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Zambonis benched in favor of electric IceCats

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by YankeeFan, Jan 3, 2009.

  1. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Zambonis benched in favor of electric IceCats
    by Noah Joseph on Jan 3rd 2009 at 9:02AM

    Growing up in Canada, every kid knows what the Zamboni is. But for the poor, deprived children of warmer climes, we'll fill you in. It's not a lunch meat or a pastry you'd find in Little Italy, but the ice resurfacing machine you see put-putting around the rink before, after and in the middle of hockey games. Created by Frank Zamboni in 1949, the company's pretty much had a monopoly on the market ever since. But the times, as Bob Dylan sang from the penalty box, they are a-changin'.

    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%, except to wonder where the other thirteen percent is coming from (flatulent spectators?). At a whopping $160,000 apiece – twice the price of a new Zamboni when many skating rinks already have their own – the IceCats aren't cheap (there are only four in all of Canada), but with carbon emissions on everybody's minds, Zamboni may get beaten to by the Finnish line.
     
  2. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    The Zamboni: Victim of Global Warming.
     
  3. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    [blue]Because so many people have been dying inside arenas because of nitrogen dioxide. [/blue]
     
  4. Beef03

    Beef03 Active Member

    Olympia is pissed they didn't get mentioned.

    But as long as they can avoid losing their charge half way through the job, why not. Been in far too many rinks that smell very much bad because of the zambonis. And nothing ruins a game like a zamboni stuck in the middle of the ice.

    The other 13 per cent of nitrogen dioxide I would assume comes from the heaters in the stands and the ice making plant.
     
  5. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    As long as the ice gets cleaned and freshened, who cares what they use?

    I grew up skating and playing hockey in rinks that were tended by tractors pulling makeshift water tanks behind.
     
  6. Boomer7

    Boomer7 Active Member

    Not to be confused with the ...

    [​IMG]
     
  7. Flash

    Flash Guest

    Crap, I remember that ... at the old St.FX arena, the dads (including my own) would shovel the ice off and then push the water barrels around.
     
  8. zeke12

    zeke12 Guest

    Town I played against in HS had a tractor that they modified to make ice.

    Damned thing worked, too.
     
  9. Beef03

    Beef03 Active Member

    A couple of the villages I played against in rural Alberta growing still used tractors with the set up on the back when I finished my second year of midget in 2000. not sure if they do today, but I wouldn't be wholly surprised. Nothing like diesel fumes to get you ready to play a game of hockey,
     
  10. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    I'd be more impressed if Zambonis were benched in favor of electric LOLcats.
     
  11. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
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