ION owners?

How does the 10″ re-open holes? I currently have the Honda lite 10″ and its a great auger, I have zero complaints and it re-opens hole like a dream but I need a back up auger and have considered the ION for some time. I have no problem getting another Honda lite either but seems to be a few of you with ION’s and like them. Another reason for looking into ION is I have several houses with 8 holes and cleaning out ice ships is a time consuming ordeal. I have heard you can put the ION into revers and clean out holes??

Tom Wilson wrote:

How does the 10″ re-open holes? I currently have the Honda lite 10″ and its a great auger, I have zero complaints and it re-opens hole like a dream but I need a back up auger and have considered the ION for some time. I have no problem getting another Honda lite either but seems to be a few of you with ION’s and like them. Another reason for looking into ION is I have several houses with 8 holes and cleaning out ice ships is a time consuming ordeal. I have heard you can put the ION into revers and clean out holes??

The 10″ ION is great at opening old holes. I use it for opening old holes in my fish houses. The reverse feature is really nice for clearing out the holes. Hold it in reverse for a few seconds and 90% of the ice chips are gone. Couple scoops and your good to go. The only down side of the 10″ ION is that it throws some ice while you drill. So there is some ice to clean up when your done. Well worth it tho! It’s so nice not having to run a power auger inside the fish house.

Hey Tom – I can’t speak to the 10″ because I only have the 8″ so hopefully others can speak to that. I also don’t have a permanent house. But, I love my ION, best ice fishing purchase I’ve made. When I got my reverse was an ‘upgrade’. This year, I’m almost positive every ION comes with reverse and the reverse model is cheaper than what I paid.

My 8″ works great for re-opening holes. I fish cribs late ice, multiple times a week so re-drilling the old holes constantly. Love it for this. The reverse also does flush the hole quite well, but I don’t use it a ton because I find with the blade on the ION it does really good job of flushing the holes the first time through if you ‘lift’ the auger fast, which is easy because its so darn light. Holes are significantly more clean when first drilling than with any auger I’ve used previously. Again on this topic, hoping some guys with permanents can comment on the chip cleaning, being that all the holes I re-drill are outside, they are normally fairly thick again.