Wondering about Black Ice Hub type houses

[jmg]

I was all set to buy a Fatfish 949 or a new Quickfish 4 tomorrow, but I just talked to my brother and he told me that a friend of his who works for a place that sells the Black Ice models told him that they are better than the Eskimos. Said they're built stronger, with stronger material and that the zippers were better, along with the fact they have a better carrying bag. Now I don't know what to do. Doesn't look like Glen's is carrying the Black Ice models this year. Either that or they haven't updated their HSOforum. Someone had commented awhile back that he heard they had trouble with the hub poles breaking alot on the ones from Glen's(Black Ice). Any thoughts on the matter? Any help is always appreciated.

[jmg]

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Just a follow-up to the above post. Bro. called Tues. and told me he went to the store that sold the Blk. Ice models and noticed a bunch of "Reconditioned" houses in boxes and found out that they were "reconditioned" at that store and that most of the problems were with the poles. Guy he talked to said most of the problems occurred when people took the houses down and maybe weren't careful with them-probably when the poles were cold. No idea if they were replaced by the same type poles or if they had put in improved poles. My brother told me to get an Eskimo--told him I had just done that that very afternoon!!

[fisherman-andy]

Eskimos make the best I've hubs on the market. I don't think anyone here is gonna argue with me. Black Ice ones that we have used were flimsy and cheap. I wouldn't recommend them even if your budget minded. I think joes had 3/4 man hub at the end on sale last season for $100. You can clearly see the fabric stretch on the stitching and the zippers were horrible. Just my 2 cents.