Ice Eater

comsnark said:
.....On the Barnegate Bay, we don't have "flow" like you do on a river......
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The pics I posted above and the pic posted below (the Toms River in 2007.....Comsnark's neck of the woods) are both on creeks and rivers. In both pics you see waterfront homes, and yes there are marinas along both waterways. When the ice in those photos breaks up, you better believe ice chunks flow......just go look back at the photo of the ice chunks coming up on shore.....that's the Barnegat Bay.


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comsnark said:
........ Of course, we have already demonstrated that Dom and I have different memories of weather conditions 10 miles apart :). . .don't be surprised if he comes by and says something different regarding Forked River. :).....
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The pics I'm posting are not memories (so to speak) they are reality! The waterways in Ocean County NJ certainly do freeze....and they freeze on vey regular basis!

comsnark said:
...... I am cheap. I bought an heavy duty outdoor timer for $10 and run it 4 hours a day every day. If I actually lived at the dock, I would only plug in the de-icer on cold days and not bother with the timer.......
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Cheap is NO WAY to run your ice eater if you are keeping your boat in the water. The original poster is interested in gaining knowledge about ice eaters because he plans to protect his boat in the water through the winter.

comsnark said:
....... I visit the dock every week or two. And yes. . I do occassionally find the de-icer non-functional. I don't normally sweat it, because it is rare to have serious freezes in our area. A 10 hour power outage would be no big deal in my mind......
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Rare! No, it's common.....as the pics, from mulitipe 'recent' years ( 2002, 2003 2007) prove. The NJ/Barnegat area waterways also froze in other recent years, I just don't have the time or inclination to pull out all the old photos.


My point in picking on comsnark's posts in this thread is to make a point with regard to all the other issues that recently started here on CSR in other threads and posts about 'red balls' and the like. In my opinion, he is giving bad advise with regard to how to properly use, maintain and oversee an ice eater.....especially with regard to using one to protect your boat in a cold climate. And I believe that that bad advise needs to be addressed and corrected.

New Jersey is a cold climate. Sure, some winters are warmer than others, but they ALL have the potential to cause havoc. To take using a an ice eater as protection for your boat is, or to imply that it's no big deal, is wrong.
 
osd9 said:
My point in picking on comsnark's posts in this thread is to make a point with regard to all the other issues that recently started here on CSR in other threads and posts about 'red balls' and the like. In my opinion, he is giving bad advise with regard to how to properly use, maintain and oversee an ice eater.....especially with regard to using one to protect your boat in a cold climate. And I believe that that bad advise needs to be addressed and corrected.
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Let us agree to disagree on a few points

I do not consider you to picking on me or the posts. We are in the same area, and approach the same problem differently. Your approach is far more conservative than mine. That is fine. To me, this is a *STRENGTH* not a *WEAKNESS* of a forum like this.

We are disagreeing and stating our experience, which despite being in the same area, is different. I don't see a problem here.

By using the term "corrected", you are stating that my view on winterization is "wrong". I respect your view that I am wrong. You are infering that I should change how I handle this issue.

I will not be changing how I use ice-eaters. I will this year (because I have a boat in the water) have the Kasco out, and it will be on a timer running several hours a day. I will not be worried about power outages. I will be regularly checking on the unit, but not daily. I won't sweat a cold snap where the temp doesn't rise above 25F during the day. I will sweat a cold snap where the temp doesn't rise above 15F during the day.
 
comsnark said:
Do you really freeze the bay down there? Or is this something you buy but don't hook up until the weather turns nasty?
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I have no idea what local conditions you all face, but hooking these things up when the weather turns nasty is defintely not the way to go. We installed ours last weekend on a sunny, warm (71 dgrees) day with no wind. Today, it is 39 and the rain is blowing sideways. The other thing to keep in mind about de-icers is to pull them out as early as possible in the spring. This makes clean up MUCH easier. When we are at the time of the year when the only ice forming is skim ice we remove it. All you have to do for clean up is hose it off and wipe it off. If you wait until the water warms up, the grass and other fouling do not come off easily.
 
comsnark said:
Do you really freeze the bay down there? Or is this something you buy but don't hook up until the weather turns nasty?
Click to expand...

I have no idea what local conditions you all face, but hooking these things up when the weather turns nasty is defintely not the way to go. We installed ours last weekend on a sunny, warm (71 dgrees) day with no wind. Today, it is 39 and the rain is blowing sideways. The other thing to keep in mind about de-icers is to pull them out as early as possible in the spring. This makes clean up MUCH easier. When we are at the time of the year when the only ice forming is skim ice we remove it. All you have to do for clean up is hose it off and wipe it off. If you wait until the water warms up, the grass and other fouling do not come off easily.
 
osd9 said:
comsnark said:
...... I am cheap. I bought an heavy duty outdoor timer for $10 and run it 4 hours a day every day. If I actually lived at the dock, I would only plug in the de-icer on cold days and not bother with the timer.......
Click to expand...

Cheap is NO WAY to run your ice eater if you are keeping your boat in the water. The original poster is interested in gaining knowledge about ice eaters because he plans to protect his boat in the water through the winter.
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Don't throw out the baby with the bath water!

Being "cheap", I use an outdoor timer instead of the timer thermostat unit sold by Kasco. . but in terms of "reliability" and "protecting the boat and dock", this is actually the better way to go that buying the Kasco unit in terms of reliability

The Kasco de-icer timer is pretty much a timer combined with a thermostat relay. The thermostat relay is a second compenent in the device that can fail. If it fails passively, you won't know it until you go outside in cold weather and see it isn't working. Not good if you are only visiting periodically. .. at it is often above 40F when I visit.

http://www.de-icer.com/products_c20.htm

The outdoor timer I use is very easy to check to verify it is functioning.. . . and I do check it every time I go down (along with verifying that the de-icer is working) The Kasco timer, I presume, is just as good as the straight timer that I use. No reason to assume the Kasco is better. I would hope they sub-out the components to people who build these things in quantity.

So yes, I cheaped out and bought a simple timer. . NO, I did not mention the reliability aspect earlier. My bad. But I view the timer as good if not better than the Kasco unit in terms of protecting property when you are not there.

- - -

Now I suspect you were digging the original post based upon the "I would only plug in the de-icer on cold days" comment. That would be fair point to dig upon. But there are (full time) people in this area who operate that way.

Afterall. . .while it DOES freeze solid often enough. . it does NOT freeze solid from December to March every year. You can indeed go for weeks at a time without needing a de-icer.

Addendum: Kasco also has a "temperature only" based controller: http://www.de-icer.com/products_c10.htm
 
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I've been doing " in water " winter storage for the past 8 years....with all my different boats. I've never had any problems.....it just takes a little more time and effort to winterize properly.

As far as an ice eater ??...... I use a 3/4 hp Kasco....I've had for the past 8 years with the original zinc and prop.

I mount the unit in place of my anchor ( using the anchor rollers/pulpit )....tied off with 2 - 1/4" lines back to the bow rails. The unit remains OUT 90 % of the time. When I notice the canal starting to ice up....I drop the unit into place and plug it in. The most it runs per winter is total of 7-10 days. The rest of the time its high & dry. Sometimes when I drop it into the water....there may be some thin skim ice on the canal.....but it busts thru .... and into the water with no problem.

Here are some pic. :

....out and dry :

bilgeheater001.jpg




.........in and working :


winter2007003.jpg



winter2007002.jpg
 
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Bravo...... (Don/37Dancer)... using the windlass to raise and lower the unit.
I might just copy that technique this year.
 
Thanks for the replies, including the banter. I ended up getting the ¾ hp Kasco unit with fancy time and temperature control unit. Last night got down to around 29 degrees here so because I like to play with my new toys, I set the control unit up outside with it plugged into a light. It worked great and turned the light on or off when the temperature reached both the time and temp settings. Only downside was getting yelled at by the Admiral for the light show going on most of the night.

I promise not to anchor out all winter long in the middle of a river where there is either solid ice or an ice flow and depend upon the ice eater to save me.

Regarding the cost, it’s a little pricy but we are boaters and we spend money, this is what we do.
 
Hey Jim, interesting thread, good to see you plan to use the boat all winter.

We are on the Bay now and plan to make some trips up north this spring/summer so maybe we can meet up somewhere and/or get a group of CSR folks together for a trip.
 
37 Dancer said:
Thanks......... Now if I could just do it...... with a remote ..... from inside the house !!!
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You can leave it in the water and use the ciruit breaker to turn on your power to the dock when de-icing is required.
 
Thought about doing that......matter of fact I did purchase a 100' remote controlled ( outdoor) receptical......that I wired up .... to turn on/off my dock spot lights .....when coming down the canal at night. I was going to use it to control my ice eater during the winter. Just couldn't bring myself to leave the unit submerged all winter......and have it subject to a water leak ..... electrolisis.....or abuse. So I leave it hanging....high and dry until I need it.


What I really need is a remote to lower the ice eater....and turn it on..........or just get my wife to do it !!!!
 
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Salt water may be harder on these things than fresh, but honestly I've only had a problem when we lost power and the thing became frozen in the ice while I was in California for two weeks. The one that was ruined had been in the water from earlier November through the middle of April for about maybe 20 years with no ill effects. We get a little slime in the cold water but that is easy to hose off. Not sure what barnacles might do in cold water if you have them.
 
So how's this working out for you this year? The CG has brought in ice breakers on the Chesapeake Bay so I guess you don't have any ice flows in NJ?

comsnark said:
Dom; I have been around almost 30 (gasp) years as well.

I remember being out on the Toms River a number of times. . .but honestly how often has that happened in the last 10 years? In the last five years, I probably skipped installing the de-icer twice.

I don't know what it is. . but it just doesn't freeze up like it used to.

I am not saying you shouldn't be prepared, but hard freezes seem to be like Tropical storms in our area: You know what you need to do, and when the time comes you do it!

I test the de-icer in November, but don't typically install until the first cold snap.

- - - -

I am hauling out tomorrow. I am depressed.
The Admiral wants me to postpone, yet we don't plan to be down this weekend. So out it comes (I can't do a haul out next week for buisness reasons, so the next opportunity would be November 17th.). Sigh. Dom; I should swing by and pick you up for an early morning ride!
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