New Fischer Vacuum Machine.

[KingGrump]

Just caught this clip on the Fischer Vac this morning.


Any thoughts?

 

[Magoo]

Having two really different feet I'm all in. Don't care what it costs if you can get it done local.

 

[Alexzn]

I think the ultimate issue is still their plastic that is prone to stress induced cracking for some people. I doubt a new machine would fix that. The fit from the old machine was amazing enough.

 

[KingGrump]

Agree about the plastic tendency toward cracking. Two out of my three pairs eventually developed cracks. Lot of my friends also experienced cracks. They definitely have do better in term of reliability of the shell. Also agree on the amazing fit.. Especially the two zone machines.

What I am most intrigued with the new system is the ability to do a real time scan. Do a quick reference check, select a boot with the best fit and identify all the potential issue areas. I am sure the system and data is only available for use with Fischer product currently. Would be interesting if other manufacturers follow suit.

 

[raytseng]

looks like a great product. it is the logical progression that removes the first step of shell selection thst still required a touch of human expertise. For better or worse, this means the shop can offload the bulk of bootfitting to basically a junior technician without the requirement of years and years of master bootfitting exp. REI seasonal employees could now deliver equivilantly great fitting boots for 95% of the public.

Question though, for someone willing to shell out to get the boots, why would any customer opt to on do only the zone fit, if full fit was avail? even if it was $50 less, i dont think anyone would do the zonefit if the only benefit is a small discount.
Full fit is a more complex procedure with more screw up points, but it still is a step by step procedure, not requiring decades of masterbootfitter experience to make decisions or choices. Given the price for entry, i would think everyone would opt for full custom option.

The only customer technical benefit to zonefit is perhaps the issue with cracking that was brought up. may be the cracking is not as bad using zone fit that only heats problem spots and not the whole shell.
i do know that other thermomoldable things like footbeds (sole brand) are more supportive if you wear-mold them and don't do the heatcycle

 

[Alexzn]

Zone fit just seems to be a version of a regular punch, and the main reason why Vacuum fit was superior was because it could compress the shell in addition to expanding. The scanning is cool, maybe that could avoid over-stretching the shell that may increase the risk of cracking. IMHO, it is fundamentally the plastic that is crack-prone, so I doubt that a different fit would eliminate the problem. If they solve the cracking issue, I will be first in line, the Fisher boot fit was phenomenal, still the best I ever had.

 

[raytseng]

yea but i dont think they will ever say "2018 now improved to be more crack resistant" as it would imply prior versions were defective and just put into peoples minds that cracks are an issue which is what most buyers probably never considered. it would be like a restaurant advertising our food now salmonella free.

so i think the only way you can tell if the problem is solved is if you give them another chance. even if you hear a story from some guy that his 2018s cracked, you will be hard pressed to be able to discern if his was a fluke or if things have improved.

maybe at best you can get some info from a trusted bootfitter that did a lot of them and says improvement, but that's also hits a logic hazard because perhaps if he is having a lot of cracks his technique is incorrect and maybe hes heating too long or too much pressure for too much stretch or some other error.

 

[markojp]

Zone fit just seems to be a version of a regular punch, and the main reason why Vacuum fit was superior was because it could compress the shell in addition to expanding. The scanning is cool, maybe that could avoid over-stretching the shell that may increase the risk of cracking. IMHO, it is fundamentally the plastic that is crack-prone, so I doubt that a different fit would eliminate the problem. If they solve the cracking issue, I will be first in line, the Fisher boot fit was phenomenal, still the best I ever had.

We had a machine for a few seasons. To the best of my inderstanding, one thing plastic can't do is become smaller at the molecular level. Never ever saw a shell 'compressed' and boot volume made smaller. . IMHO, it was a grand idea that suffered from being 'first'. Everyone else has caught up. A cheap oven is much less expensive than the Fischer machine and takes less space. In the end, it was unfortunate that the vacuum idea (that isn't a vacuum) was sold as a problem solver. I just hope that Fischer has the $$$ to sort things out and walk away from the machine and whole vacuum marketing thing, find better plastic formulas, make simple, high quality boots that are cantology compatible along the lines of Langes RX boots, provide great liners through the entire line, and call it good. No small task, but I can't imagine Fischer isn't in pretty poor financial straights in the N.A. market. But I could be wrong and guilty of extrapolating the local into global. Both the boots and skis have largely disappeared from the PNW.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Zone fit - the reason you would use this is (I think) that some of the boots are only partial vac. The cuff for example might be regular plastic and not vac-able.

Cracking - Fischer is on their third or fourth plastic formula now since they introduced vacuum. I can't tell you if the boots will crack or not, but the goal is to reduce cracking (and who hasn't seen other brands crack too).

I haven't personally tried it, I am in their race plug which is traditional plastic.

 

[cantunamunch]

Have any of had your Fischer vacced boots skinned in CF?