[fatlazyless]

The big problem with the 1/2-hp and 3/4-hp aqua-therms or ice eaters is they really shake up the water depending on the water depth, and how close they are to the water surface. Typically they get controlled by a timer/temperature control that turns it on and off.

About ten years ago, or sometime like that, I couldn't afford the 110volt-1/2-hp ice eater with the small blue propeller, so I went with three 1/6-hp utility pumps, cost about $65-each, and they actually worked out pretty good on my 5' x 30' dock. My installation had them staggered along the length of the dock at each leg support area, using three pumps, so they make three smaller circles of water splish-splash, as opposed to one large circle of water splish-splash.

It was pretty simple installation with each pump hung vertically by a single line to a depth of two feet, down. As you know three 1/6-hp pumps and one 1/2-hp pump both have the same total power of 1/2-hp so they have the same energy but the dynamics for the splish-splash water shaking is different.

The 1/6-hp pump weighs about 8-lbs, has a screen on the bottom, an impeller inside, and a garden hose 3/4" fitting on top, so the water gets sucked up from below, and streamed straight up, and splish-splashes the water surface enough to keep ice from forming, but in a smaller circle of splish-splash than the 1/2-hp ice eater, and with less power and less noise.

Using three 1/6-hp pumps distributes the splish-splash water shaking more evenly with different control on the open water area. It changes the energy dynamics when compared to the 1/2-hp ice eater and could be a solution to not be opening the ice in front of your neighbor's property.

Another side benefit to this revised NH state statute for 2019 is how it should reduce and lower the amount of splish-splash noise created by the ice eater. Three 1/6-hp pumps with impellers will make a lot less splish-splash noise than the one 1/2-hp ice eater with the small blue propeller which should have many waterfront residents pleased with the new winter quiet, along the shoreline, thanks to this new rule for using the aqua-therm or ice-eater to protect their dock.

Along with the three 1/6-hp utility pumps, you want to have a heavy, long handled ice chopper, and a 2-lb hammer so's you can define the perimeter of the long rectangle of open water that surrounds your dock. Once about 2-3" of ice has been created by the cold, say in the last week of December, or first week in January, you no longer have to be chopping and defining the open water area, but it definitely needs to get done at the start of the ice-in, when using these 1/6-hp impeller utility pumps that do not have the power of the 1/2-hp or 3/4-hp ice eater propeller.