Electric augers: Strikemaster and Icegator

[insomniac]

My fishing buddy just bought a Strikemaster Electra Lazer 8" and I had the opportunity to see it in action last week and compare it to my Icegator Attacker:

Design
- The Electra Lazer is a neat package. It has a small battery pack in the powerhead plus wire attachments to hook up to either the 12V DC (cigarette outlet) or an external 12V battery. It also has battery status indicator lights. All together its very compact and probably about the same weight as a regular (2hp) gas auger.
- The Icegator almost looks like it's "home-made" in comparison. It basically just has two buttons for forward and reverse and a plug for the 24V charger. It feels quite a bit heavier than the Strikemaster. It does carry two batteries in it's powerhead and I suspect the number of holes you can drill is a lot more...

Drilling
- the Icegator drills quite a bit faster and the 24V motor clearly has more power/torque than the 12V motor in the Strikemaster. My guess is that the Icegator drills between 2 and 3 times faster. The Strikemaster is clearly geared down and almost rotates at hand-auger speeds but did get the job done through around a foot of ice.

Bottom Line
The Strikemaster is a bit more versatile but is fairly light-duty. If you don't have to drill many holes through 2 feet of ice, it will probably do the trick. The Icegator is heavier and more expensive (including shipping and buying an auger bit) but is significantly more powerful and (probably) can drill more holes.

[ULTRAlite]

Good info - was looking at the Electra a few years back and almost bought it until I seen one running. Wasn't happy with the speed. Bit the bullet and bought gas. Good to hear the Gator is still goin strong.

[Dougie55]

If I ever get mine, I will let you know what I think about it...