Are Synthetic Ice Tiles Like Hockey Tiles?
Among the many hockey training aids that are available on the market today the ones that get the most asked questions are synthetic ice tiles and dryland hockey tiles. Because of the way that they are labeled it can cause confusion for people that are not familiar with them. When a skater wants to install an ice skating rink in the home, which is the best way to do it? If a skater would rather use inline skates, what is the bests flooring for that? We are writing this article in hopes to shed a little light on the topic if anybody that is interested in knowing.
Table of Contents
What are Synthetic Ice Tiles
Synthetic ice tiles are built for ice skates and ice skaters. They have been around for many years. In the beginning, the ice tiles were cumbersome and needed a lot of work in order to be able to accommodate skaters. Most of the synthetic ice that is made today is formed into panels instead of tiles because they are larger and made to cover a vast area. Tiles are one square foot, and panels are usually two feet wide and four feet long.
Synthetic ice is made out of specially formulated polymer plastic that is infused with lubricants, conditioners, and UV ray protectants. The lubricants that are embedded in the plastic allow the ice skates to flow across the surface gently and easily as if they were gliding across ice.
What Are Hockey Tiles
Hockey tiles can mean a variety of things. The most common definition is dryland hockey flooring. This type of flooring is made more for sneakers and inline skates than ice skates. In fact, it is not recommended to even attempt to ice skate on dryland hockey tiles.
The difference between dryland hockey flooring and synthetic ice flooring is that one dryland flooring is for dryland hockey sports that don’t involve ice. You can play or practice hockey on dryland flooring with pucks or balls.
Dryland flooring is a little bit more pliable and softer than synthetic ice tiles. Although they are both made out of specialized plastic, they are made for different uses so the end products differ greatly.
What Kind of Flooring is Best
The best kind of flooring to use will be the type of flooring that will best meet your needs. For example, if you are an ice skater, it would be better for you to install synthetic ice than to install dryland hockey flooring. As we mentioned earlier, both types of flooring are great, but one has different properties than the other. If you are more into playing hockey with inline skates or tennis shoes, your best bet would most likely be dryland hockey flooring or slick tiles.
Slick Flooring
Both dryland flooring and synthetic ice flooring were designed in order to provide the slickest experience possible for the pucks that go across the surface. Whether you are playing with ice skates or not, you will most likely be using pucks when you play. This means that it is beneficial for the flooring that you use to be slick enough for the puck to glide across it as if it were on real ice. The best way to ensure that you will have great, slick flooring is to purchase high-quality flooring products. Make sure that when you get your flooring that it comes from a respected dealer with a great reputation.
***Sniper’s Edge Hockey loves Canada! We proudly ship all of our products to Canada and offer the same return policies as we do for everybody else. We realize the exchange rates for the Canadian dollar are not the best right now, so we’re trying to help by giving you free shipping and no customs/duty.***
