Louisville Xhale II Chest Protector: you can wash it but will it keep you safe?
Written: May 13 '04 (Updated Dec 13 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Washable vest, great chest and arm protection
Cons: Poos shoulder design
The Bottom Line: Know your style of play and how much shoulder protection you need before buying this. Other than weak shoulders it is outstanding.
|
|
|
| puckmugger's Full Review: Louisville Xhale II Chest & Arm Protector CAX2 |
The Chest Protector is a fairly critical item for goalies. The largest percentage of shots are stopped on the chest and arms . . . well actually a good butterfly goalie gets a better percentage on the legs, but you never feel a puck on the leg pads. Certainly the largest percentage of shots that sting a little or sometimes leave bruises are on the chest and arms. A cheap chest and arm protector will leave you with more than bruises, i.e. broken bones. The Xhale II isn’t cheap, so is it good?
▪ The Details
The Xhale II is one of a kind as goalie chest and arm protection goes. It features multiple layers of protection. Some of the features are better than expected, others are a little below my personal expectations.
Removable Vest
The washable vest is an outstanding idea and one I’ve only seen in Louisville’s products thus far. I for one am not brave enough to toss my well over $200 chest protector into the washing machine and cross my fingers. I would rather live with the smell or pay to have it cleaned at the local eSporta shop than risk its destruction. (go to www.esporta.ca for more info on this great service). A removable, washable inner vest would certainly take the fear out of this. If Louisville says it can be washed, I would believe them enough to try. At worst their approval should earn the right to send the item back to them if the washer eats it.
Well, having established that the washable vest is a very good idea, let’s look at the rest of this product. Any piece of junk might have a washable liner. If its use still results in broken bones, who cares how nice it smells?
Chest Protection
Fortunately, the Xhale II offers outstanding chest protection. Aside from the removable vest (did I mention it is nicely padded as well as washable?) there are two layers of solid protection on the bulk of the chest. Louisville uses a proprietary material called Brock to pad their chest protectors. It is also used in some of their leg pads, helmets and even goalie jocks. Brock is a great padding material which will offer substantial impact protection.
With the design of the chest and the use of Louisville’s fine Brock foam, I give high marks to the chest portion of this product. The Xhale is on par or better than its peers in this respect.
Shoulder Protection
The shoulders on the Xhale II are its biggest weakness. I prefer double shoulder cups to singles. I have even seen a few models offering triple cups. To me, the shoulder is the most unpleasant place to take shot. It only makes sense, the shoulder is a rather delicate joint.
The Xhale II has shoulder pads that look too small even before you put one on. Large shoulder wings augment the single cups slightly. What appears to be a larger shoulder cup is actually a lightly padded inner wing with no hard shell.
Shoulder are too important to be an afterthought. Arm shrugs to stop a shot from going over the shoulder require multiple shoulder cups to maintain coverage. The design of the shoulders in the Xhale II is disappointingly inferior to most top end chest and arm protectors available today.
Arm Protection
The arms are very good in the Xhale II, among the best I’ve seen. The padding is more than sufficient here. Full and substantial pads encompass the elbow from the front side cheaters to the supplemental pads on either side.
Perhaps the best part of the arms is the use of a Velcro strap system to adjust the internal elbow pads rather than the old style laces and knots method. Customization of the elbow pad fit is achieved very simply with this pair of Velcro straps, something that could be accomplished in the locker room in a matter of minutes rather than a half an hour of tying and untying knots. The elbow pads have a good hard plastic cup inside the fabric and more than adequate padding.
The arms are protective and comfortable both. Articulation isn’t a problem even in the new floor model that I tried on (often there is a small break in period). This is partially the result of the limited padding in the shoulder area. The arms get top marks once again.
The rest
The back protection is fairly minimal on the Xhale II. I don’t have a real issue with this. Most chest and arm protectors don’t give much back protection. Goalies shouldn’t have their backs to the puck anyway.
The liner of the protector is Coolmax, but this seems somewhat misplaced as the removable vest covers most of the Coolmax liner anyway. Nonetheless the vest itself is comfortable as is the Xhale II overall.
Belly protection seems good as well. The belly flap is long enough to stay in place during most mad scramble flops on the ice with the assistance of the well-placed belt loop. (I’ve seen a few belt loops that are obviously too low to work, this isn’t one).
The strap system is essentially two belts on the body and five for each arm. More than enough on the arms, my Vaughn has only three arm straps. The pair of torso straps is comparable to most good chest protectors.
▪ Parting Thoughts
The shoulder cups on the Xhale are a huge disappointment to me. Other than that flaw, this is one of the best designs on the market. It is comfortable. It comes from a good manufacturer. The rest of the design is highly protective. The removable vest is an outstanding thought that proves Louisville was thinking outside the box while designing the Xhale II.
The shoulders weigh heavily on my final recommendation that this chest protector be used only by goalies who play a mostly upright style. Butterfly goalies, floppers and even most hybrid style players will find the shoulder protection insufficient in the Xhale II. Standup players who don’t rely on shoulder saves will find that the rest of the features in the Xhale II are hard to beat. Maybe next year they will beef up the shoulders and make the rest of us so lucky as well.
I am rating this at three stars simply because the only weakness in the Xhale II is the shoulders. For me the shoulders might drop this product to a two star rating, but that is based upon my style of play. Other players who have a style where shoulder protection isn’t as crucial might find that this feature doesn’t bother them at all. Honestly, it all comes down to playing style. I imagine many stand up goalies would rate this as high as a five star product.
All that said, my final advice is to heavily consider your style of play before buying this chest and arm protector. You probably have a pretty good idea of how often you get hit in the shoulders and whether it hurts (every goalie I’ve talked to on the subject has listed shoulders in the short list of least favorites). If you do take pucks to the shoulder often, I would look elsewhere for a chest and arm protector.
A few of my other reviews that you might find helpful:
Fitting Goalie Gear
Louisville XLite GLL Goal Pads
Heaton AB 4800 Chest Protector
Vaughn Legacy 6000 Chest and Arm
Battram Custom Goalie Equipment
© 2005 Scott Noble – All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.
Thanks to openroad for adding this item so I could review it.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
puckmugger
|
 - Top 50 |
|
Location: wandering the fringes of the goal crease
Reviews written: 488
Trusted by: 246 members
About Me:
My book is now available in major bookstores or by order from my profile page.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.