FROZEN WATER - What's the answer? - Page 2

I use heated dog bowls in my pens. I have extension cords and a outlet strip to power them. Never had any problems.

This.  I have two of the flexible black rubber water bowls in each run.  During hard freezes I haul out milk jugs of hot water each morning, kick the ice out of the bowls and refill with hot water.  I also make sure that the bowls sit where the sun hits them almost all day.  Even on days when it stays in the single digits all day, the water bowls are merely slushy by bedtime.  It means some schlepping of water, but it is easier than dealing with ice.

I gave up on the official waterers years ago.  They either leak or freeze or get nasty and they are a pain in the tookus to clean.  I now use these rubber bowls year around.  They are super easy to scrub out and they are practically indestructible.  In the summer I position them where I can hit them with the hose from outside the runs and just keep them filled.  Easy peasy.

You have to understand that the warning on your heater is based upon many factors that concern the manufacturer. They are trying to cover a lot of bases. I don't want to get into a lot of electrical theory, but some of the things for you to consider are the length that your extension cord would have to be and the size of the cord. It makes a big difference if you are running a 12 gauge three wire cord for 6 feet or say a 2 wire 16 gauge wire for 50 feet. If you have a large enough extension and it is grounded and you are not running it for a 100 feet, you should be fine. I use a heated waterer and even though my coop has electric I still need to use a 10 foot extension to reach from the outlet to the waterer. You just want to be sure that your connections are good and tight at both ends of the extension cord and that both ends are plugged in completely etc. The manufacturer has to envision cords that come loose and create heat at the connection points, and of course open ends or ungrounded ends around water etc. They don't want to be sued after someone does something silly and then blames them, so they solve the problem by basically saying, "buy our product, but please don't use it unless you just absolutely have to". Ha!  Unless your heater comes with a 25 foot cord on it, then I would think the manufacturer did not expect every buyer to be able to plug the thing into a wall outlet without an extension. That would severely limit their sales etc.
My waterer is a very common one that has the heater built into the base and the only way to power it is to plug an extension into it, there is no cord, so that would be another option for you.
Hope this helps

Yes, once a day is plenty.  Also, like citygirl said, if you place them where the sun hits them, they will stay thawed around the edges except when it really gets bitter out during the day.  If you feed your fowl a rationed amount, they eat it as soon as it hits the ground.  Either way, frozen or not they still get the moisture out of the oats.  Don't forget, chickens will also eat snow to get moisture during the winter.  I live in Michigan, and have been dealing with the winter for many years and this works well for me.

Whelp -- I'm probably doing it wrong, but I've chained 3 extension cords together so that I can run heated waterers in all 3 of my coops.  I have to put a power strip at the end of each cord so that I can put in a timer (I give the birds 14 hrs of light too) and run ANOTHER ext cord to the waterer. 

No problems.


Fog

I haven't read ANY of the above responses, but I assure you I have a sure fire solution.

FROZEN WATER - What's the answer?

Move to Phoenix. 

Oh, you are SO FUNny!

I just got heated dog bowl online at Petfooddirect.com.  They are 96-ounces, use only 25-watts and are $23.75 each.  I just put them in the coop today.  I have 9 breeding pens so I wanted to keep the wattage down.  I have two 1.5 gallon bowls I bought on clearance 2 years ago from Walmart that worked great last year, especially since my metal waterer heater quit working half the time.  They are easy to clean out too when they get dirty.  If you can safely get electric to your coop, I think they are a very good option.
I have been using the black rubber pans and they stink.  The birds tip them over hand get them gunked up.  The ice does break out for the most part, but  not always all of it without some thunking around to do so.  Our coldest temps have been 2-degrees this year and I don't like having to go out 2 times a day just to change out their water.  The dog bowls are big enough that I shouldn't have to worry about doing that.  Now I will just have to be going out several times when it gets cold again to collect eggs so they don't freeze

Someone a while back said they heat large rocks and put them in the water pan and it keeps it thawed longer.  That sounds good, but you are still going to have to find a way to heat them, and if you are using an oven, you are still using a bit of energy.

Yeah I hear ya Fog, like I said I think those warnings are basically CYA for the manufacturer. They can't possibly think that everyone who buys their heater is going to spend money to have an electrician come and install a wall outlet 2 feet from where the waterer is going to go, and yet they sell them with a 24 inch cord, and say "only plug this into an appropriately grounded outlet. They know nearly everyone who uses one of their heaters is going to use an extension, or like you several extensions. In theory every plug will add to the resistance of the circuit and cause a higher amp draw, and the overall length of the run will also do the same, but the loss is not going to be that great and as long as everything is fully plugged in and tight it won't be a problem. But we live in a litigious society, so we get the warnings that nearly everyone ignores, and the only ones who gain are the compliance people in manufacturing and lawyers on both sides of the suits. But that's life I guess.

I should mention that the first cord is 100' long -- second is 25' and third is 50'.  I use good heavy gauge cords.