Anyone try thier 10" ION bit yet?

[JSK76]

Tonight was the second time I got to try my 10" on my ION. First time the ice was 6.5" thick and it worked fine. Tonight the ice was just under 10" and when I would get towards the bottom of the hole the auger would stop and click. It acted very close to when your battery is too cold but the battery was in a toasty warm fish house and fully charged. I sold my old ION to get one with the reverse so everything is new and fully charged. It would drill fine for the first 3/4 of the hole or so and I drilled 5 holes just to try to figure out what was going on.

If I'm running into theses issues with less then 10" of ice I really don't see this working for my wheel house when there's 12" and definetly not when its 30" plus. Anyone else running into the same issue?

[ski_otter]

I would contact their customer service or the retailer. It either isn't suited for your needs or (more likely) something isnt right

[Hawg]

I'm a die hard Ion owner but very skeptical on the 10 inch drill. I'm waiting to see how they work for others. I wish they just would have gone to 8 1/2 or 9 and dumped the 7 3/4. That would work for everyone and still have the six for the small hole guys.

[JSK76]

I'm going to head down to the store I bought both the auger and 10" bit from. Today's thier ice classic so hopefully they have an ION rep in the store today.

[Bureaucrat]

When I first heard about the 10" bit I was skeptical. That's 50% more ice to drill vs the 8". When I dropped down to the 6", it's near impossible to burn up a battery in a day on your own.

[pushbutton]

Yeah, thanks JSK for being the guinea pig Another hand raise for waiting to see how they reviewed out. The 8 inch needed optimum charge with the thick ice at the end of last year, and unless they changed power or rotation, was also a little sceptical. Hopefully the mine is bigger move on strikemasters part will force them to upgrade a little. Sure would be nice to have those few extra inches back. Keep us updated

[JSK76]

Just got back from Greed's and they were happy to swap out the power head and battery so I will give it another try tonight. Hopefully I just got a bad battery or something before.

[JSK76]

Quick update, I'm out on the lake with the replacement ION and it's exactly the same. 11.5" of ice and it drill great for the first 5.75" and then it's like it runs out of power and it just twitches.

[cableguy2]

That's not good.

[aanderud]

Can't say that I'm surprised about it not working. The original Ion drill bit was undersized to 7.75 inches (compared to an 8 or 8.25 inch) for a reason....

Frustrating that they brought the product to market before it was ready. I'm guessing Reeds will help you out here and make things right as far as refunding your money at least. Only problem for Ion is that they're losing credibility with this product, and at just the wrong time as Strikemaster has their Lithium battery powered unit out now as well.

[JSK76]

Another update, I found that if I lifted up on the auger to clear the ice chips I could make it though the 11" of ice without it stopping. I had to do it 8 times so about ever 1.3". I've heard about people needing to do this with the 8" when the ice was really thick I'm surprised I would need to do this with only 11" of ice. Without clearing the ice chips I could only make it 5.75" without it stopping.

[Hawg]

I think SM will have the same problem if they do a 10 inch. That takes a lot of torque to turn that beast. I'm curious to see how this plays out.

[JSK76]

I decided to hit the lake today with the 8" just to make sure everything was working right. After using the 10" it feels like I've got an Ice Gator, man it seems to cut fast, seems faster then my first year ION did. I'm sure it just seems that way, they didn't change anything that I know of.

[Mike Stark]

I tried out my new ION with the 10in drill today. I drilled around 20 holes in 11in of clear ice. The auger was not able to break through the bottom layer of ice without lifting up and clearing a little ice out of the hole. It only did this at the bottom of the ice tho. Once a little bit of water starting coming in it would stop. It was pretty much just like a regular gas auger at the bottom of the hole. I had to lift up a bit then it would break through. After 20 holes through 11in of ice the battery meter still had 2 of 3 bars.

The 10in will be great for the wheel house. Probably not so much running and gunning and drilling a lot of holes. The 10in drill unit weights quite a bit more than the 8in.

Overall I was happy with the 10in drill unit. Once we get 4ft of ice we will just have to clear out the ice while we drill.

[Ol' Lund]

has anybody else had experience with the 10" ION bit? I have a 8" ION that I bought the first year, and absolutely love the auger. Was considering the 10" for in the wheelhouse.

Also, do you know if there is a way to retro the old augers to somehow get reverse?

[Mike Stark]

I recently used the 10in up on the Red River north in MB. I was drilling through 7-14in of ice. The 8in cuts way easier. I did cut around 25-30holes before the battery went dead. I took the battery off when it was not in use and put it in the new case with hot hands.

I think it will work great in the wheelhouse. You will have to clear some of the ice out of the hole while drilling tho. This can get messy inside the wheelhouse. But I don't see it having any issues cutting a few holes for a wheelhouse.