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Reviews For: I.C.E Coaxial Suppressor

Category: Lightning & Surge Protection/Supression

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Review Summary For : I.C.E Coaxial Suppressor
Reviews: 17MSRP: 44
Description:
Patented Coaxial devices for lightning surge protection of facilities. Used by Commercial, Military, and amateur facilities world wide. Several models to chose from.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.iceradioproducts.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00174.1
N4EWS Rating: 2010-05-17
Best Device on the Market ! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Hi All,

I'll give two examples of how good this system and devices have saved me $$$$.00 !

Example #1

As it's been said, most hams have never heard of ICE. I found them just by chance on the web, as I was looking through some government contracts. They were not even listed on any search engines or crawlers at the time ! I read some of thier info and gave them a call and ordered a few HF and a few VHF-UHF devices. One of the devices was used on my 440 repeater. The location also housed a 6 and 2 meter repeaters. My antenna was located at the top just shy of 190' Agl. It made for a good lightning rod !! It's was in late August when the storm went through Wake And Franklin Co. It lasted for about an hour and a half. A few of us were on the air sending info back to the SKYWARN net in Raleigh when the site was Zapped ! The strike cooked both 6 and 2 meter power supply, controllers, fried the TX&RX sections and some of the cables in the duplexers !! The only thing that was hurt on my system was the ICE suppressor !!!

Example #2

On my way home from work when a storm started to brew up. The facility I was working at was about 30 miles west of home. I just happened to remember that I had one of my SP-600's on the workbench and it was hooked-up straight to a 700' beverage antenna, No ICE !! So I made a run for it... I made it to the shack right as the leading edge of the busted loose. I ran over to the 600 and un-screwed the coax. Just as I was about to hook the cable to the ground buss, Flash-Crack-Boom !! My right hand Flashed as if I was holding a 6,ooo watt/second strobe !! All I could see was Bright Green and Purple and the smell of burnt hair and smoked electronics....I would have needed to change my shorts if it wasn't for luck or J.C. that I went earlier at work ! Thank God !!! I wasn't grounded with my left hand or I would have been Toast !! When I came back to reality, I could see my hand was scorched a little with specks of solder and felt numb. I got up off the floor and started to check for damage...

With the exception of 3 HF and 1 VHF I.C.E. suppressors, 3 wire and 1 Vhf/Uhf vert. antennae, 3 coax 1 ladderline and 1 Very Large Pine Tree (80ft.) Smoked and split !
All radio's and equipment were OK !!

So.... Are they worth it ???
Every Cent !!!
Joe N4EWS
W4BQF Rating: 2010-02-26
Great delivery and service! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
ICE certainly does not look like a 'terrible' company to me! Five days after ordering their Model 303, two with UHF and two with Type N connectors, they are in my mail box. Their web site as for 'patience', I gave it and they delivered much quicker than expected. The antenna inputs have DC ground, so they look fine to me.

Tom - W4BQF
WB7ESV Rating: 2010-02-03
Excellent product Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have the I.C.E. suppressor equipment on all of my antennas as well as my rotor. A couple of years ago, during a thunder storm there were 2 lightning strikes very near to my QTH. One hit a tree in my neighbors yard and the other hit the power line at the end of the street. The I.C.E. units protected ALL of my equipment from any damage from the EMPs. I have recommended these products to other Hams and they have all been very satisfied with them. I have used Poly-Phaser in the past and have not been pleased with their performance.
Dave - WB7ESV
RFEXPERT Rating: 2009-11-01
TERRIBLE company Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought a whole bunch of the ICE 300's for my station.

They took months to deliver with no answers on the emails or phone. Its hard to believe a company can treat its customers with such contempt. It make matters worst when they charge your credit card long before the goods are delivered.

When I opened the product I was shocked. A puny toroidal core, cheap capacitors and a NE2 neon. No sign of a proper gas discharge tube or teflon wire. Even though the item may work as described, and may have some advantage over the competition, I doubt very much if the poor quality materials used could sustain multiple surges. The enamel wire and uninsulated toroid core is bound to arc. The webpage description is clearly deceptive, you dont get whats described on the web page.

If you thinking of buying these products, try contacting the company, good luck! If you can actually buy them when you can see what you buying that might be the way to go otherwise I would stay away and look at the Polyphaser products.




W7IH Rating: 2008-08-05
Solid Piece of Equipment Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've used two of these mounted directly to an 8 foot ground rod now for several years, and have found them to be just about bullet proof. They play a vital role in my lightning protection scheme, and have had no adverse effect on my SWR readings. I recommend them to all of my friends who are building antennas.
W7JBB Rating: 2008-06-06
Excellent, but Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used a number of the ICE products for years and have always had great results. What I really like is the reduction of any static charge via the grounded inductor on the antenna side of the device, and the large capacitor that is in the line. This design handles static charge/ noise better than any of the others on the market, in my opinion.

That said, like N9ESH I have no idea why their finished product is not made exactly as they show on their website diagram. My present ICE products are the same as N9ESH describes in that they contain a glass gas tube rather than the ceramic cartridge as described. Also they had no resistor on the transmitter (input) side of the capacitor as it shown on their website diagram.

The gas tube makes very little difference in the actual operation of the product and the need for the input side resistor could be argued; however, like N9ESH I fail to see why the sold product is not manufactured EXACTLY as shown on their website diagram.

The product works, and works well as sold, but I really would like for the product to be sold as represented. If you need the resistor you can simply add it yourself, but that should not be necessary when you purchase a finished product!

Bruce
KF7NN Rating: 2008-02-10
didnt work Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had snow static causing elevated s meter readings
and then there was no output from my Icom 756 Pro III. needs a static bleedoff
DXSHORTWAVE Rating: 2007-10-22
poor quality, bad design Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Check N9ESH's review on the I.C.E devices. for the reasons he stated (NE2 neon bulb instead of ceramic gas tube, etc.) we also got rid of ours at our commercial HF receiving site. We had previously thrown out the PolyPhaser units because their internal capacitors all failed within 1-2 years. See our previous review on those. They must have gone to a cheaper line.

We did lab tests on all the devices and as a result, replaced both the I.C.E. and PolyPhaser units with the Alpha Delta TT3G50 coax surge protectors. Not a single problem. Insertion loss and surge discharge performance as good or better than the others. We can't afford down time here! By the way, they're also less expensive.
K7ICU Rating: 2007-10-22
Literature needs some updating. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I normally deal with PolyPhasers at work (public safety), but decided to give an ICE 306 a try for myself. I also found information on the web and in the manual in conflict with the actual hardware (see review by N9ESH for details). Some of the troubleshooting advice in the manual simply no longer applies, given the hardware changes. Minus one point for that one, but I'll still still take the electrical features of the ICE unit over the PolyPhaser in my personal projects. Insertion loss checks out at about 0.3dB @ 444 MHz. Fit and finish isn't quite as refined and stout as a PolyPhaser, and mounting options are a bit more limited, but this may be a better unit for ham purposes.
N9ESH Rating: 2006-12-31
Look inside for a surprise! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Being a retired Quality Engineer, I just had to open one up (Model 300) and take a look inside. As I suspected, the workmanship is superb and the internal components appear top rate.

But I did notice two things. The ceramic surge device as shown on their web site photos was not there. In its place was an NE-2 type glass bulb. Now it probably doesn’t matter as either a neon bulb or a ceramic surge device is placed across a large toroidal inductor and both are relatively low power devices. Either should help protect just fine.

Another thing, the toroidal inductor. Isn’t that supposed to be wound with silver plated wire and have a Teflon coating? The package sheet says so. It appears to be just Polythermaleze coating over copper.

Will I use the Model 300 with my OCF dipole on HF? Sure, why not? It still appears to be able to take quite a bit of energy to ground, if needed. However, I will continue the practice of disconnecting all antennas when not in use. And for my VHF/UHF stuff, I will stick with my ¼ wave shorted stubs.

ICE needs to update their ads and packaging specs a little. But other than that, it is a good product.

Jim/N9ESH