Bauer Vapor 4 Elbow Pads – Did Bauer make something light and halfway decent?
Written: Apr 22 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Light, good coverage, comfortable, more durable than most things listed as Vapor
Cons: light padding
The Bottom Line: You could do a lot worse for elbow pads. These should outlast most things Vapor.
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| puckmugger's Full Review: Bauer Vapor 4 Elbow Pad EP4 |
Vapor Background
I’ve done some pretty extensive etymological research on the origins of the word vapor. It is fascinating that in Middle English the word vapour, from which Vapor came, meant insubstantial or worthless. This describes with uncanny accuracy the typical item that Bauer slaps the vapor label on. The Vapor skates are among the most disposable items in all hockeydom.
Bauer’s Vapor gear has a well-established history of causing excitement in the store and disappointment in the end. It is lightweight and feels great. I will give Bauer credit for hitting two out of three of the boasting points in their credo. The Vapor gear is lighter and faster. They missed the mark on stronger by a long shot though.
If you’ve read my previous reviews you knew that I didn’t have much good to say about Bauer’s Vapor line. If you didn’t . . . well you probably have the idea. That said, let’s discuss the Vapor 4 elbow pads.
Vapor 4 not IV
One thing that you might have noticed, there is a number instead of the Roman substitute in this model’s name. This is important. Not everything that Bauer labeled vapor was worthless. The early Vapor lines were number in even numbers from 4 to 10. While not all of them were a bad thing, not all of them were a good thing either. When the numbers changed to Roman numerals the quality went down quite a bit.
I don’t think that the decline in quality has any other connection to Roman numerals. While doing math with Roman Numerals would be ridiculously complicated, I doubt it makes most products automatically inferior. I suspect in Bauer’s case it had a little more to do with parent company, Nike’s influence. While Nike seemed to benefit greatly from the purchase, Bauer’s quality has suffered.
The elbow pads
The Vapor 4 is a pretty unique pad. It is lighter than most pads on the market. Certainly for one that offers decent protection it is very light. But there are other pads that are pretty light on the market. I haven’t weighed them to tell you which one wins the golden feather for the most successful diet plan. The Vapor 4 and a few other models are all light enough that it doesn’t really matter. We are talking about a few grams of weight difference here, who cares?
What is unique about the Vapor is the design. The Vapor 4 is impossible to categorize as old school or new school. It blends elements of both and shares its basic design with only one other elbow pad that I can think of in a sea of choices. (That would be Jofa’s 9066 model). If you’re going to copy someone’s elbow pads, why not Jofa? They make the best protective going.
There are two basic types of elbow pads available: Old school, which have a rubber doughnut inside to support the elbow, and new school which use a plastic cap. The Vapor 4 is similar to an old school design in that they are symmetrical in appearance. Rather than a pointed plastic cap that ends at the elbow, they have an oval dome. There are hinges on either side of the cap and fair protection for both the bicep and forearm. The pad extends similar lengths on either side of the cap. Most new school designs have little or no bicep protection.
The entire pad, caps and all are covered in a thick nylon material. The colors aren’t too bad, but they aren’t as flashy as the new pads are (in case flashy is important to you).
Comfort
This is perhaps the most subjective part of any elbow pad. You could have twenty people try on twenty pair of pads and come up with twenty opinions on which is the most comfortable. This said, I found the design of the Vapor 4 to be very comfortable. In fact it was much more appealing to me than Bauer’s Supreme 5000 elbow pads were.
The dual hinge allowed for a better fit on the bicep than any of the new style elbow pads with similar protection offered me. While the 5000 and many similar shaped elbow pads forced my arm into an unnatural position, the Vapor 4’s allowed me to relax my arm comfortably.
The pads attach with a three-strap system. There is a top and bottom strap as you would expect. These are fine as they hold the pads in place quite nicely. One thing that I found mildly annoying was the center strap that keeps the player’s elbow in the cup. This one tended to cut in a little. It would probably be fine once you became used to it. It was also more comfortable than many of the other pads even with this small annoyance.
The lining is pretty decent for a pad in this price range. It doesn’t claim to be anti-microbial, hydrophobic or have any other magical properties. It is however comfortable.
Protection
The Vapor 4 has a very good protection to weight ratio. I’m not sure when that became an important measure of quality, perhaps about 15 seconds ago when I first typed it. Nonetheless, for the weight of these elbow pads, you will typically be in a very lightly built old school elbow pad. Any pad that doesn’t have a plastic cup is going to be less protective than one that does.
I would place the Vapor 4 in the middle of the road category for protection. It certainly isn’t something that you would want to use in checking leagues. However the average recreational player is going to be pretty happy with the level of protection that it gives.
The overall coverage is very good in these pads. Length on both sides of the elbow is generous. These should be ample to cover from shoulder pad to glove for all but the tallest or skinniest players. Even then it is unlikely they will find anything much longer on both ends than the Vapor 4 and certainly not in the same price range.
While coverage is god, you will be able to find other pads in this range that offer better padding. The Vapor 4 uses EPP padding in the elbow cup and ventilated foam in the remainder of the pad. They will ward off many injuries, but the hardest blows will still sting somewhat.
Parting Thoughts
The durability has always been the biggest issue that I’ve had with Vapor gear. While the Vapor 4 elbow pads are light, there aren’t any corners cut to make them so. I’ve not hear a single complaint about a pair of Vapor 4 elbow pads dying a premature death. I cannot see any reason to expect they would. Bauer did alright on the durability of these.
Still the caps are padded with EPP. Despite being a quality product, EPP is known to lose its padding ability over time. If you do have a pair of Vapor 4 pads or any other elbow pads with EPP lining, make sure to replace them before they are five years old. This is the maximum life expectancy of EPP. Beyond that the time factor significantly decays their pliability.
Yes, I’m going to do a rare thing and award Bauer with 4 stars for a product with Vapor in the name. Just don’t think that it’s going to happen all the time.
Some other reviews you might find helpful:
Fitting and Selecting Hockey Protective Gear
Bauer Vapor XX Stick
Nike V-10 Elbow Pads
Bauer 3000 Elbow Pads
Recommended:
Yes
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