Works well, some maintenance required.
Written: Jun 13 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: effective.
LED lights give confirmation of function
easy setup.
Cons: orifice clogs easily
can kill unintended targets (small climbing frogs)
expensive to run
The Bottom Line: Works as advertised but requires periodic maintenance.
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| gliderguy's Full Review: SkeeterVac |
Bought the SV-2000 model from SAMS last year. It functioned extremely well at my one acre home in Northeast Arkansas when installed. I was getting aproximately half a basket of mosquitoes for each of the first several days, and the tack paper seemed to be totally covered within a week. Kill rates dropped off gradually, then I moved the unit and they went up again.
I get between 3 and 4 weeks on a propane tank. Replacement octenol and sticky papers are rather expensive.
One tip: only empty the basket in the afternoon. Late afternoon just before the mosquitoes come out in force for the evening. If you empty at this time, all the mosquitoes in the screen will be dried out and dead. I made the mistake of emptying the screen in the morning only once, as dozens of still live insects flew away when I opened the screen.
One gripe: after the second season it would not start. I totally disassembled the unit and found that the tiny orifice that lets gas into the bottom of the heater section was clogged. this is a VERY fine orifice, not even a single strand of copper from some speaker wire could fit into the hole. I eventually cleared the clog with some CLR. The symptoms of this clogged orifice is that the unit would never get deep into the green arc on temperature. I suspect that all the 1 star ratings were people who had this problem and did not know it. It is obvious when the machine is operating correctly due to the flashing LED lights on top and a very slight whirring sound of the suction fan from up close. The temperature on my particular unit ran in the top third of the green arc. Once I had repaired the unit it seemed to be running correctly again.
One other note: This thing also was responsible for the deaths of about half a dozen small green tree frogs that somehow found their way inside and were killed by the fan. I do not know if any of the competing models are more frog friendly. We have literally hundereds of these on the property, so I do not think the frogs were particularly attracted to the unit other than it was a remote high point that they found attractive to climb. No frogs were found on the sticky paper, they all climbed up some other part and managed to get ingested into the intake.
All in all it does what it advertises, but requires some maintenance
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
gliderguy
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Reviews written: 1
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