CCM U+ CL won't mould in home oven

[sohoman 0]

Just recently picked up a pair of CCM Crazy Light skates on-line and have been trying to bake them using a home oven without success. I have followed the baking instructions as per what came with skates (200 degrees F/93degrees C) for 1.5 minutes and if I had to guess it doesn't appear to get the skates hot enough but I'm afraid of increasing the temp and/or baking time for fear of wreaking a brand new pair of skates. I have very wide feet especially around the mid foot and although they are an E width the 3 attempts didn't seem to be able to mould the boot around my flipper shaped feet. Has anyone had a similar experience with these skates and if so do they have any words of wisdom?

(BTW I live in Sydney Australia and getting to the lone skate shop that has an oven (which btw only sells Bauer) is a hassle).

[Chadd 916]

You don't want to hear this, but the best option is to deal with that hassle and go to the shop to have them baked properly. And remember, they aren't guaranteed to fit, even after they are baked. No skate can promise that.

[Souldriver 64]

You also need a convection oven that gets the air in the whole oven even. Skates getting baked also get nice and warm not burning hot.

[chrisehyoung 14]

I found with the CLs and U+ Pros that an E width wasn't wide enough for my foot. I couldn't get them to fit right and sit on the footbed. The E width is narrow on those from my experience.

[mc88 160]

Just recently picked up a pair of CCM Crazy Light skates on-line and have been trying to bake them using a home oven without success. I have followed the baking instructions as per what came with skates (200 degrees F/93degrees C) for 1.5 minutes and if I had to guess it doesn't appear to get the skates hot enough but I'm afraid of increasing the temp and/or baking time for fear of wreaking a brand new pair of skates. I have very wide feet especially around the mid foot and although they are an E width the 3 attempts didn't seem to be able to mould the boot around my flipper shaped feet. Has anyone had a similar experience with these skates and if so do they have any words of wisdom?

(BTW I live in Sydney Australia and getting to the lone skate shop that has an oven (which btw only sells Bauer) is a hassle).

What sorts of issues are having with the boots in particular that you wanted to bake? Pinching? Rubbing? Lace bite? Blisters? Etc?

[Gummer12 134]

This is what can happen when you bake at home.

[busdriver 6]

I looked and looked for directions on how to bake a ccm hockey skate at home but couldn't find anything specifically about how to home bake a CCM u foam skate.

I baked a pair of U+ pros and they turned out awesome. I am sure more people will remind me that a LHS is the best and I'll forfeit the warranty but I got the skates second hand unbaked so the warranty was not an issue. This worked for me. . . and saved me $30. Note that this boot is surrounded in thermo moldable U foam and is meant to be heat molded. The skate is basically like a 2 liter pop bottle and just has a very general shape until it is heat molded. Skates without thermo moldable foam will often feel better out of the box but the quality of the fit will benefit less if at all from baking.

I tried following the video directions I found online (preheat to 170, turn off oven, put skate in, wait 7 minutes and then lace) but did not get much of a form so I followed the process outlined below and am very happy with the result.

-Try the skate on pre- bake and find out where the tight spots are. The U+ was narrower than a low end RBZ i tried on and I had a hot spot along the top and outside of my little toes on my left foot. Note where these hot spots are on your foot for later. Snug spots are ok but pay attention to spots that are so tight that you worry you got the wrong skate.


-Use the quick bake function on your oven or find someone who has a "quick bake", "speed bake", or other convection feature on their oven. Mine is a relatively new Frigidaire model. This feature basically blows the hot air around in the oven so it gets more evenly distributed. I SPECULATE a regular oven could be used also but you may want to leave it in a bit longer or include a battery powered fan to move the air around.

-Set the temp to 205 degrees (Fahrenheit in the US). You will hear a fan turn on if using the quick bake function and it will heat up pretty quickly.

-Apply some extra material to the hot spots on your foot. I used three layers of the packing foam that the skates were shipped with (laminate floor underlayment). A sheet of bubble wrap or a layer or two of padded envelope would probably work too. You just need to add a couple mm of volume to the hot spots on your foot before baking. If you have hot spots you will just bake in the hot spots. if you add a few millimeters of volume into your sock before baking you will end up with a comfortable but snug fit in those spots. Most high end ski boots have thermo liners in them and they always have you wear a toe cup in your sock to get just a bit of extra space so you don't rip your toenails off while you ski while maintaining a performance fit. This is the same concept.

-Use a tall thin smooth dress sock or nylon for baking. Carefully bunch up the sock so you can pull it on with the extra material in place over the hotspots.


-Remove all the racks in the oven except the bottom so the skate can stand upright. Only the tip of the calf piece will lean against the side of the oven.

-Leave the oven on while baking

-Remove the laces from the top one or two eyelets so you can slip your foot right into the bottom of the skate when it is done.

-Put the skate in for 7 minutes. (skate ovens are very small with powerful fans so they can achieve the same density of heat in just a couple minutes (i assume)

-Turn on the light in the oven so you can watch the process. I was obviously nervous my skates would turn to mush like the pic in the previous post but it was a very uneventful 7 minutes of watching my skate sit in the oven. no smoke, no melting, nothing happened.

-pull the skate out when the time is done. I noticed my skates were much hotter than when I tried the other method. They actually felt like they were moldable not just luke warm. But they did not feel like mush either.

-Put the skates on right away tap your heel into the heel back of the skate

-Tighten the laces. I tightened them regularly without too much emphasis on ripping out the eyelets. if your skates are mushy, this might be more of a concern.

-Once tightened, I stood up briefly so my foot would flatten out and put some pressure on the hot spots while the foam was still hot. Then I sat in a high chair (computer chair at highest setting) with my skate underneath me so I had a slightly bent ankle and my knees and legs over the runners of my skate.

- If you feel its necessary, use one hand to put pressure on the outside of the skates in places that feel like they could be more snug or to torque a bit more pressure onto those hot spots while the foam is still hot. I squoze around my arches and torqued just a bit extra pressure to form a nice spot for the ball of my foot opposite the hot spot on my left little toes.

-Wait until the skates feel about room temperature before removing.

My skates cooled down and resulted in a hard plastic shell that molded up well with the tongue and the eyelets molded in over the top of my foot. I wear my shin pads over the tongue of my skate so I tried keep the tongue centered right down the front of my shin.

I took the extra material out of my sock and tried the skate back on and it felt like a glove. No hot spots. There was no detectable damage or bubbling at all done to my skates following this method.

Hopefully you get as good of results as I did.

Happy skating!

[swineanddine 2]

Hey mate. I think I know the shop you're talking about. If it's the one I'm thinking (and they sell Easton too not just Bauer) they do have an oven and they charge $50 for a bake for a pair of skates. They're good guys and they know what they're doing, just make the mission out there and get it done. It's only $50, that's nothing and saves you the risk of screwing your new skates.