Who's using heated waterers?

What's your experience with heated waterers? Both with products/devices and with use?

My wife used both heat element and light bulb heated chicken watering devices in Canada. She says they all do a fairly good job.
She had a full complement of chickens, peacocks, 4 pheasant species and lots of other exotic fowl. She also had rabbits, Emu and horses. She used electric heaters for those.
According to her, most brands are at least similar in longevity and work about the same regardless of brand.

I had a friend in N. California that kept chickens in the high altitudes of the Sierra Nevada mountains who used electric heating elements that were submersible (similar to those made for heating tea or coffee water).
He never had any problems with frozen water that I am aware of using those. But he also had the wire encased in metal conduit as a pecking protection and he had pyrometers attached too.

Since we don't have our chickens yet on Buzzard's Roost, but do have hogs, we currently are using insulated watering troughs for winter water for the hogs.
Our temps do get down to below freezing occasionally so there is a need but not quite as necessary as if we were North.

Redhawk

i have a small pond/ trough heater i put in a shallow mental feed bowl i got at tractor supply. we get to -30f here occasionally and I've never seen the water freeze in it.

steve bossie wrote:i have a small pond/ trough heater i put in a shallow mental feed bowl i got at tractor supply. we get to -30f here occasionally and I've never seen the water freeze in it.

Is it inside our outside, Steve?

inside the coop.

I use a heat lamp bulb inside 2 cinder blocks. Lay the blocks on their side. Place bulb in one of the holes. I used some sheet tin bar signs bent to go around the outside to cover the holes. Those are held in place with tent stakes drove half way down. Vuala! You got drinkable water in zero degree weather. I set a 1 or 3 gallon waterer on it and have no problem. If they have the room, the girls will take turns standing on the edge to warm their feet on especially cold days.

I used them on my sheep waters and they are okay, but made our power bill soar. A better way is to buy a plastic culvert 15 inches in diameter, and cut in half. The cost is only $159 bucks for a 20 foot section so the cost is pretty cheap since you get two applications from them, but alternatively, you may be also able to score a steel used culvert off your town (I got quite a few this way). Anyway, cut either type in half and bury it vertically into the ground. Then put your water on top of that. Insulate around the waterer and the heat coming up from the ground 10 feet below at 57 degrees is enough to keep your water from freezing. It is geothermal in its most basic form and I live in Maine too!

For our chicken coop we can heat it in one of two ways. We keep our birds inside in the winter and warm. You get far more eggs that way. Anyway, ours is insulated, not great, but insulated. Just from the chickens being in there alone, for the most part it stays warm. Today it hoovered at 40 degrees and was 11 degrees outside. Just enough to keep the water from freezing. If it gets down to zero, the water will freeze so we just add two sheep (sheep prefer to be in pairs). Their body heat makes the coop warm enough so the water does not freeze.

To stop having to add sheep when it got cold out, we added another form of geothermal heat to our coop. We bought 100 feet of that cheap flexible plastic drain tile that comes in a roll. Starting at the coop, we buried it 4 feet deep in a big loop then came back into the coop. Installing a blower on it like for the forced draft of an old furnace, it is just enough to force air inside the coop to flow through that pipe, get heated to 57 degrees (ground temperature) and return keeping the chicken coop cool, but above freezing. It does consume electricity, but not nearly as much as when we ran electric heaters to get the place above freezing (or electrically heated waterers).

I've had chickens here in Alaska for several years now.  8X8 insulated, but unheated coop.  I typically Have 18-24 chickens at a time.  I bought a 3+-gallon heated waterer at the local mill and feed.  Temps here in my area can and do often get down to the -20*F range and colder at times.  Water has never frozen and the coop is usually 10-20* warmer inside than the outside temperature.  I keep the window cracked open (its placed high on the wall) and the birds have freedom to either stay inside or go outside as they please through a 12X16 door that opens to the run.  The run is fenced and covered to keep predators (eagles and great northern owls mostly) away from my chickens.  Chickens are quite hardy as long as they are in a draft free area.

I have tried a lot of them and I have this one now:http://www.hayneedle.com/product/kh-manufacturing-thermo-poultry-heated-waterer.cfm?ltype=child&tid=KHMA032-1  I bought mine from Tractor Supply.  I absolutely love it.  You don't spill water anywhere, it's easy to carry when it's full, it's easy to clean.  I put mine on a 12"x12" chimney block so it's raised up enough that the chickens don't kick stuff into it all the time.  It's just vastly better than any one I have used before.  Until I get my geo-air coop built, this is the only kind I'll use.

I use a  heated pet bowl, my chickens like an open water source better than nipples.

Bought it on amazon for around 30 bucks. It has been working pretty good so far. I have been using it for one season now.

Its a good deal for the price, but if you have a lot of chickens you probably need something more sturdy.

I just use the heated pet bowl also.  I put my up on a three legged stool so it stays much cleaner.  I have two structures.  One is my coop, 4 by 6 that has no feeder or water and a 8 by 16 greenhouse that I put their feed and water in.  With their water in the greenhouse it is out of the wind and keeps the coop drier.  Pet bowls use very little  juice but don't hold much either.  

Travis Johnson wrote:I used them on my sheep waters and they are okay, but made our power bill soar. A better way is to buy a plastic culvert 15 inches in diameter, and cut in half. The cost is only $159 bucks for a 20 foot section so the cost is pretty cheap since you get two applications from them, but alternatively, you may be also able to score a steel used culvert off your town (I got quite a few this way). Anyway, cut either type in half and bury it vertically into the ground. Then put your water on top of that. Insulate around the waterer and the heat coming up from the ground 10 feet below at 57 degrees is enough to keep your water from freezing. It is geothermal in its most basic form and I live in Maine too!

Hi Travis, can I ask a couple questions about this system?  How do you insulate the outside of the stock tank?  Is it metal or plastic and does it matter?  Do you have a cover (or insulated cover) on most of the stock tank?  How big is the stock tank?  What are your coldest winter nights?  How close to freezing does the tank get on those nights?

I mentioned this idea to some people around here (a little colder than you) and they were interested so I wanted to try to get more info.  Thanks!

Mike Jay wrote:

Travis Johnson wrote:I used them on my sheep waters and they are okay, but made our power bill soar. A better way is to buy a plastic culvert 15 inches in diameter, and cut in half. The cost is only $159 bucks for a 20 foot section so the cost is pretty cheap since you get two applications from them, but alternatively, you may be also able to score a steel used culvert off your town (I got quite a few this way). Anyway, cut either type in half and bury it vertically into the ground. Then put your water on top of that. Insulate around the waterer and the heat coming up from the ground 10 feet below at 57 degrees is enough to keep your water from freezing. It is geothermal in its most basic form and I live in Maine too!

Hi Travis, can I ask a couple questions about this system?  How do you insulate the outside of the stock tank?  Is it metal or plastic and does it matter?  Do you have a cover (or insulated cover) on most of the stock tank?  How big is the stock tank?  What are your coldest winter nights?  How close to freezing does the tank get on those nights?

I mentioned this idea to some people around here (a little colder than you) and they were interested so I wanted to try to get more info.  Thanks!

I use galvanized water tanks, oval in shape and perhaps 80 gallons to 100 gallons in size.

To insulate, I used 2 inch Styrofoam board, spray insulation to fill in areas where the Styrofoam Board did not fit well, and then plywood to protect the Styrofoam from the sheep. Just use a small hole to limit the heat coming out of the top of the waterer. The sheep have to take turns drinking, but water in the winter is not as bad as in the summer, so they get by.

It gets down to -30 degrees (F) here, and at those temps the water will freeze. But it does not get that cold that often so instead of running water heaters all winter, I just have to run them for a few days when it is super cold.

I no longer use these though. I have learned it is just easier to determine how many gallons of water the sheep drink per day, and fill the waterer up with that much water and no more. No water, no freezing and no need to heat.

I had an automatic dog watering dish with heat tape on the lines that worked really great until our barn was struck by lightening and the electricity stopped working.

Thanks Travis!  So the 2" styrofoam and wood is on the top and the sides?

The person I was talking to was working on a windmill to pump water for remote cattle.  So they will be bringing up fresh "warm" water (if the wind is blowing) but they won't have power.  Maybe the combination of new "warm" water, the turbulence of that water and the heat from the culvert will take care of it down to -30 or so (our normal cold snap temps).

Mike Jay wrote:Thanks Travis!  So the 2" styrofoam and wood is on the top and the sides?

The person I was talking to was working on a windmill to pump water for remote cattle.  So they will be bringing up fresh "warm" water (if the wind is blowing) but they won't have power.  Maybe the combination of new "warm" water, the turbulence of that water and the heat from the culvert will take care of it down to -30 or so (our normal cold snap temps).

And on the bottom...just not where the warm air from the culvert comes up. :-)

Travis Johnson wrote:

Mike Jay wrote:Thanks Travis!  So the 2" styrofoam and wood is on the top and the sides?

The person I was talking to was working on a windmill to pump water for remote cattle.  So they will be bringing up fresh "warm" water (if the wind is blowing) but they won't have power.  Maybe the combination of new "warm" water, the turbulence of that water and the heat from the culvert will take care of it down to -30 or so (our normal cold snap temps).

And on the bottom...just not where the warm air from the culvert comes up. :-)

Hi, Travis.

I posted this in a Paul W thread

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I love any idea too, Mike, 'cause it gets the creative juices flowing. I am in 9 foot frost country so our stock waterers, [SWers], are often the resistance heater type so they can make for huge power bills.

There are a few other methods that work, a "new" SWer that is super insulated and it uses the power of a large herd, eg cattle, to constantly pull "heated" water aka ground water into the waterer thus keeping it from freezing - the river principle.

Another one that would work really well for folks in warmer winter climes is a large tank of water in a dedicated super insulated building, sealed well so so cold air movement either. This could be the building that houses the water pump/pressure system for the whole farm/ranch/acreage.

This tank size could be scaled down for the warmer winter temps areas but it works in our minus 40s and more climate. In really nutso cold temps if cattle are not using enough water the tank can be partially drained to allow more warmer ground water to refill the tank. The same effect as cattle drinking.

Another is for folks to use their dugouts/ponds/... and use a constant flow of water pumped from deep in the water source to a TOTALLY UNINSULATED trough. Which is allowed to overflow from one end and the water is channeled back to the dugout or if that isn't possible it becomes runoff. It's much cheaper to pump water than heat it! These are being used at 54 degrees latitude.

Another idea is the SW that uses natural thermal flow, ie. cold water sinks and the "warm" water that is being warmed by the Earth rises. Two large tubes that hold a volume of water and do a natural heat exchange all based on the principles of Mom Nature. Have to find it. Will post again.