Heated Water Bowl--Safe with extension Cord???

[funonahonda]

The 4 watt bulb still let the water freeze so, I think I am going to spend the money and get the waterer that has the heater built into it.

 

[plapczynski]

Make sure you put some kind of drip loop. The one with the pics has the switch in the lower part of the loop. Given any kind of coop leaks or condensation the water will run down. Same with e-cords, the plug should be up high for the same reason.

 

[omelette'smom]

I didn't want to spend the money....but i did! i have the 3 gallon heated poultry fountain model hpf-100 by farm innovators and I..err....ahm...my chickens....ya ya that's it...LOVE IT! It will turn on 35 or below so no waste of electricity. it has a handle to hang it and for 20 chickens it will last a better part of 3 days before needing to refill. i can't find the invoice to tell where i ordered it from but it cost @ $40 and i find it worth it. at first i had to cringe at the price but it sure beats the alternative of constanly thawing the other water fountain i have and to put it ON a heated base it will get dirty water faster than hanging. my extension cord runs through a pvc pipe on a ground fault circuit.

 

[vermontgal]

Folks - there are two concerns about extension cords.

One is SHOCK (as in electrical shocks) and the other is FIRE.

1) One is exposure to moisture, and this is actually a concern for any indoor-rated appliance that you are using outdoors. Get an outdoor cord and appliance, and use an outdoor (wet rated) bulb. Outdoor outlets should be on Ground-Fault protected circuits. Not having outdoor-rated equipment or ground-fault protected circuits is a SHOCK hazard.

2) The second thing about extension cords is that if you use a little skinny extension cord to power a big-fat-power-hog-appliance, you will be overloading the extension cord wire capacity, which causes the wires to overheat, which causes FIRE.

The solution to this is to LOOK at how much power your appliance draws and use an appropriately rated (sized) extension cord. If your appliance draws 1500 watts, you need an extension cord that has wire thick enough around to handle the current of 1500 watts (watts = amps * volts, so if you are working with 110 volt current then that extension cord should be big enough to handle at least 13.6 amps.) You may know how many of the circuits in your house have 15 or 20 amp breakers. 15 amp circuits use minimum 14 gauge wire. So if I wanted to run a 1500 watt appliance, I'd look for a 14 gauge extension cord. It's probably ok to run a 1500 watt appliance temporarily on a smaller cord (many of those orange extension cords you buy are 16 gauge) - but I wouldn't leave it alone by itself or use it ongoing. For wire gauges, a smaller number = bigger wire.

You NEVER want to have a tiny skinny wire extension cord going to an appliance that has a big fat wire going into it.

Don't "hope" it will be safe - do the research and figure out what you need to be SURE it is safe. This is a matter of math and physics.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
Except you forgot to mention the length of the cord. For your example of a 1500 watt load, 14 AWG wire would be marginal in a 100' cord length.

For the 25 watt bowl in question, the current is fairly negligible, just use a good outdoor rated cord and plug it into a GFI outlet.

 

[enggass]

What would happen if you had - say your example - a 40 watt Bowl / 16 Gauge ExtCord @ 100' / 15amp Outlet - and it was a 'NON-GFI' outlet?

 

[Tofer76]

Quote:
Ywould be fine as the voltage drop is only .3 volts

 

[Tofer76]

oh and to weather tight a cord connection use a thick ziplock just open it up and on both sides lice a 1 inch slit in the sides then feed your cord ends through them and connect the ends
take the bag and seal it
then wrap it around tight and start at one side and wrap with electrical tape from one cord to the other works great!!!

 

[turbo13]

Quote:
OK I have a 100 watt bulb in the brooder lamp.Its connected into a surge bar,that plugs into a outside outlet directly.The surge protector has only that lamp and a small 15 watt lamp plugged in. Do you feel that safe?

 

[Tofer76]

turbo as long as the connections are out of the direct weather it should be fine however a surge protecter wont prevent shock as thats not its job it is for holding back a surge in power
to prevent shock a gfci is whats needed
you could replace your recepticle with a gfci recep for about 7 bucks or so