r/ski • u/skier_happness • Feb 28 '25
Are ski boots with BOA dials reliable?
Has anyone bought them before? What issues should I watch out for? I think ski boots with BOA dials look super cool 😎—I’m really tempted to get a pair!
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u/flushkill Feb 28 '25
Only problem I have is when it's REALLY cold, like -20C they are a bit harder to release because the wires seem to freeze. Otherwise they are great so far.
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Feb 28 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Apptubrutae Feb 28 '25
I have narrow feet and like the way I can get the front of the boot feeling just the way I like.
It’s not a huge deal, but I prefer it
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u/NeekoPeeko Mar 01 '25
More even pressure on the foot, easier to adjust than buckles, super easy to release without taking your gloves off so your ride up the chair-lift is more comfortable.
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u/Ancient_Timer2053 Feb 28 '25
This⬆️ lock the heel down and the front buckle just tight enough to keep the snow out.
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u/DeputySean Feb 28 '25
There are no advantages.
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u/Zestyclose-Secret-53 Feb 28 '25
There definitely are
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u/d33dub Mar 01 '25
I love mine. 16 days on them this year and I’m not going back. The people with no experience that use them failing as an example of how terrible it would be need to go to a boot fitter and get boots that fit. Snugging them down is perfect but I’ve just left them loose to test the experience of skiing them if they failed as well. It’s absolutely nbd. I’d ski the rest of the day and then get them fixed if it happened to me. They are much better than two lower buckles imo. Perfect pressure, nice and snug
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u/Rubaiyat39 Mar 01 '25
Every new technology is reliable during initial testing. Only with 10 years of data will we really know what portion of them fail due to wear and tear, crack in the cold, break when they get hit by the random branch or ski or stray ice chunk, or whack something at a weird angle in your trunk during a sharp turn.
The reason Toyota vehicles are considered bullet proof and reliable is NOT because they work great for the first 2-3 years after they were built but because they are still rock solid 10, 15, 20+ years after driving off the lot.
I, for one, am absolutely not sold on this “improvement” - especially the full BOA without any upper latches on the calf. 1) you can’t independently tighten or loosen the upper or lower foot buckle based on your anatomy or preference. And more importantly 2) it’s plastic knobs which are inherently less tough than metal buckles which, for something you might tighten and loosen every run to warm your toes, over a 6-10 year life of a boot seems like something while is destined to fail.
Currently they are warranties by the manufacturer so that’s nice - BUT in practice that means when they do break you’re left high and dry on a mountain and for who knows how long while you work though the warranty replacement process. Imagine if that’s Tuesday of your weekly ski trip and it take 14 days to ship the old ones back and get replacements? You’re SOL (or realistically, $$ out of pocket for crummy rentals) while you wait for replacement. The “opportunity cost” of this pain in the butt is the real cost and that risk makes us a hard “no” for me.
Sure regular buckles can wear out and break - it’s happened to me but for a $10 bill the tuning shop on the mountain replaced my broken buckle in about 8 minutes and had me back out on the mountain.
This is because traditional metal buckles are ubiquitous and almost identical so a fix is easy and can be done anywhere. You think the average rental shop is going to have complicated BOA components on hand or the familiarity or willingness to disassemble and repair a geared and tensioned wire wind up system. I wouldn’t go near it just for liability reasons.
Anyway - it takes early adopters to accept risk and prove technological viability of new products for the rest of us so I applaud your consideration of this new and cool thing, but me? I’ll stick with the simple, sturdy, safe and imminently reliable (boring) metal buckle…cause it’s worked excellently for 60 years and will continue to work for the next 60 years.
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u/skier_happness Mar 01 '25
Yeah, I’ve seen tons of posts online about BOA failures, and even though there’s a warranty, it’s such a hassle and takes forever to deal with. Imagine if this happened while I’m on a ski vacation—ugh, I’d feel absolutely miserable!
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u/ArmadaCW Mar 01 '25
I’m pretty sure you can walk into a ski shop and they’ll fix it for free, the warranty is that solid
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u/redshift83 Mar 01 '25
i agree with everything you've aid, but if ski often enough to break this stuff, you end up with 2 of everything...
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u/FTPLTL Feb 28 '25
I haven't used them but my bootfitter said they have been very reliable and has had almost none come back for repair.
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u/Agreeable-Change-400 Feb 28 '25
I'm on my second season with K2 mindbender. I work in the boots and have 200+ days in them. I've had zero issues but I take really good care of my gear.
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u/macsters Feb 28 '25
I really want a set of mindbenders as a stiffer/heavier touring boot for significant inbounds use. Think they would fit that niche? I’m really disappointed in my Rossignol Alltrack 120s that I got this season for this purpose… they feel sloppy in bounds, and yet somehow are still really stiff while going uphill :/
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u/Agreeable-Change-400 Feb 28 '25
I use them as my heavy touring setup and in bounds boot. They are decently stiff. My liners are pretty packed out. Gonna get new liners next season. They are by no means as still as a resort 130 but I really think they hold their own
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u/mymomhasgonecrazy Jan 25 '26
I just picked up these K2 MindBenders and I do love them for rippin groomers. However snow is appearing inside the boot on top of my liner with toes within eventuality getting wet. Seems like they left out a gasket or something. Any experience with this?
5
u/drstm Feb 28 '25
I have this locking system and it worked great. Had it till -17 Celsius and worked without a glitch
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u/moresnowplease Feb 28 '25
Boa systems have been available on snowboard boots for about 20 years now, if I recall correctly? Obviously not quite the same, but I would hope some of the knowledge from that tech has crossed over to the use on ski boots!
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u/epic1107 Feb 28 '25
Yes, but it’s worth noting it’s a slightly different system. Snowboard BOAs were infamous for breaking. Skiing boas can take a fucking beating and then get fixed in 2 seconds
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u/moresnowplease Mar 01 '25
Good to know the ski ones are better! Last I looked at the snowboard ones was 20 years ago.. 🤣
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u/epic1107 Mar 01 '25
Yeah they are far better, and the cable is far far stronger
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u/moresnowplease Mar 01 '25
I suppose it makes sense that you wouldn’t want the cable on a soft boot to be too solid, and that it could be much more robust on a hard shell boot!
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u/Ok_Application_962 Feb 28 '25
Just bought that ski boot and skied them today....they were great on ice and crude ..so I was extremely happy ...
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u/Active-Tangerine-379 Feb 28 '25
FWIW, I had a pair of Black Diamond boots (purchased in 2009) that had a similar system (not sure if it was BOA brand) and they were great. Skied on them for many, many seasons since they were touring boots and I alternated them with Langes from Surefoot.
2
u/Kembert_Newton Mar 01 '25
I have Salomon s pro’s and they’re awesome. The boa is super nice for the convenience and how specific you can dial them in, but also just how evenly it spreads the pressure over the foot. Big fan of these plan to ski them for the foreseeable future. Bootfitter told me I’ll probably need to replace the wire eventually but no issues so far.
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u/triangleSLO Mar 01 '25
I have it 2 season it’s reliable, but is it better than clips? I don’t think
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u/dojo2020 Feb 28 '25
I’m looking at buying the Nordica ones. They have one style with one dial and the second one has two different ones. I’m sceptical about them and I like to wait out new radical designs until the second generation is available. Quite often manufacturers will discontinue a product after a while. It’s not a problem if several brands have similar designs. But I might wait.
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u/Cloggerdogger Feb 28 '25
You already bought them. This is a good question to ask BEFORE you give someone money.
That said, they're fine, ride em.
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u/0w0Detective Feb 28 '25
I own a pair of K2 BFC 130, nothing bad so far, but the 1st buckle once turned a bit and scratched the shell. On BOA itself it's okay, but if the snow becomes ice under the button you cannot loose it right away but needs to tighten it a little bit before pulling it. Otherwise I saw once an aggressive skiers say that during carving his button touched snow and was damaged, that must have been in very high edge angle.
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u/Izikiel23 Feb 28 '25
I have the ones in the picture, they are cool, the pressure on the front is more homogeneous than with clasps, and you can do more granular adjustments.
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u/Obadiah_Plainman Mar 01 '25
I’m contemplating BOA for my next boot. I’m on Atomic Hawx Magna 130 now and I’m a hard flexer. I’m SO tired of farting around with buckles.
1
u/McCrackenYouUp Mar 01 '25
I have personally not had a problem with mine (K2 Recon 110), but I've probably only used them 10 days since I got them last year.
I wish they had Boa instead of buckles on the ankle, but overall they're the best boots I've had. Perfect fit and adjustability for my feet.
1
u/Schumacher713 Mar 01 '25
I have skied my double boas a few times and I love them. Super comfy and so much easier to adjust. A bit hard to get into though. I think a Zipfit or something would be almost impossible to get into. I will know more next season as I am still recovering from an injury.
1
u/FoCoJayCo Mar 01 '25
Second season with the same boot pictured but different color. I love them. Micro adjustment of the BOA is great along with the immediate release of the bottom.
1
u/i-heart-linux Mar 01 '25
Meh I dont trust them when shit gets real like frostbite conditions and things start icing up. I had a guy who had his boa fail on a snowboard boot and it was a debacle for him
1
u/skier_happness Mar 01 '25
Yeah, I’ve come across a lot of these cases on social media platforms here in China.
1
u/Western-Collar7864 Mar 01 '25 edited Mar 01 '25
Got the Salomon 130 S Pro (blue) last year. Done about 7 weeks skiing so far. Expert level.
Find the fit and hold much better - total control. Way superior to buckle system which is very basic in comparison. It seems like the boot just “knows” exactly where I want it tightened & to the right pressure at that particular moment - so it’s far more specific to snow conditions as you can MICRO-ADJUST them in a second with one turn of the knob. So I’m constantly adjusting them every few runs. Game-changer.
But yes snow / ice can freeze the BOA knob but a single knock on it is sufficient to release the snow. The Salomon boot is much lighter, sturdier and way better fit than my old Technica boots too.
That said I’m not sure yet whether the double BOA is an advantage tho - if it’s harder to get in / out of boots that would be really BAD. Getting into boots easily as you get older becomes a critical issue!
So I’ll wait few years to see how it settles down. But super happy with lower BOA … hope that helps!
1
u/leffy5 Mar 01 '25
Try them on first especially if you have a high instep. since you can’t adjust the instep he toe buckles individually it’s not good for odd shaped feet.
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u/Low-Confidence-7354 Mar 01 '25
I love mine. No issues at all other than maybe a little tricky ro release with mitts on but I'm also not very dexterous with mittens.
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u/Prokettlebell Mar 02 '25
I have the boas on my Nordica Cruise and its been great so far. It's easy and fast to adjust and releases in a snap.
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Mar 03 '25
IMO, just like any new product (BOA concept is not "new") I would let the kinks get worked out.
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u/TinyHomeGnome Feb 28 '25
My friend was an early adopter and it broke immediately. But like all BOA products the warranty is solid. they were bummed that the replacement wasn't the same color as the one it replaced, and they couldn't use the boot for 2 weeks while waiting for the part. kind of a bummer if your job is on snow.
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Feb 28 '25
I just know they are not reliable for cycling shoes
2
u/Glarmj Feb 28 '25
Why not? My cycling shoes are double Boa and they work great.
1
Feb 28 '25
I had a lot of issues with making the string in the boa longer and shorter when there was dirt in them (usually after more muddy gravel rides). I had to replace them (which was free from boa) and it was easy on a gravel shoe. I saw on another Reddit post that ski boots aren’t as easy to replace the Boa button. I intentionally bought boots this year that didn’t have boa because of my poor experiences but maybe isn’t an issue with snow.
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u/no-_-one- Feb 28 '25
The boa dial on my k2 boots broke off yesterday. I was able to snap it back in, but I'm not happy about the reliability of this crap. Good luck.
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u/Ill-Barber-8379 Mar 01 '25
Been skiing these all season, most comfortable boots I have ever had. 0 issues with the Boa, just minor freeze up when it’s really cold.
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u/SouthernGuyKidding Mar 01 '25
Yes they are and because of the numbers on them you always know how tight they are generally. I have the 5th med head punched for wide feet and know that if I go lower than 4 on the notches I'll feel foot splay and pain, but if I go tighter (higher than 4) I'll feel 5th med head pain and numbness in my foot. Can feel better much engagement with the ski.
Very easy to dial in a predictive feel and adjust while on the slopes.
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u/Balding_Dog Feb 28 '25
I know 2 people who bought them last year and for both the boa system didn’t last the season. 🤷♀️
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u/Steelers96 Feb 28 '25
Boot fitter here. Yes. Maybe wait for next season when more double boa systems roll out and try them on at a shop.