Battery life

[Bobberboy]

My wife bought me a Frabill minnow bucket and aerator for Christmas. It runs on 2 D cell batteries. Does anyone know how many hours the batteries last?

"Your bobbers down!"

[hanson]

Ya know... I'm not really sure. I know I can go 1 FULL day of fishing with the aerator running constantly. After that, I'm not really sure. Noisy little bugger though.

I don't use it too often but it is nice to have when the minnows are sucking air.

[Green&Gold]

I think I have the same system. Its the insulated white pail with grey lettering on the side and a grey lid with the black buttons to turn on the aerator. Mine goes a very long time on 2 D batteries. To give you an idea, I used it on 2 day trips sporadically throughout the day. Then didn't use it for a week, then used it probably 18 hours out of the day on a 3 day trip to LOW last weekend. It was still going strong at the end of the trip. If I had to guess on a time frame, I would say mine would go for at least 72 hours straight before losing power.

2 things I have found to preserve battery life: 1) The biggest thing is to keep the bucket in a semi-warm environment. For me, it stays in either the warm portable, the cab of the truck when driving longer distances (ie, to LOW), and in the hotel or house at night. To keep the water colder at night, I'll throw some snow or ice in the bucket. 2) I usually don't run it constantly. I'll typically turn it on for an hour, and then off for 2 or 3. I do run it all night though, on trips. Mine isn't very noisy at all either.

Hope this helps.