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I am about to purchase a power auger for my son who is an avid ice fisherman. I don't know squat about them and I am wondering whether to buy a gasoline powered one or a propane model. I hope someone here can give me some advice about the pros and cons of each. which are the most reliable in bitter cold? Thanks.
I have never used an ice auger before. But do know a few things about propane as a fuel. Propane is stored as a liquid in the tank, but pulled from a the tank as a vapor. That mean heat is needed for the propane to switch from a liquid to a gas. When it's really cold especially when dealing with a small tank. Sometimes it gets hard to get the change of state to occur. This is one reason houses use long tanks, just more surface area for the change of state to occur. In cars they run it through a preheater to help the change of state to occur. The tank is also pressurised which helps to keep the propane in its liquid state.
Now it gas it is of course stored as a liquid, pulled from the tank as a liquid, it too also needs heat to change to a vapor cause only vapor gas will burn. We have experienced a flooded motor before. But with gas they use the very low air pressure inside the venturi of the carb to quickly mix the the liquid gas with air to atomize the gas.
So in the cold even with a full tank, it could be possable to have a fuel issue. Now as I said my experience is with cars, they require alot more fuel to run than a small motor in an ice auger, so Maybe with the motor being that small, needing so little fuel to run, it might not ever run into that issue. But in cars, trucks, stationary engines, and even large btu heaters, it does become a concern.
I just ordered an electric auger. Another option you may want to research if you have not.
I run a Jiffy four stroke auger. It is propane. This will be my third year using it. So far I really like it. I make sure the bottle is half full and never had an issue. The bottle I take off I use up on my heater. When its 0 degrees it will start on the second or third pull. It doesn't like part throttle though. Idle or wide open. I have not owned any other powered augers. Hope this helps.
I own an Eskimo propane power auger and am a guide. Here's my experience and thought process why I chose Eskimo over Jiffy. Jiffy's are awesome augers and have been work horses for years. When they started marketing propane powered augers they took gasoline engines and converted them to operate on propane. I think they work just fine and know guys who have them.
However, when I researched propane augers I found at the time (going on 3 years ago) Eskimo was the first to use an engine designed for propane rather than a conversion. I'm no expert but I do remember dealing with fuel and carburetor issues years ago when we changed over some of our gasoline powered fork lifts to propane so I decided to go with the auger designed to burn LP. It has started on the second pull every time except once and that was this morning after sitting for 20 months.....it took 3 pulls. I've used it in some severe cold and exposed it to wind, snow, ice, and bouncing around in a cradle on the front of my quad through 1.5 ice seasons and after an estimated 1500-1800 holes it looks and runs like new. It is extremely fuel efficient....I have only used three 1lb tanks since I bought it.
Summary: In my opinion propane is the way to go if you drill lots of holes (guiding or drilling for your buddies) and if I were just a fun fisherman I'd seriously consider and Ion electric. Neither requires you to mix, store, and fool with gasoline. The electrics are nice but I don't want to have a day where I'm moving customers multiple times and have the battery go dead. I do know they are very powerful and hold plenty of juice on a good charge for the average guy.
Good luck!
I have a jiffy propane also. 2 years finally had to change the tank. Runs great starts cold on 2nd pull. I got the 8" and love it. I was looking at electric but price difference wasn't worth it.