Current discussion on Electric Augers

After really looking into it I am torn between Lithium Lazer and Ion. Availability is another thing. You can find Ions everywhere online. Not SM. I would like to hear comments from others. Thanks.

ive heard great things about SM augers. I own an eskimo personally and its ok. My question is has SM figured out their issues with electric augers yet? Weren’t they melting in peoples hands last year?

I have an ION and love it. Never any issues.
I got mine when they first came out so it doesn’t have reverse. My friend has one that has reverse and it makes me jealous every time I watch him use it.

What do you use reverse for? Never had reverse on gas motors.

I also have an ION and love it. It is a very nice auger. I heard good things about the SM electric before the recall. I’m pretty sure the SM is not the best at opening old holes. It has the lazer style blades. I think the SM has a little more power tho. A second SM battery will run you $250. IONs are $155.

I prefer the ION because I use it in my wheelhouse and am opening old holes regularly. The reverse feature is also very sweet in the wheelhouse.

I’ve been an Ion owner for 3 years now and will continue to say if you’re not a person who drills 50+ holes in an outing, there’s no better auger to get. Those who argue against the Ion and other electric augers always come back to the # of holes you can drill and they are missing the point entirely…

I’m meh on the reverse feature, it’s potentially something else that could go wrong and ruin your fishing trip, it merely pushes the ice chips under your hole and after some time they eventually find their way back up the hole. I prefer taking the extra 30 seconds and scooping the ice out of the hole entirely.

Sales like the Dick’s Sporting Goods Black Friday/Cyber monday sale can really bring the extra battery ($120) within reach of more owners and thus making the # of holes argument moot…

To me it’s simple, Ion has proven itself over the past 3+ years, the Strikemaster failed in it’s 1st….imo the Ion is built better and will hold up longer than the flimsy plastic Strikemaster.

Everytime I pull the trigger and it instantly starts drilling a hole i’m thankful I went the electric route…and at only 22 lbs, my back is thankful too…

Ely: do you find that your Ion re-opens those old holes well?

tmyboy2001 wrote:

Ely: do you find that your Ion re-opens those old holes well?

Yup. No issues at all opening old holes.

Everytime I pull the trigger and it instantly starts drilling a hole i’m thankful I went the electric route…and at only 22 lbs, my back is thankful too…

that’s what has me wanting to make the switch. I have an eskimo Z71 and that thing is a tank! after 5 holes I am spent!

The ION is amazing. Couldn’t agree more with what others here have said. If my ION stopped running tomorrow, I’d buy another right away. I could never go back to a gas auger after using the ION. I didn’t realize how much of a pain gas / oil was until I used the ION for a while. Traveling is easy, drilling a bunch of holes is easy since it weighs 22 lbs, starting is easy, on and on.

The weight is also huge for me since I trek into a lot of back-woods lakes. Case in point this past Sunday. A buddy and I had to walk a mile into the woods to get to a small lake that actually had fish-able ice. Before we leave he says “Do you care if we just use the ION today so I don’t have to lug my gas auger back there?”…. 75+ holes later and we had a great day on the ice!

JoeMX1825’s review is also spot-on. All the gas guys (99% of which have never used an ION or even seen one in action) say the battery dies so you don’t get many holes. I drill more holes than most on the ice, so I got an extra battery. Most times, I never need it. Just keep the batteries warm which isn’t difficult since it takes 3 seconds to pop it on and off.

I’ve talked to a lot of other ION owners since buying mine, and I’ve never talked with someone who regrets buying one…

These are a few of the benefits of using an Ion vs Gas auger (I used to own a Strikemaster Lazermag)

1) No gas to mix
2) No gas to potentially spill
3) No hot exhaust pipe to worry about burning a hole in your fabric
4) No Summerization
5) No maintenance…EVER
6) Lighter than gas augers
7) No priming/flooding issues to worry about
8) No recoil issues to worry about
9) Starts as soon as you pull the trigger, no warm up needed…EVER
10) No fumes at all

Negative issues:
1) maybe some get spooked by the price? ($420 at Dick’s Sporting Goods)
2) extra battery if you want more than 40+ holes? ($120 at Dick’s Sporting Goods)

to me it’s a no brainer…but there will always be those who will argue it, to those people I say enjoy your gas auger and the 10 issues I listed above..

and to those post the “I drill 200+ holes an outing” argument, I say that an electric auger is not for you…

The whole warm battery issue is resolved with either the $20 Ion battery case or a simple $5 soft sided thermal lunch box off amazon.com, or just keep it wrapped in a towel in your flipover, it literally takes 2 seconds to add/remove it from the auger head…

stop it guys – I passed up on buying the ION from dicks when I could have got it for 340$ and now I’m regretting it big time. “I LOVE MY ESKIMO, I LOVE MY ESKIMO, I LOVE MY ESKIMO…

i’m sure they’ll bring that deal back before the end of the holidays, I noticed that the 8″ Ion was back in stock several times during that sale…I would have purchased it if I already didn’t own one

I hope so. let me know if you see that return

Mike W wrote:

What do you use reverse for? Never had reverse on gas motors.

To flush the ice out of the hole.

Wild price swings suck. Best I can find now is $520. I’m not buying one to replace my gas. I am buying one for early season mobility to start with. We’ll see how it goes from there.

If that is your biggest reason for an electric, I’d suggest a drill setup. I sold my ION after running the Milwaukee fuel all last winter. Way lighter, faster and better batteries than the ION.

I owned a Clam Adapter plate for a season, with early ice, yes they are great, but once the ice starts to get thick, you’re gonna wear out your drill…trust me…they are not meant to drill through thick ice….

By the time you spend the higher $$ on getting a good high torque drill that won’t easily burn out, you’re at about the same price of an Ion…The Ion was built to handle the thick ice, it will outlast any hand drill setup…

The weight difference is about 8 pounds (14 vs 22)

I don’t disagree that you might ruin a drill (or two).

The drills are pretty cheap IMO and I have a spare just in case of failure. The entire spare “auger” fits under the seat of my truck. Hard to do that with any other auger option. I think I paid $99 for the 2nd bare drill on sale, I’m seeing $101 on Amazon right now.

And, Milwaukee has a pretty good warranty and quality out of warranty repair service.

I burned through a decent DeWalt XRP drill in less than 20 holes of 10″ ice using a brand new 6″ bit…. The Clam plate eats cheap drills for breakfast…

Looks like the drill setup is short forcing a person to bend way over to drill?

you can add an extension like any other auger

suzuki wrote:

Looks like the drill setup is short forcing a person to bend way over to drill?

It actually comes with a 12″ extension which makes it the same height as a normal auger I believe.

I bought a milwaukee m18 fuel last year and ran it with a 6″ nils blue auger with an adapter. Had no issues going through thick ice. I believe the ice was 30″+ in March and I was getting 25 holes per battery. I did not own a drill before buying the Milwaukee so it made a lot of sense to also have it for projects at home. I plan to use it all season and will certainly find out if it can handle it.

I haven’t done any research, but I wonder how similar the motors are on the Ion vs. Milwaukee Fuel. You may be just as likely to burn up a Ion as you are a M18, and the M18 is way cheaper to replace. I may be way off here, but just a thought.

I drilled hundreds of 7″ holes with the Milwaukee M18 Fuel on 30″ last season. I also drilled a large number of 6″ & 8″ holes all on Lazer hand augers. All in all over a 1000+ holes last ice season with the drill/clam plate setup. The key here is a high end torque brushless drill that is capable of handling the load. Plus the advanced lithium batteries they have dont need to be kept warm, however I do just sheild mines from the cold in a backpack or bag.

A bare cordless drill tool runs about $125 on ebay, if I was to ever burn out my drill its easily replaced without breaking the bank. I havent seen any reviews of someone burning out their brushless drill yet on the clam plate.

If I’m walking its a Milwaukee M18 on an 8″ K-Drill, if transporting on the ice with either the truck or ATV I put the K-Drill on my SM gas powehead…but if any issues with either powehead, the capable backup is close by. I am the type who wears both suspenders and a belt at the same time.

Lot to consider. Price is comparable though I already have two nice hand augers blades to use so I would save there. BUT if I go drill plate I am limiting myself to 6″. I’m leaning towards ion but havent decided.

Between this thread and another similar one on wc I have seen nothing but positive posts about ion. My decision is made. Thanks everyone.

I love the speed at which you make decisions about purchases. Seriously, I do!