Twice the cost of a Zamboni at $160,000…
Toronto, Canada’s largest city, is slowly phasing out their Zambonis in favor of Finnish-made IceCats. So is the National Hockey League. And the reason is carbon monoxide: while the Zambonis run on propane or natural gas, the IceCats are all-electric. In an indoor arena, that can make all the difference: it’s no big surprise to read that a study in the American Journal of Public Health determined that replacing carbon-emitting resurfacing machines with electric ones would reduce the concentration of nitrogen dioxide in indoor arenas by 87%.
87% percent of what number? How much difference can a Zamboni or two make in a huge ice arena?
Who’d a thought you could make a Zamboni any uglier.
Is it just me, or is it ironic that the NHL is a spectacle featuring juiced up hockey players beating the piss out of each other while at the same time worrying about inhaling too much NO2?
Hysteria can be hysterical.
You’re forgetting about the model 552
http://shopzamboni.com/story/story_p3.html
Sorry – I didn’t realize that was an autoblog quote. Here’s a better article from autoblog’s comments: http://www.zamboni.com/machines/model552.html
I drove this model 5 years ago
Nice article JRoosh! Self-correction- our 552 was purchased around 1989-1992 at Drake in SPA, a private school in St. Paul, and I drove it then for a few years. It was the 2nd in Minnesota. Parade Stadium in Mpls had the first electric Zamboni in Minnesota. The charger is 480 Volts. It is heavy and very quiet except the hydraulics sometimes squeak. As part of our air quality sampling program when we had the propane Zamboni we tested each day for carbon monoxide and some kind of hydrogen or nitrogen – using these
http://www.airgas.com/browse/product_list.aspx?catID=362&WT.svl=362
We probably should have been testing for ammonia also since that was the refrigerant in the aging pipes in the sand base.
BTW Wog, AKA Paul Kuettel, installed Wang servers at this location long ago.
http://minnesotaconservatives.wikispaces.com/Paul+Kuettel
http://www.looktruenorth.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=936:one-of-our-own-paul-kuettel&catid=95:Contributor&Itemid=88
Jamie
JR:
I learn so many things, just finding the errors in SITD. Nitrogen Dioxide is not a greenhouse gas. It has no effect on global warming. There is a more immediate health concern:
“NO2 acts mainly as an irritant affecting the mucosa of the eyes, nose, throat, and respiratory tract . . Low level NO2 exposure may cause increased bronchial reactivity in some asthmatics, decreased lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and increased risk of respiratory infections, especially in young children.”
Plus, it stinks, bad. Removing it from an ice arena may or may not make sense, but it ain’t got nothing to do with global warming.
Pretty much the same goes for carbon monoxide.
It looks like a Canuk’s version of the “Heart of Gold”.
Plus, it stinks, bad. Removing it from an ice arena may or may not make sense, but it ain’t got nothing to do with global warming.
I’m aware of that Rick. Technically you are correct however the hysteria of emissions of internal combustion engines in general has a great deal to do with the Global Warming movement.
Furthermore, it was meant to be humor.
I learn so many things, just finding the errors in SITD.
Wow. Humorless and arrogant. I’ll bet that’s fun to come home to.
JR:
“it was meant to be humor”
Fair enough.
SAY IT ISN’T SEW!!!!
(well, there is “kay-djinn” food in the Toronto restaurants now, so, well, I guess the Nat-zees can accept the Gews, and Toronto can use that monstrosity… Talk about “Change!”) AAAAAAahhhhh!
I feel better now.
(anybopdy seen my hollow points?)
Some of the local rinks have been using “alternative” resurfacing machines for some time. It really is about the quality of air inside the rink. Of course at other rinks you have jackasses using gas-powered leaf blowers to clean the stands WHILE you’re trying to play a game. If the noise doesn’t annoy the hell out of you, the exhaust will.
Zestro, I’m curious; I’m a 1992 SPA alum. You worked at Drake?
Hi Mahan,
Yes for a short period in the mid eighties to the early nineties.
I hear there is a new arena now.
Was 1992 the Al Franken commencement?
Jamie
http://www.DeltonDigest.com