Help with keeping water warm??

[angelsdream]

I am looking at different options to put in my water for the horses to keep it #1 from freezing and #2 warm so that they will drink plenty. What does everyone else use and like? It's been abnormally cold here lately, high's barely reaching 40 and lows are mid 20's, which is not normal down here. Typically we are still in the 60's during the day. Shane's family lost one of there older horses last year due to colic - which the vet believes he wasn't drinking what he should have been due to the water being too cold to drink, so I am going to do what I can this year to keep the water warmer for my horses this year.

Any suggestions???

Thanks

[MustangsInNC]

I bought a floating tank heater last winter, and it's wonderful! I paid about $25 for it from Southern States. It floats in the tank and has a chew-proof cord that I just plug in to an outdoor extension cord. That works for the main water tank in the pasture.

I'm still trying to figure out how to keep the water in the barn from freezing. There's no electricity run down there. When the mares are out, Tesoro stays in his corral, and his water keeps freezing.

[canadiankigers]

Angels Dream:

Around here those temperatures are normal. Our coldest month is February with temperatures well below zero plus the wind chill factor so warm water is definately an issue.

There are several options we have, the first being a tank warmer. It is a floating device that has an element under it that heats up the water. It is self contained so there is no fear that the horses will get a shock or burn from it. The down side is that you have to have an outdoor outlet to plug it in.

What you can also do is get pail warmers. It is a unit that you place your pail of water in and it heats the water to about 5 celcius or 40 degrees F. These work well but the down side is that you have to keep filling it up.

You can also buy troughs with heaters in the bottom (made by rubbermaid) but the problem is that if you have a really cold climate the surface water freezes and your back to a frozen tank your horses can't use. Bubblers are another option but again if you don't have hydro it doesn't work. Also the bubblers are only good for a maximum of 25 degrees F.

Some of the really fancy breeding operation around here also use those Nelson waterers www.systemfence.com/pages/waterers/index.html but they are not cheap and you must be able to run underground wiring to power them. For every solution there are pros and cons, you will have to decide which suits your needs the best.

[desperatehorsewife]

I've got a floater, too, which dh bought me a couple of years ago. Works quite well, but you do need an extension cord.

[angelsdream]

Thanks everyone! The only problem I would see with the floaters is we have a couple of VERY playful ones that tend to check everything out and play with it all Have any of you had any problems with that... just want to make sure they could stand up to them and they're chewing or tossing around.. We do have power, and we could do an extention cord with no problem, what about electric shocks?? Anyone worry about that? Im sure they are made pretty well though -

[fantasykiger]

I use the floating heaters and you are right about playful horses that will pick them up and toss them out and you find them steaming up the ground and your water trough frozen. Still they are the best option for me and I came up with some clever solutions to hide my floating water trough heater and it's cord. By placing the cord in a PVC pipe up to the fence and placing a board over the top of where the heater floats in the trough.

[DianneC]

Ditto here. The young ones do like to play with them though. You can take them out when you feed in the morning and put them back in when you feed at night to lessen the exposure to pranksters. Do get a really heavy duty extension cord and put the tank up against a fence so the extension cord can be tied to the outside of the fence. If firmly tied they can't drag the extension cord into the water.

[stlkigers]

We do something similar to what Tiffany does....We have the stock tank heaters that sink to the bottom (not float) and to keep the pranksters (and it's always the mustangs!) from flipping them out of troughs I have to put my stock tanks in a corner location....So I use the fence cross brace and use a PVC sleeve to run the heater cord to and then it 90's down into the trough....The PVC arm going down into the trough (it actually ends right above the water surface) keeps them from flipping it out of the tank.....Also important is to loop the cord around the brace a couple times to keep the cord at just the right length so they can't pull the unit out of the trough.....Guess how I found that one out?!!!

Amanda....As for your barn pipes, my husband's in the HVAC business and they use stuff called "heat tape"....that's what my daughter's instructor used in her old barn with great success after messing with busted pipes for 2 winters....It's easy to install as long as you have easily accessible pipes....maybe that would work for ya?

Angela