Old style electric auger question

[MJ1657]

I am getting my wheel house in the next few days. I have a gas auger but do not want the fumes in my house. I want an electric auger but with the amount of money i'm spending on my house its not in the cards right now.

I see the old electric augers around fairly inexpensive. Are they any good at all as far as drilling holes in a reasonable amount of time? I will have batteries in the house and would make a quick connect to hook the auger up.

[ClownColor]

I'm guessing you have power in your house? After your initial hole was drilled with your gas auger, maybe just buy a cheap hand drill auger attachment.

I "heard" they work ok and mostly you'd just be clearing out inches of ice not feet...

[Nordern]

I have been using a Strikemaster Electric in both a perm and a wheelhouse for the last 15 years. With sharp blades it is not too bad but it does take a lot longer than using a gas auger. I usually start first thing on drilling holes and my partner starts getting everything else set up. By the time the holes are drilled everything else is ready to go. As for hooking up to batteries that works but not very well when the ice gets thick. I run a long set of jumper cables from the truck and power off of that. Works much better and saves the batteries for other uses. I have heard people talking about how well an Ice Gator works but I think they are a bit spendy.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I bought a 10" Jiffy electric auger last winter to open the holes in my permanent rental houses. It works great on the initial holes and also for reopening the holes.

One big drawback is that the battery that comes attached to the auger is only good for 2 & 1/2 holes in 20" of ice!

I cured that problem by removing the attached battery, buying a good pair of jumper cables which I hard wired to the auger. I carry an extra deep cycle battery with me which now makes it easy to cut at least 20 holes through 24" to 30" of ice! Cuts almost as fast as a gas powered auger and has no nasty fumes!

Cliff