Bootcap (external toe insulators)

[mustski]

I need to install mine this week. Of course, it's going to be high 40s this weekend, so I won't actually need them.

I'm confused by the Hotronic part as they don't seem to actually be related at all. I had trouble finding the site at first.

Hotronic is the company that makes them. It’s a brand name.

 

[santacruz skier]

I need to install mine this week. Of course, it's going to be high 40s this weekend, so I won't actually need them.

I'm confused by the Hotronic part as they don't seem to actually be related at all. I had trouble finding the site at first.

Same here!

 

[santacruz skier]

Hotronic is the company that makes them. It’s a brand name.

Think confusion is that they’re on their own website

 

[leia1979]

Think confusion is that they’re on their own website

Exactly! The ones I got are only Bootcap branded (packaging, product, and website). When I was looking for the website, nothing came up with Hotronic branding. I do see in the Ski Talk preview that they were dual branded, but maybe that changed recently.

 

[Jilly]

Anyone not in the USA that's wants to get these, will have to wait awhile. I checked, not sending out of the country.

 

[Knitjenious]

Anyone not in the USA that's wants to get these, will have to wait awhile. I checked, not sending out of the country.

Hmm, I do live like 10 min from the Canadian border. If there are any Canadians really wanting a pair of bootcaps, I might be able to help facilitate accepting delivery mailing them to you the next time I take a road trip to IKEA in Burlington, Ontario! Though honestly probably won't be until spring at this point ... weekends are full of skiing right now!

 

[mustski]

I'm skiing with a bootcap on one foot and not on the other in order to compare. So far, I haven't noticed any difference, but it hasn't been cold here. Eventually, I will get a good cold day to try them out properly. Also, once I removed the bootcap, it was easy to get the adhesive off. It was really hard removing the bootcap. I will put mine back on with double sided tape and let you know how that works.

 

[Soujan]

Bootcap is currently running a promotion. Buy 3 get 1 free.

 

[mustski]

As an update, I love how they work with boot heaters. On a windy, 15° day, my toes stayed toasty warm with my boot heaters on level 1. I’m having a hard time with the comparison test because the one cap is on my left foot which is my circulation impaired foot. That foot generally ru a a lot colder than my right foot. Without the boot heaters, that foot stays warmer for sure, but it’s about the same with the boot heaters.

 

[MissySki]

I’ve skied with bootcaps twice in New England now. The first day was last Wednesday at Waterville.. it started in the teens and went to mid 30s throughout the day. Then yesterday at Sunday River, which went from 20s to 50 degrees, so doesn’t really count. Lol Since I had both bootcaps installed I decided to ski with one of my Hotronics batteries on and one off to compare what my feet felt like. For the most part I ski with my Hotronics almost every day of the season and in many cases could not ski without them. With them I am comfortable and without them my feet eventually turn into a block of ice and then I can’t feel with the bottom of my feet like I want to. I just have poor circulation in my extremities, and also use disposable hand warmers quite often in my mittens for this reason as well.

So on day 1 when I started skiing I could definitely tell a difference between my feet. The left had the battery powered heater on, and was very comfy all around, the right without my heater on was a little cooler (particularly I could feel that the top of my toes were warmer than underneath which is the opposite of how it usually goes for me) but not painful. The left foot eventually got so warm that I had to lower my battery setting to 1, that doesn’t really happen almost ever, it was to the point I thought my foot might start sweating as the day warmed up. Notably it was just as warm the previous day and I did NOT need to lower my battery settings at all. The right foot never required me to turn on my heater.. and these are not temperatures where I wouldn’t use my boot heaters even though it was mild in the afternoon. My right foot was plenty comfortable, but I am curious if it would have remained that way had it not warmed up as it did. Can’t answer that yet.

Yesterday I switched feet for which I had the heat on, just to change it up. Though I think my feet are equal opportunity icicles and don’t really have a bias between them. I only put the right side on level 1 since it was going to get so warm.. and I didn’t notice much of a difference between my two feet. I was very comfortable, as I should be at 50 degrees! Haha

I am looking forward to a colder day, that stays cold, to do a more thorough report. Not words I usually utter..but we are having way too warm of a winter for Maine! Currently my thought is that the caps are a great add on to other warming methods (for us exceptionally cold footed people) and that they definitely make a difference, especially to the top of the toes. This is notable since the Hotronics heaters only heat the underneath of your foot so I am impressed with how much warmer the top felt as this is usually where the heat loss is. I am however skeptical that I could forego my heaters altogether on a truly cold day in Maine with the caps alone, but I think the toe caps are going to be a much kore powerful add on than the bootgloves I use on especially cold/windy days. We’ll see. For someone who doesn’t usually need heating in their boots at all, but wants something to warm things up a little bit, this might be a fabulous singular option to try.

I’ll report back when we get an actual cold day here!

 

[ski diva]

View attachment 22507
I’ve skied with bootcaps twice in New England now. The first day was last Wednesday at Waterville.. it started in the teens and went to mid 30s throughout the day. Then yesterday at Sunday River, which went from 20s to 50 degrees, so doesn’t really count. Lol Since I had both bootcaps installed I decided to ski with one of my Hotronics batteries on and one off to compare what my feet felt like. For the most part I ski with my Hotronics almost every day of the season and in many cases could not ski without them. With them I am comfortable and without them my feet eventually turn into a block of ice and then I can’t feel with the bottom of my feet like I want to. I just have poor circulation in my extremities, and also use disposable hand warmers quite often in my mittens for this reason as well.

So on day 1 when I started skiing I could definitely tell a difference between my feet. The left had the battery powered heater on, and was very comfy all around, the right without my heater on was a little cooler (particularly I could feel that the top of my toes were warmer than underneath which is the opposite of how it usually goes for me) but not painful. The left foot eventually got so warm that I had to lower my battery setting to 1, that doesn’t really happen almost ever, it was to the point I thought my foot might start sweating as the day warmed up. Notably it was just as warm the previous day and I did NOT need to lower my battery settings at all. The right foot never required me to turn on my heater.. and these are not temperatures where I wouldn’t use my boot heaters even though it was mild in the afternoon. My right foot was plenty comfortable, but I am curious if it would have remained that way had it not warmed up as it did. Can’t answer that yet.

Yesterday I switched feet for which I had the heat on, just to change it up. Though I think my feet are equal opportunity icicles and don’t really have a bias between them. I only put the right side on level 1 since it was going to get so warm.. and I didn’t notice much of a difference between my two feet. I was very comfortable, as I should be at 50 degrees! Haha

I am looking forward to a colder day, that stays cold, to do a more thorough report. Not words I usually utter..but we are having way too warm of a winter for Maine! Currently my thought is that the caps are a great add on to other warming methods (for us exceptionally cold footed people) and that they definitely make a difference, especially to the top of the toes. This is notable since the Hotronics heaters only heat the underneath of your foot so I am impressed with how much warmer the top felt as this is usually where the heat loss is. I am however skeptical that I could forego my heaters altogether on a truly cold day in Maine with the caps alone, but I think the toe caps are going to be a much kore powerful add on than the bootgloves I use on especially cold/windy days. We’ll see. For someone who doesn’t usually need heating in their boots at all, but wants something to warm things up a little bit, this might be a fabulous singular option to try.

I’ll report back when we get an actual cold day here!

View attachment 22508

I'd be extremely interested to hear how they perform on a cold day. I've always been very satisfied with my usual Hotronic battery set-up, so really, I see no reason to switch.

 

[edelweissmaedl]

View attachment 22507
I’ve skied with bootcaps twice in New England now. The first day was last Wednesday at Waterville.. it started in the teens and went to mid 30s throughout the day. Then yesterday at Sunday River, which went from 20s to 50 degrees, so doesn’t really count. Lol Since I had both bootcaps installed I decided to ski with one of my Hotronics batteries on and one off to compare what my feet felt like. For the most part I ski with my Hotronics almost every day of the season and in many cases could not ski without them. With them I am comfortable and without them my feet eventually turn into a block of ice and then I can’t feel with the bottom of my feet like I want to. I just have poor circulation in my extremities, and also use disposable hand warmers quite often in my mittens for this reason as well.

So on day 1 when I started skiing I could definitely tell a difference between my feet. The left had the battery powered heater on, and was very comfy all around, the right without my heater on was a little cooler (particularly I could feel that the top of my toes were warmer than underneath which is the opposite of how it usually goes for me) but not painful. The left foot eventually got so warm that I had to lower my battery setting to 1, that doesn’t really happen almost ever, it was to the point I thought my foot might start sweating as the day warmed up. Notably it was just as warm the previous day and I did NOT need to lower my battery settings at all. The right foot never required me to turn on my heater.. and these are not temperatures where I wouldn’t use my boot heaters even though it was mild in the afternoon. My right foot was plenty comfortable, but I am curious if it would have remained that way had it not warmed up as it did. Can’t answer that yet.

Yesterday I switched feet for which I had the heat on, just to change it up. Though I think my feet are equal opportunity icicles and don’t really have a bias between them. I only put the right side on level 1 since it was going to get so warm.. and I didn’t notice much of a difference between my two feet. I was very comfortable, as I should be at 50 degrees! Haha

I am looking forward to a colder day, that stays cold, to do a more thorough report. Not words I usually utter..but we are having way too warm of a winter for Maine! Currently my thought is that the caps are a great add on to other warming methods (for us exceptionally cold footed people) and that they definitely make a difference, especially to the top of the toes. This is notable since the Hotronics heaters only heat the underneath of your foot so I am impressed with how much warmer the top felt as this is usually where the heat loss is. I am however skeptical that I could forego my heaters altogether on a truly cold day in Maine with the caps alone, but I think the toe caps are going to be a much kore powerful add on than the bootgloves I use on especially cold/windy days. We’ll see. For someone who doesn’t usually need heating in their boots at all, but wants something to warm things up a little bit, this might be a fabulous singular option to try.

I’ll report back when we get an actual cold day here!

View attachment 22508

We are boot twins (booster strap and all!) I wasn’t brave and got the black toe caps. I love the pink!

 

[mustski]

I am loving the combination on cold days. I think I will probably continue with the combination.

 

[Soujan]

I don't have Hotronic and will put on Boot Gloves if it's below 15 degrees. Looking forward to trying the Bootcap. My toes have been colder since switching to the ZipFit liners.

 

[leia1979]

I used mine on Saturday, where the day started at about 20F with a bit of wind chill. I still had problems with my left toes going numb, but that might be circulation more than cold. My left boot tends to feel too tight over the top of my foot, especially with heaver skis on the lift, but it goes away later.

Despite the numbness, my toes weren't painful like the last time I was in colder conditions before getting the boot caps. And the right toes were better off than the left.

My toes sometimes turn color from cold in my 68F house, so some of it is a me problem!

 

[mustski]

I gave the same issue with my left foot. Boot heaters are not enough alone but the boot caps add that extra insulation