Heating a plastic bucket nipple waterer ?

zekii

Songster
9 Years
Nov 1, 2010
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New Hampsha
I have a plastic bucket nipple waterer, and it has started to freeze ... so it's time to find a solution to
keep the water warm. Colder temps are coming, we get down to below zero at night here for weeks at time.



Anyone here heating a similar type of waterer setup, and what are you using ? Bird bath deicer seems like the best, but just want to be sure
I am not going to start a fire ... melt the bucket with such a heater ?

For my 5 gallon metal water I followed this video, and this setup has worked terrific so far, I have the 60W light bulb on a timer for 8 hours thru the night.




Thanks,
Zekii
 
I use an aquarium heater.

25 watt works down to about 15 degrees. I have a 75 watt that I use for temps below that. The ones I use don't shatter. The low wattage is great as well. I use trough heaters for my horses and they burn up the dollars. The aquarium heaters are fairly inexpensive and work well with nipples. I have been using mine for three years now.

We have been averaging -10 at night for the last two weeks.

This is the kind I use. http://www.amazon.com/Hydor-THEO-Submersible-Aquarium-Heater/dp/B00061UQ6G/ref=pd_sim_petsupplies_4
 
Last edited:
Hi jmagill,
An aquarium heater was on my list, but I wasn't sure how rugged these would be in an outdoor envioroment ... good to know you have used
yours for 3 years.

I also have been looking at birdbath, or pale de-icers ... something like
this. http://www.amazon.com/API-250D-200-Watt-Birdbath-6-Foot/dp/B000HHLIXY/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323715537&sr=8-1-fkmr2

or
this.
http://www.amazon.com/API-Bucket-Bi...1_fkmr2_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1323715537&sr=8-3-fkmr2

Will make my decision soon.

Thanks,
Zekii





Quote:
 
Mine have been frozen into the ice when I forgot to plug them in. They spend the summer in the chicken box with lots of things piled on top. They have had the water run dry. Nothing has hurt them. They are basically running 24 hours a day for close to six months a year.
 
I use a bucket heater in mine:

62744_wbucket.jpg
 
I have a 5 gallon bucket with nipple waterers. I bought a small, cheap submersible aquarium heater from walmart. It is on a timer and comes on for 6 hours at night. I just have it laying in the bottom of the bucket. Works great.
 
Don't use a stock tank heater without a wire guard. I use aquarium heaters and they worked great to -12 last week. The trick is to get the heaters on the bottom of the bucket over as many nipples as possible. I wrapped a "wrap" duck decoy anchor around the heater and it sank like a brick.
 
I use a bird bath de-icer. They are rated for 10 gallons, don't get hot enough to melt plastic, and are pretty durable. You can see our set up on my page. We have to get pretty serious about freezing water, gets cold here, and stays that way for a while. In the summer, we clean the deicers up, and hang them on the wall.

Heat tape does not work very well. There is to much loss through the air, and plastic does not conduct heat very well. The bird bath deicer does not need to be near the bottom either. The whole bucket will stay thawed. We suspend ours in the bottom third to ensure it stays submerged for as long as possible. There may be a bit of ice on the rod on the bottom of the bucket, but it flicks off when the birds go for water. The nipples will be darn close to the same temp as the water, which will be around 35 to 40 degrees with a bird bath deicer.
 

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