de-icers

[Lydia]

Any opinions on de-icers? Which ones are good ones? Features that are must
haves? I see the Thermo-Pond De-Icer a lot
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=8557&N=62728+113087 .
Anyone have that one and a review of it?

Thanks much,
Lydia

[Mosfunland]

Yeah I had one......it froze into the pond....and was covered by the
snow.....I'll retry a bubbler this year with a much larger aquarium
pump....flexible tubing split that year and the temps were so cold everything
froze over....the bubbler had been doing its job....that stupid plastic thing
was just that....a waste of money.

Maureen in Phila.

[George]

"Lydia" > wrote in message
...
> Any opinions on de-icers? Which ones are good ones? Features that are must
> haves? I see the Thermo-Pond De-Icer a lot
> http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=8557&N=62728+113087 .
> Anyone have that one and a review of it?
>
> Thanks much,
> Lydia

It depends on the zone in which you live, the pond size, and the wattage of the
de-icer. The one advertized at the link you provided as only 100 watts, which
won't do much good for most average sized ponds. I used the one at the link
below last winter, and it worked fine. Although the ad says it is for 50-600
gallon ponds, my pond is 1400 gallons. This one is 1,250 watts, which is over
ten times more wattage than the one you are interested in:

http://www.improvementscatalog.com/product.asp?product=221579zz&dept%5Fid=12100&subdept%5Fid=12130

There are others available as well:

http://www.macarthurwatergardens.com/Heaters/deicers.htm

http://www.pondsolutions.com/pond-heaters.htm

[Iguana]

Mosfunland wrote:
> Yeah I had one......it froze into the pond....and was covered by the
> snow.....I'll retry a bubbler this year with a much larger aquarium
> pump....flexible tubing split that year and the temps were so cold
> everything froze over....the bubbler had been doing its job....that
> stupid plastic thing was just that....a waste of money.
>
> Maureen in Phila.

Same here, it froze into the pond, then got covered with snow. I live in
Toronto, our winters are not that bad.

Now I use a 1250 watt model, doesn't seem to actually affect the electricity
bill any more than the 100 watt one(I think the diff is the 100w is always
on, whereas the 1250w is only on for spurts), and the 1250w does a great
job.

[Lydia]

"George" > wrote in message
...
> It depends on the zone in which you live, the pond size, and the wattage
> of the de-icer. The one advertized at the link you provided as only 100
> watts, which won't do much good for most average sized ponds. I used the
> one at the link below last winter, and it worked fine. Although the ad
> says it is for 50-600 gallon ponds, my pond is 1400 gallons. This one is
> 1,250 watts, which is over ten times more wattage than the one you are
> interested in:
>
> http://www.improvementscatalog.com/product.asp?product=221579zz&dept%5Fid=12100&subdept%5Fid=12130
>
> There are others available as well:
>
> http://www.macarthurwatergardens.com/Heaters/deicers.htm
>
> http://www.pondsolutions.com/pond-heaters.htm
>

Thanks all for the replies and the links. My pond is about 400 gallons so
not too big and I'm in zone 7. We had ice over the pond last year for about
a month, but didn't have anything in it yet so I didn't need anything. Now
we have one goldfish that *was* a little inch long, $.07 feeder fish from
the pet store. It's about 5 inches long now and while my original intent
was to let everything go natural and if he makes it great, if not I won't
get anymore fish, I do feel sorry for the thing. So while it'll be spending
the winter in the pond, I'd at least like to give it a chance to breathe :).

Lydia

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

>Thanks all for the replies and the links. My pond is about 400 gallons so
>not too big and I'm in zone 7. We had ice over the pond last year for about
>a month, but didn't have anything in it yet so I didn't need anything. Now
>we have one goldfish that *was* a little inch long, $.07 feeder fish from
>the pet store. It's about 5 inches long now and while my original intent
>was to let everything go natural and if he makes it great, if not I won't
>get anymore fish, I do feel sorry for the thing. So while it'll be spending
>the winter in the pond, I'd at least like to give it a chance to breathe :).
>
>Lydia

Zone 7, use an air pump and air stone 6" below the surface, assuming this
isn an in-ground pond. ~ jan


~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

[Olde Hippee]

"Lydia" > wrote in message
...
>
> "George" > wrote in message
> ...
> > It depends on the zone in which you live, the pond size, and the
wattage
> > of the de-icer. The one advertized at the link you provided as only
100
> > watts, which won't do much good for most average sized ponds. I used
the
> > one at the link below last winter, and it worked fine. Although the
ad
> > says it is for 50-600 gallon ponds, my pond is 1400 gallons. This one
is
> > 1,250 watts, which is over ten times more wattage than the one you are
> > interested in:
> >
> >
http://www.improvementscatalog.com/product.asp?product=221579zz&dept%5Fid=12100&subdept%5Fid=12130
> >
> > There are others available as well:
> >
> > http://www.macarthurwatergardens.com/Heaters/deicers.htm
> >
> > http://www.pondsolutions.com/pond-heaters.htm
> >
>
> Thanks all for the replies and the links. My pond is about 400 gallons
so
> not too big and I'm in zone 7. We had ice over the pond last year for
about
> a month, but didn't have anything in it yet so I didn't need anything.
Now
> we have one goldfish that *was* a little inch long, $.07 feeder fish
from
> the pet store. It's about 5 inches long now and while my original
intent
> was to let everything go natural and if he makes it great, if not I
won't
> get anymore fish, I do feel sorry for the thing. So while it'll be
spending
> the winter in the pond, I'd at least like to give it a chance to breathe
:).
>
> Lydia
>
>
lydia, I'm in DE, zone 7 also. We just use an aquarium air pump and
weight the end down with a fishing weight and blow air thru it all winter.
We have friends who have a marina, and I figured if an air bubler system
could protect those expensive boats, it would probably work here too.
Then I found out that's one of the ways everyone did it.

nanzi