawn.

We are just getting our feet in a boot....not rocket science here. B)

[dave2ball]

Hair conditioner works great also. Get it at your local The dollar store or

the supper market

[ral]

I have never spent any time thinking about it. Whatever is in the dock, usually cheap dishwashing soap, diluted or not. Most dishwashing soaps are promoted as biodegradable.

 

If you do 30 sets per day, at a generous 10cc per skier, it would be 300cc per day in a 100,000+ m3 lake. 100,000 m3 is 100,000,000,000 cc. I would be more worried about the gas and oil the boat puts in the water.

 

[tap]

It’s been over a decade since I’ve used rubber boots, but I recall liquid laundry detergent being pretty awesome. Much more slippery and washed out much faster then dish soap, also always available in the cabinet.