Electrical fire from heated waterer

[doughouse]

We bought a Premier 1 three-gallon heated waterer right before the winter of 2020-21, and I've been nothing but happy with it until today. I went out to check the flock's food and water this afternoon and was surprised when I lifted the waterer that it felt much heavier than I expected. I reached around back to unplug it and was almost shocked by some sparks. It was then that I noticed that there was likely an electrical fire at some point recently.

The cord, which unscrews from the waterer, was completely fused on, parts of the cord were melted away, and of course there was the black scorching up the side of the waterer itself. Our henhouse is raised off the ground and the waterer hangs from the bottom of the henhouse, so I'm so so so incredibly grateful that this didn't catch my henhouse on fire.

I did a bunch of research on heated waterers when I first bought this and Premier 1 was one of the best-reviewed. Does anyone have any thoughts as to what might have happened? Equipment malfunction? Did I do something wrong? I need to get another heated waterer pronto, but I want to make sure I don't inadvertently make the same mistake if this was the result of something I did.

 

[Ccort]

We bought a Premier 1 three-gallon heated waterer right before the winter of 2020-21, and I've been nothing but happy with it until today. I went out to check the flock's food and water this afternoon and was surprised when I lifted the waterer that it felt much heavier than I expected. I reached around back to unplug it and was almost shocked by some sparks. It was then that I noticed that there was likely an electrical fire at some point recently.

View attachment 3729274

The cord, which unscrews from the waterer, was completely fused on, parts of the cord were melted away, and of course there was the black scorching up the side of the waterer itself. Our henhouse is raised off the ground and the waterer hangs from the bottom of the henhouse, so I'm so so so incredibly grateful that this didn't catch my henhouse on fire.

I did a bunch of research on heated waterers when I first bought this and Premier 1 was one of the best-reviewed. Does anyone have any thoughts as to what might have happened? Equipment malfunction? Did I do something wrong? I need to get another heated waterer pronto, but I want to make sure I don't inadvertently make the same mistake if this was the result of something I did.

Wow! I have one too...Ive had mine for 1.5 years. No issues and like you, I've loved it. But this really worries me! Interested to hear what others say.

 

[doughouse]

Wow! I have one too...Ive had mine for 1.5 years. No issues and like you, I've loved it. But this really worries me! Interested to hear what others say.

I wrote to Premier 1 too to see what they say.

 

[CedarLane]

Sorry to hear about that. We have the same waterer also. I'd be curious to hear what Premier1 would say. We've always been happy with our waterer and are considering buying another. (But there's probably always a risk with electricity.... I've always wished our coop was wired rather than needing to run an extension cord out to it.)

 

[CedarLane]

I wrote to Premier 1 too to see what they say.

You posted that right when I was posting "I'd be curious to hear what Premier1 would say." above.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I wrote to Premier 1 too to see what they say.

Does it have a warranty with it? Some things have warranties where they might replace this if it was a malfunction on their part. Where the burn was, unless it wasn't hooked in properly, I'd say it’s just a malfunction. Did the breaker blow? Sometimes on things like this, the breaker will blow so the power will be cut off to something this. You’re lucky that your birds and coop are fine. If any of those sparks fell into the bedding below...

 

[alinas2010]

Def a blessing! Also wondering if you use a surge protector or just connect right into the extension cord? Just curious. I don’t know a ton about electrical set up, so I’d like to learn about other peoples’. We have to run an extension cord, but we use a surge protector plug in with multiple outlets hung up on the wall of the coop.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Yikes! I've had one of those waterers for the last 5 years or so, no issues here. If you get a reply from the manufacturer I hope you'll post an update so we can see about preventing this from happening to others.

 

[deidreg]

Yikes! I also have this heated waterer. I use a three-prong outdoor rated extension cord so hope that provides good protection.

 

[Sefirothe]

I have one of these. There's a sticker on the bottom that says you can not plug it into an extension cord.

It should be plugged directly into an outlet on a GFCI circuit.