47-6 Mino-Mizer Combo

I have owned several of these over the years and they work great for keeping saltwater shrimp alive. But they are fragile. 3 or 4 years is about it until the wiring fails. The thing I like best is they are so quite unlike other bubble types products.

This is an absolutely fantastic product, but only for as long as it works. It has some design aspects that really make you scratch your head.This was purchased for my technologically-challenged parents through Amazon for the free shipping (as opposed to buying it directly through Hypark's web site), receiving it on November 27. Unbeknownst to me at the time, it was a Christmas present for me. (So I basically bought my own Christmas present... ;) )I received it as a Christmas gift and used it several times before the water froze and again after the spring thaw. It actually kept minnows alive for over 2 weeks in a 5 gallon bucket!!! (If you've ever tried to keep minnows alive, you know that this is a truly impressive feat, even with an aerator.) When going fishing, I transfer the minnows to a styrofoam minnow bucket before leaving and put my 12-volt underwater camera battery in a 5-gallon bucket to power the Mino-mizer and simply place the minnow bucket on top of the battery; everything is contained, easy to transport, and you don't have to worry about wires catching. I was always careful with the Mino-mizer and it never fell or dropped. Whenever I quit using it, I'd rinse & dry it off. However, in mid-March, the Mino-mizer stopped working.I can confirm Mark's experience above with support. Calling Hypark for support was nothing but an exercise in frustration. After calling once or twice a day for over a week, leaving voice mail once each day, I finally got a call back. In the voice mail, Ron told me that since I did not purchase from Hypark directly, he has no idea what the condition of the product from Amazon was and therefore I had no warranty other than the Amazon return period. (This had expired.) He answered none of the other questions I had.So I dug out my tools and went to work. I discovered that the external pink thing that was supposed to step 12-volt power down to the 6 volts the motor wants wasn't changing a thing - connect a 12-volt battery (which I'd been using since receiving it) and it outputs 12 volts. (Why they used a 6 volt motor instead of 12, like the power that virtually every marine battery on the planet uses, is beyond me.) My theory is that the the motor basically burnt up from being driven at too high of voltage. Why they didn't incorporate a 7806 regulator into the device so that you could connect any DC power source up to 37 volts is also puzzling - I got a 5 pack of these from a big well-known online auction site for well under a buck shipped to use in an unrelated project and one in the circuit would prevent this from ever happening. (It would be wasteful, simply shunting anything over the 6 volts back to the power source, but would save the motor.)The plastic housing of the motor compartment appears to be melted shut, so I couldn't confirm that the motor is indeed burnt out or even replace the motor. While trying to disassemble it, I kept noticing a drop of water coming out from around the motor shaft. Turns out that there's a leak somewhere and when I shake the motor housing, I can actually hear water sloshing around inside - NOT a good thing for a product designed to sit in a spray water around as it's intended purpose!There was absolutely no way I was going to spend another $35 on an aerator that lasted less than 3 months and had such serious design flaws no matter how well it worked to keep bait alive, so I began brainstorming. This is my solution:Milk jugs are made out of HDPE plastic, which melts without off-gassing at 350 degrees. I saved a few old milk jugs, cut them up, and melted them into an old soup can in the oven. (I've done this before for other unrelated projects - the plastic is light, tough, and is wonderfully easy to machine.) I put the resulting block of plastic on my wood lathe & turned a new top piece to an appropriate size and the approximate weight of the original top less motor. I drilled a hole that a miniature 12 volt motor salvaged from a power car mirror (which has the same size shaft as the Mino-mizer motor) would fit into, then a hole out the bottom for the motor shaft. I had to compensate with the depth of the holes for the difference in shaft length between the new and original motors, which was simple enough. Then I wired up a 12 volt regulator to protect the new motor (part #7812) in the same compartment and ran wires outside, soldering alligator clips on the end to connect a battery. I screwed an AOL free trial CD to this plastic piece & used the original motor housing as a template for the holes to mount it to the bottom part of the Mino-mizer.So now I have a fully functional Mino-mizer with a 12-volt motor that has a regulator built in to protect the motor. It looks a little redneck, but not bad. (Seeing it floating in a bucket of minnows you don't notice, but closer examination reveals the hack-job.) Best of all, it works better than new, as the replacement motor turns at a higher RPM than the original, which translates into more aeration. I'm more confident in it than I was in the original setup, plus I don't have to screw around with that annoying external pink voltage converter. I should not have needed to do any of this, certainly not so soon after receiving it, but it only took a few hours in the shop. Only time will tell how the new motor will hold up in a harsh marine environment that it was never designed to be exposed to, but the Mino-mizer is now repairable if something goes wrong in the future as my new design is such that I can access everything.My advice is to only purchase this product if you're handy enough with tools/electronics to repair it when (not if) it breaks. I'm obviously handy given the above, but am by no means an expert when it comes to electronics. Knowing what I know now about how it works (hollow flat spinning disk with thin grooves on the side and a large hole in the bottom to siphon up water) and design problems, if mine were to disappear tomorrow, I would likely build one myself rather than buy another; wouldn't be difficult and I'm certain that I could design & build it better than the original.The Mino-mizer is completely awesome at what it does while it works, but has critical design flaws that make the quality and overall product worth highly questionable. Throw in the lack of support & it's certainly not a good situation. I'd give it 5 star performance, 2 or 3 star quality, 1 or 2 star design, and 0 star support.

I like the fact that the mist it creates also cools the water in your minnow bucket which really comes in handy during the hot Texas summers

Failed to complete sale of this item.

EXCELLENT PRODUCT. I PURCHASED MY FIRST ONE 30 YEARS AGO, AND IT GAVE UP LAST SUMMER. I USED IT IN BOTH FRESH AND SALT WATER. KEEP IT CLEAN AND IT WILL LAST A VERY LONG TIME. I WAS VERY HAPPY TO FIND THEM STILL FOR SALE, AND WILL GET SEVERAL MORE TO STASH FOR MY GOLDEN YEARS.

The third one I have owned. Works great keeps minnows fresh. They will last several years of hard use if kept clean and well maintained.

Great product. Second one my family has owned now. The first lasted over 20 years.

minnows love it.