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Ice Eater

11K views 16 replies 10 participants last post by  hannibal 
#1 ·
What do you all think of these? Are they worth the money? Any input would be awesome. I am thinking about saving some money this summer and buying one. I have Generator already but it isn't the quiet Honda one.
 
#2 ·
If you are a late season hunter and love hunting when things are locking up. The best thing you can have is open water. Ice Eaters are a fine device and are your ticket to open water., Have several friends on the west side of MO that use them constantly and yes they do work.
 
#3 ·
We have/use a bunch of them.

They can help, but they're by no means a magic solution.

Loud generator shouldn't matter much, main thing is running it over night to keep the hole from freezing. You can keep it turned off most days on sunny days. If the hole starts to ice back up you just kick it back on for 15 minutes or so. You can also build a box around the generator to insulate some of the sound.
 
#5 ·
Honestly don't know, we've never messed with them after a freeze.

We keep an eye on the weather and deploy them pre-freeze

Ours run on electric so it's no big deal to just plug them in and let them run
 
#7 ·
We us 2 of them. They work great. We bought 1, used it 1 weekend, limited out over it in 35 minutes when eeveryone else around us was froze up. Bought another one the next weekend and limited just as quick in 2 holes. Ducks dont care about the generator at all. We keep it 150 feet away across the levee, a 3500 KW generator will burn 5 gallons running 2 ice eaters in 7 hours so we hooked a 25 gallon tank to ours to keep from midnight runs to the hole filling the tank. Also if you put them in an already frozen pond or hole, they will open them up depending on thickness ours was 2 inches, in about 2 hours a hole big enough to attract ducks will open up. we use Kasco Brand ice eaters with the floaters where the ice eaters are paralell with the water, works AWSOME! Good Luck!
 
#10 ·
They work for a number of different applications. We run two normally when things have started to freeze up. Leave them on until the end of the season (running off electric). We have also turned them off and then back on a again and they are powerful enough to put water on top of the ice so it does not take long to get water on top and break down the ice. Depends on how thick the ice is I guess but most of the time can clear a hole 40-60 yards long by 20-30 yards wide in an hour or two.

We like to let them run all the time to keep the birds around and using our place. It does make a difference for late season hunts. No matter how much water and food you have if the weather is bad you will still lose birds. Have to be smart about when and how often you hunt them at this time of year. Start at Noon and get out by 3pm. Let the birds rest in the morning and roost on you at night is our approach and it seems to work more often than not.

Good luck.
 
#17 ·
I'm telling you.............spend the money. Worth their weight in gold.

You can fight and fight and fight it but you will give in some day. If you really want a serious hold with the best opportunities then you will be wise to heed my advice. Quit wasting your money on trolling motors, batteries and sump pumps and make the plunge now and you will be glad you did.

You can thank me later! :hammer:
 
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