New Zamboni Fundraising
Why Do We Need A New One?
The MCYHA, MCFSC & the Blue Line Club of Manitowoc are raising funds to replace our current Olympia ice resurfacer with a state-of-the-art Zamboni 552 AC Electric resurfacer. While the Olympia is also electric, it requires a heavy-duty power cable which is prone to a lot of wear and tear in the course of normal use and requires frequent maintenance, often at very inconvenient times, delaying practices or games. This maintenance has become increasingly dangerous for our all-volunteer staff as well.
The new Zamboni will use a lithium-ion battery and no longer require the cable, eliminating a large problem area for our organization!
Why Electric?
While many ice resurfacers that you may see in area rinks are powered by gas/propane or CNG, this requires proper ventilation in the rink area. Unfortunately, the Manitowoc County Ice Center (MCIC) does not have the necessary ventilation in place to allow this. Retrofitting the ice center with the necessary ventilation would be an huge cost on top of the already significant Zamboni purchase that is still needed. Without proper ventilation, skaters and attendees could both become very seriously ill due to the various components of propane exhaust (carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, etc.). This has, in fact, happened early on at the MCIC when they first started using a propane resurfacer.
A propane-fueled resurfacer would also require space to store spare propane tanks outside of the current ice center building. Since the property is owned by Manitowoc County, we do not control what we can build and store on the site.
Lastly, charging a lithium-ion powered machine is a much simpler operation for our volunteers than changing and connecting propane tanks.
We are seeing battery-powered electric Zambonis more frequently in rinks around the state. The staff from these ice rinks state that they perform just as well as their propane counterparts.
Donate
If you would like to donate to our Zamboni fundraising cause, please click the button below to go to our donation page. Please type "Zamboni" in the comment box to ensure that we can give you credit!
If you wish to remain anonymous, please also write "Anonymous" (or even just "Anon") in the comment box as well.
