Frabill Aqualife Bait Station

[DTro]

As a hardcore Flathead fisherman, fresh lively bait is more important to me that just about anything. So when I checked into the Frabill Aqualife Bait Station, my interest was sparked.

Most all of us cat dudes have our own bait containment system, whether that be large cooler, or 5 gallon bucket, aerated livewell, etc.

What's nice about this product from Frabill is everything self contained, no extra pumps, converters or anything, you have it all right there.

I run a Catfish Contest called King of the Cats and was able to get my hands on one of these by the graciousness and kindness of Frabill donating a few for our winners, so I was excited to try one out.

Well, unfortunately my expectations were short lived when the pump totally failed within the first 3 trips on the water. I then contacted Frabill and they immediately sent me a new lid that contained a new pump. Excellent customer service!

I was hoping I got a lemon the first time around as I did a little research and read some things about the pump having too tight of tolerance and fixes had been done.

I was able to get the replacement one out on the water a few times, and wouldn't you know it, the pump got super loud and basically failed again.

At that point, I got frustrated and sent another email to Frabill that I didn't want to waste either of our time, money, and energy, burning through these, I appreciated the kindness of the donation, but the Bait Station just wasn't working for me. I got a quick response from CS saying that they were deeply sorry for my issues and that a new one was on the way.

I've always been a big fan of Frabill, I think they have good products and appreciate the thing they do for the community. But when it comes to this particular product I'm afraid they have a stinker. I've done a bit more research to find out I'm not the only one that has had multiple issues with this bucket.

Being as this thing retails for like $80, I feel compelled to pass along my experience to all of you. I do my share of promotion touting the good things about products around here, and it's only fair to let people know about some bad things.

I feel bad because I truly feel Frabill is doing there best to accomodate me, yet I don't have much confidence at all that this Bait Station will ever function any better than a clip on battery pump, or a converter with a 120V aquarium pump. It's too bad, because it's a great concept with built in battery compartment, insulated foam and a cool LED light inside. But without the pump, it's just basically a glorified 5 Gallon bucket.

My apologies to Frabill, I understand I'm probably looking a gift horse in the mouth here, but I would feel even worse seeing people drop $80 bucks and have the same thing happen.

Who knows, maybe the third one will be a charm.....

[jwmiller33]

You would think they would identify and solve these types of issues during the R&D phase of product development. It's a bummer the pumps don't work as well as they should. It is good to know Frabill sticks behind their product as customer service is a factor when buying big ticket items

[milkingman]

same thing happened to me twice. no more.

[Iowa_Josh]

Hey D! I had that happen to a couple of their pumps. At first I wasn't aware what was going on until the weather warmed up and bait got stressed. Otherwise seemed like a nice pump.

I think you could fix one of those pumps by putting a little tubing over the intake bud on top and routing it in the box and drilling a vent hole in the bottom of the box. A splash on top and it gets messed up from what I saw. Kind of a fatal flaw when they also cost a premium for what they are.

Have moved on to the BPS one battery model. Louder but output is good and battery life is really good also. I would really like to try the "Marine Metal Products Bait Saver" for 12v use.

[Northlander]

Been there done that. Now I just use a clip on pump with a aquarium stone.

[tsande00]

I have s Frabill stand alone pump with the aquarium stone. I leave it running 24 hours a day for as long as I have minnows that I'm trying to keep alive. I haven't had any issues with it yet and I'm thinking that maybe it's a completely different pump than in the bait system described above?

I've been pleasantly surprised with this unit.

Now if only I could keep the minnows from freezing into a minnowcicle. The aerator alone isn't enough.