Ion X Auger Reviews

Any reviews from owners of the new Ion X? Either positive or negative. Anyone use them for hole hopping? Any info would be great. Thanks

I’m pretty sure it’s the same as the old Ion, just with a better battery and slightly improved working end.

They claim an additional 600″ of ice can be drilled with the new battery, so that’s 25 holes through 2′ of ice. The led lights are dumb as it eats battery power and if you’re fishing at night you likely already have a headlamp on. The augerbase is now 1 piece cast iron and claims it cuts easier, but i never had a problem drilling holes with my original ion. The handlebars are a little narrower too to help drill corner holes in perm houses.

I prefer the old style, less to break.

I thought someone on here just purchased one and didn’t like it and brought it back?

Second season with my ion. Love it.

Ive got about 50 holes on my IX only. So far so good. They sure don’t give them away though. I did about 40 holes hopping solo last time out. It was a bit different situation then with a gas auger. Rather than drill a string of holes with my gas auger then graph them I was able to cary my graph and rod as well as my auger and drill 1 hole then check and fish it if I saw fish.

Im not sure it will be my go to auger with 24″ of ice though if I plan to hole hop. Still keeping the gas auger handy till I have a better feel for the long term day to day feasibility of the IX.

Im really looking forward to the benefits of wheel house use over a gas auger and reverse. If I did not have a perm/wheel house I doubt the auger would have even been on my radar.

Just tried mine out on Friday. Going from a 30yr old Jiffy, the ION X is great. Much lighter, quieter and it doesn’t seem to drill any slower. I have no experience with the original ION though

My buddy had some issues with the bottom icing up in cold weather and having to chip ice out to get it to cut holes.

holmsvc wrote:

My buddy had some issues with the bottom icing up in cold weather and having to chip ice out to get it to cut holes.

That is what I was most curious about. Some guys rest their auger blades in the snow and slush after cutting a hole causing them to ice up. I’ve seen the same comments somewhere else and just want to make sure this is not common if you keep from resting in the snow and slush. All augers will do that if that is a common practice. Some are saying it is the design. If a person flushes the flighting after drilling or reverses the direction to clear the flighting I’m hoping that would solve the problem. Especially when hole hopping. Please keep the reviews coming.

I returned mine after two trips because the icing-up problem made it literally unusable, even with 5″ of ice. The original Ion didn’t seem to have this issue. The new, bulkier cast iron ring set-up is a major design flaw.

It may work great in near-30-temps, but in the wind and single digits, it’s nearly worthless when hole-hopping and leaving it on the (snow-free) ice, even when the flighting was spun for a good 5-10 seconds after pulling it out of the hole. The auger spins too slowly to effectively clear all the water and slush away from the cast iron ring area, so it builds up and prevents the auger from “biting” into the ice. Instead, it just scratches the surface. And who wants to reverse the slush down the hole each and every time when you’re out pounding a grid of 16 holes over a weedbed? I doubt that would have made a difference anyway.

It was a nightmare trying to chip that ice out of the ring without dinging the blades all up. If you’re going to use the Ion X while hole-hopping in cold temps, bring along a rubber mallet and a wooden dowel to get in those tight spaces. If the auger doesn’t have very clean blades free of ice, it’ll bind up in the hole and just stop. I’ve never seen another auger bind up nearly as much as the Ion X.

Save that receipt!

You need to clean it, run it after drilling a hole no different than any other power auger , unless it’s colder 5 feet away

Not to take away from the review part of this thread but, has anyone used a 10″ bit with their ION? New model or old. Curious as I want to get an ION to use in the hard house on the Big Pond. That being said, I really, really want 10″ holes in the house. I rarely drill more than 10 holes a weekend and 6 or 7 of those holes are in the house. The old Jiffy is just getting to be too much. Heavier than a horse and re-cuts like crap.. I hear nothing but good things when it comes to re-cutting holes with the ION which is huge to me as I don’t generally move my house for than once or twice throughout the season. So, my main question here is, can the ION handle the 10″ bit for the limited use I will be using it?

Yes the 10″ bit works fine, obviously the # of holes is limited, I’ve heard you can get 15-20 holes through 24″ of ice.

On the flip side, I can tell it cuts easier with my 6″ laser on ION power head so I assume it would get even more holes then.

gonehunting wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>holmsvc wrote:</div>
My buddy had some issues with the bottom icing up in cold weather and having to chip ice out to get it to cut holes.

That is what I was most curious about. Some guys rest their auger blades in the snow and slush after cutting a hole causing them to ice up.

The auger was put on the digger auger rack after drilling holes, not left in the snow.

Bought the ion x. Will be returning it. Every 2 holes the complete bottom portion is sold ice. My doesn’t sit in the snow either. I’ve never had this issue with my jiffy augers and that’s what I’m going back too. I would steer clear of the ion x.

A buddy I was fishing with this weekend picked up a ion x last week and complained about it icing up. My solo ices up bad when it’s below zero so I spray down my bit with cooking spray which lessens the ice buildup.

Looking at the standard ION very soon, did these ice up also?

I’ve only been out twice with my standard ion with reverse, drilled about 60 holes and haven’t had the ice up issue.

Same here with my original. Never had trouble with blades freezing up.

My K-Drill ices up down around the inside of it’s cast ring. Although I thought it annoying, it did not affect performance. I think that large aluminum casting holds the cold so well that the water can’t melt it with normal use. I didn’t chip away any ice, maybe the chipper style blades aren’t as prone to failing to bite even though fouled with ice as the shaver blades.

Wonder what changed? I used my regular ion several days last week and it always cut the same even covered with ice.

My experience with the Ion X was a two-trip nightmare early in the season. I posted the issue on a thread titled, “Ion X vs. Strikemaster Lithium Lazer” on HSO. Another gentleman had the same issue and contacted Ion about it, where as I just returned the product and swapped it out for a Lazer.

This is his post from site:

Update: I heard back from ION and they just sent me a new auger. They claimed they had a batch of augers that did not have the correct finish on them. I haven’t used the new one yet as I just got it so I hope that resolves the issue. I will try it out this week and report back on how it works.

Here is ION’s quote:
A limited batch of Ion X augers have a finishing treatment that may cause ice buildup on the bottom of the auger under certain conditions.

From my experience, by “certain conditions” they mean ‘cold’.

My buddies iced up bad first time out of the box. Ended up having to use the chipper to open up holes. Not what we were expecting for $6xx.

Now that I know it’s an issue I advised him to contact ion or return it. Another ido member suggested that with all the new features on this auger that’s just more to break and I thought that was a valid point. Next year, when I’m in the market, might go with the original ion and just upgrade the battery

bigstorm wrote:

On the flip side, I can tell it cuts easier with my 6″ laser on ION power head so I assume it would get even more holes then.

I just got back from Upper Red Lake and had the 8″ auger ice up as discussed in this thread. My initial use which I reported as great was when the temp outside was low 30’s, this past weekend it was only around 10F.

I have a message in with Ion

I had quite a few issues with my ION X this past weekend. It iced up, to the point the blades wouldn’t cut. If I got two holes cut, before chipping ice off, that was good. I’d guess 30-40% of the time I had to stop half way through a hole and chip ice off and start cutting again.

I did find that if I got through a hole, kept the auger in the water, hit reverse for a bit, then pulled the auger out of the hole that seemed to help. But wasn’t completely resolving the issue, it helped some.

I sent an email off to them late yesterday, and will call shortly if I haven’t heard back. I will update when I hear back.

Do not buy! Nobody should by an IonX until they address the ice-up issue. Had I not already tossed the box this thing would have been returned. 6 holes for the fish house, set in back of truck. Drill two tip-up holes 3 hours later, set in back of truck. Attempt to drill two more tip-up holes one hour later, so hole # 9…Good Luck. Needed propane torch to melt ice off blades. This thing is useless after the first time using it for the day. I truly mean that.

Red Lake last week, basically no snow, single digit temps.

I emailed them yesterday. I expect more stories like mine after every weekend when guys start using these things. They have a problem and there’s no way they can’t know it.

Looks like they used the ice fishing world for their research and development, Nice!

I would just email or call them. I have had good experiences with them standing behind products. Every one of these major ice fishing product companies have problems with products sometime or another. I have had my fair share with various companies. It is how they respond to the problem that matters most and whether or not they stand behind the product. Still sucks spending a lot of money and having problems out of the box. I do have the original Ion and love it.

I did talk to a friend that works for them and they are replacing the bottoms of the auger for free. Sounds like it is a bad batch of the coating the coating should be a glossy black. Just give them a call.