In recent years the requirements on surface quality and good aesthetics of plastic products increased continuously while in contrast products got always lighter, smaller and also thinner. When the conventional injection molding cannot meet those high requirements, rapid heat cycle (variotherm) molding is used. In the rapid heat cycle first the mold surface is heated up to a high temperature (in the range of the crystalline melting temperature for semi-crystalline polymers) to improve melt flowability. During the injection phase the high temperature is maintained. After filling and packing the cooling phase starts. A very common and important tool is injection molding simulation. While good simulation results are achieved for conventional injection molding, most rapid heat cycle molding processes are not implemented well. In this research a special mold with two different variotherm systems was used for experimental studies. The fixed mold half is equipped with the BFMold® technology, consisting of a ball-filled slot near the cavity surface flowed through with hot and cold water sequentially. Hence, a homogenous cavity surface temperature distribution can be achieved. In the moveable mold half two electrical heating elements are implemented, which locally heat up the cavity surface. The main focus of this study is the comparison between experimental tests and simulated results. Therefore infrared thermography was used to determine the temperature distribution of the part outside the mold. Pressure and temperature development were monitored with in-mold sensors and were compared with simulation results. Additionally, simulation results like shrinkage and warpage as well as fillability were examined and validated experimentally.