Snowman22

My LS3 is nearly brand new and I was using setting 4 in the beginning, and seems to work well with the new wheel. The whole goalie riser concept seems to be an unnecessary step after trying it. If you put the risers on and then have to adjust to 7 or 8, you end up with the same contact point, which gets you the same deflection/pressure for the pass. Just my $.02 after trying it.

I'll have to give it a try. Theoretically makes sense, but hopefully you still get up the heel and toe enough. I'm currently running it on 4 with the LS3 and Step.

I didn't get any clear answers from Sparx, but I assume some kind of manufacture defect. It's only seen Bauer LS3, Step Steel, and a few passes on some crappy CCM stuff.

I wish I was here to write a different review, but I'm not… For all of you who don't want to be bothered with the details…The machine seems like it has the potential to be everything it's advertised to be, but might not be worth the risk due to its cost. It leaves a great finish on the blade, it's square, and skates well. The customer service is subpar at best. They are responsive, but will not do anything beyond the black and white warranty process. So buyer beware, unless you can stomach throwing away the machine a day after the warranty expires in a year. Long story short, the wheel I received with the machine was defective and was completely wasted after using roughly 30% of its useful life in approximately 2weeks. Instead of just sending a new wheel out, I received a credit for $37.67. ~~~~~ Now for some of the details on how I ended up where I am and why I'm so disappointed with the whole situation. I originally purchased the machine and the day I received it ended up on their website to look at accessories and found there was a new $100 off deal running. Considering I just purchased and received the machine, I thought they might honor the deal to a new purchase, no such luck. At the end of the day, I get it, it's a business, and I purchased it at the price I did, so water under the bridge at this point. Within the first few uses I felt the machine was making contact with too much pressure and causing a very slight chatter. Not visibly noticeable, but sounded a little strange. After contacting Sparx they offered to have the wheel sent back and a exchanged. I didn't feel the issue was truly a problem because visually it looked ok and skated fine. They instructed me to move the contact point down on the blade to lower the pressure which seemed to alleviate some pressure and make a smoother pass. In hindsight, I should have sent the wheel back day one. I just didn't want to waste time and money shipping a good wheel, and didn't want to be without the brand new sharpener I just spent almost a thousand dollars on. Over the next two weeks I sharpened all 5 sets of my own steel, along with a few sets for people I skate with. I didn't count passes used but three lights were out when the wheel finally gave up completely. The vibration came back 5 times as bad as it was in the beginning and I knew something was not right. I ended up using a sharpie to mark an entire blade and the recommended passes, the results are one of the pictures attached, but as you can see it didn't cut the blade at all. Before I realized the wheel was not working out as intended I purchased two additional wheels, one backup to the original hollow and a new hollow to test. So at this point I'm well over a grand invested into this thing. After reaching out to Sparx I used the original return label to ship in the defective wheel for inspection, and to no surprise it was "Defective" This is when I was offered the pro-rated amount in an online credit. Does this approach meet the minimum documented warranty on the website, yes, but does it make me feel great about a company I just spent so much money with on a new product in the market, not at all. After receiving the additional wheels I purchased after the initial purchase it became obvious the original wheel was defective from the start. The new wheels leave an absolute perfect finish and the machine runs as smooth as you could imagine. It's frustrating because all the time before was wasted because I didn't have a baseline to compare to. Manufacturing/Mechanical defects are a part of life and are unavoidable. In the end, the issue at hand for me in this whole ordeal is the principle of it all. If I had had this machine for a long time, used a significant portion of the life of the wheel, the defect was marginal or questionable, had I ever had the machine actually ever working properly, I may understand the pro-rated return. I however never had the machine working properly in the beginning and ended up re sharpening 5 sets of steel because I don't know when it started to leave a bad edge. I digress…. Picture Links, I couldn't get them to link properly with the insert function. http://imgur.com/a/z52J3 http://imgur.com/a/ieorg http://imgur.com/a/sQV6C