I have a 4.5 acre pond in Indiana and I need to keep ice from forming around my dock. I have a Vertex system with two large 4 head diffusers. Should I just move one of the diffusers to the dock area and run it when it starts to freeze, and turn off air flow to the other diffuser? Or should I buy a cheap small system aerator and just run that under my dock? What methods do people use to keep ice from hurting their docks? Thanks in advance.

Brian

This will be the first winter with water in my pond. I've been scratching my head on the same question so will be interested to hear the recommendations.

My floating dock just freezes in the pond without issues..so far. I think the big concern is if the ice would tend to shift and rip the dock from it's anchors. My pond is too small for shifting ice.

Augie...I think you'll be fine without keeping the ice open.

Brian...4.5 acres is pretty big. I would think a 4 head would be overkill depending on the size of the dock and can see how you would consider a smaller job specific system. Don't forget that your system is probably sized to run all the diffusers and if you shut half of them off, you will be over-driving the remaining 4. Or, you could dump some of the air to atmosphere to reduce the flow to the operating diffusers.

I have read where some folks used soaker hose as diffusers and a smaller pump for this application, but can't find the thread now.

Thanks. We actually already have damage to our dock from a cold winter a while back, so I'm just trying to prevent more damage. My dock is unfortunately not a floating dock.

To me, you need something just sub-surface to move surface water only, otherwise you are rolling water and exposing to temps that will supercool the pond water. Ducted fan units are better than forced air for de-ice units.

Brian I am curious what kind of damage you have from the ice. I have been considering a dock and I have significant ice. Can you elaborate?

This is my 5th winter for my pond and I have found that if I have a diffuser placed near my deck, mine this year is 6 inches from the front of the deck and at about 2-3 feet deep it will keep the ice away for most of the winter. I say most because when it a -15 or more for a few days it is hard to keep the ice out, but once the temps go up it will remove the ice. I have set up a separate diffuser for this purpose so I only have to shut down the others that are deep and turn this one on, makes it nice not to have to pull one from here to put it there.

Yes it basically lifted and twisted my dock. It's not completely destroyed, but will need a lot of repair. Also my pond is spring fed but the level can fluctuate a lot in big rains. So I think the freezing and pond depth changes are the cause of the damage.

I went ahead and ordered this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TFX5A80/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It wasn't expensive and I didn't want the wear and tear on my more expensive vertex system. Hopefully this works and if it does, then I'll report back.

Here is a picture of how I am set up for winter

Thanks, that's similar to what I'm going to do now. If it works I'll update this thread.