When the base looks dry rather than after a set number of days. A serviced base is dark and even; a dry one goes chalky and pale, first along the edges and at the tip and tail.
How to read a base
Look at it indoors, dry. Grey or whitish patches near the edges mean the wax is gone there. A base that feels dry under a fingertip rather than slightly waxy is the same signal.
Under a hard, cold, abrasive snowpack, that happens in a couple of days. In soft spring snow it takes longer. Storage matters too: a base left unwaxed all summer dries out and oxidises.
What each method buys
Hot wax — ironed in, scraped, brushed — penetrates the structure and lasts several days of skiing. It takes twenty minutes and a bench, and it is the one that actually protects the base.
Liquid or rub-on wax wipes on in two minutes and lasts a day or less. It is not a lesser product; it is the answer to a different question, which is “the snow is wet and I am leaving in ten minutes”.
Most people are best served by a hot wax at the start of a week and a liquid in the bag.
The situation where it is not optional
Storage. A thick coat of wax left unscraped over the summer stops the base drying out, and it is scraped off in the autumn. That one is about the ski surviving rather than sliding.
What the temperature band means
Every wax states a range, and it refers to the snow, not the air. A universal wax covers the middle of the range and is what most skiers should buy; narrow bands pay off once somebody is actually reading snow temperature.
How this site prints it
Wax pages print the temperature band as the maker printed it, say that it refers to snow temperature, and print the price per hundred grams so packs of 70, 100, 120 and 150 g can be compared. Iron and scraper pages print what they are for and what has to follow them.
Where this page and a maker’s own documentation part company, the documentation is right. Every length, waist width, radius, flex index, last width, DIN range, brake width, filter category, temperature band and mass on this page comes from the maker’s own published figures, with the unit as printed and the source named. None of it is measured here, and no figure is converted into another convention, because a converted number is a different number. And the temperature this page always names: a wax band refers to the snow, not to the air. The two differ by several degrees on most days and by more in sun, and a wax used outside its band drags or wears off within the hour. This page reports the band as the maker printed it, with the unit and the scale it used.
The questions asked most often
Do new skis need waxing?
They come waxed from the factory, and that wax is thin. Makers differ on this; several recommend a hot wax before the first day, and this site reports what each one says.
Is waxing worth it if I ski slowly?
It is least noticeable at speed and most noticeable on flats and traverses, where an unwaxed base stops. Beginners push and skate more than anybody, which is exactly where wax helps.
Last reviewed 28 September 2026