Heating a plastic bucket nipple waterer ?

[70monte]

Quote:
I was looking at this one as well because I'm thinking of trying the 5 gallon bucket and nipple waterer's. I'm still hesitant because I don't want any leakage or dripping on the coop floor. Does anyone use this setup outside all year long?

Wayne

 

[70monte]

Quote:
I was looking at this one as well because I'm thinking of trying the 5 gallon bucket and nipple waterer's. I'm still hesitant because I don't want any leakage or dripping on the coop floor. Does anyone use this setup outside all year long?

Wayne

 

[jmagill]

Quote:
why would it be expensive to run? Once it reaches it's whatever temp it's set for it should cut out until it is needed again. I'd wager that those running aquarium heaters that want to keep the water at 60-70 degrees would be spending a fair bit more with their systems than a heater that is designed to keep the water just above freezing.

100 watts versus 1500 is a very different cost. I run both, on in the horse trough and one in the chicken waterer. Mine run 24 hours a day because I have temps before freezing 24 hours a day. The 100 watt does not work any harder, it can every use the 100 watts at at time. The only difference is if the heater has a thermostat and can shut off at a certain temp.

 

[70monte]

Quote:
I was looking at one of these online yesterday because I'm thinking of trying the 5 gallon bucket with the nipple waterers. My only concern for using these indoors is that some water will end up on the coop floor and make a mess. Does anyone use this setup outside all year long?

Let us know how this heater works in a 5 gallon bucket.

Wayne

 

[Papakeith]

I get a little bit of dripping out of my nipple waterer. Nothing a small catch pan or drip cups can't take care of.

Y'all have me curious now about cost of operation. I have one of these http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU
I'll hook it up and see what kind of numbers get generated.

 

[wyododge]

Quote:
I was looking at one of these online yesterday because I'm thinking of trying the 5 gallon bucket with the nipple waterers. My only concern for using these indoors is that some water will end up on the coop floor and make a mess. Does anyone use this setup outside all year long?

Let us know how this heater works in a 5 gallon bucket.

Wayne

Yep. we have a little bit of 'spray' when they get rambunctious. but I just put a lid for a 55 gallon drum under the bucket. Clean it off once a week. I spray mine with pam, the ice and poo and shavings slide off.

They are about as trouble free in our environment as you are gonna get. I fill it from a tank in an insulated box. Works great. You can see our set up on our page. We have to get pretty serious if we don't want stuff to freeze where we live. It gets pretty nasty for about two months, gets downright vicious for about three.

FWIW, the de-icer does not have to go over the nipples, I would not put anything near them, if they get 'kinked' over they will leak. My deicer hangs from the side, not the center. Not sure it really matters though. They do develop a little ice on the metal rod that hangs down, but the chickens peck it off and the 35 degree water above them defrosts them instantly. The nipple inside won't freeze as it is immersed in 35* water.

 

[HogbackMtnChickns]

I've been using a 5 gallon bucket with nipples and a bird bath heater from Murdochs in a fairly mild Colorado season (so far). Our lowest low so far has been 9 degrees, and most nights it has been in the low twenties or high teens. Works like a champ. This next week will give us more typical winter weather - but I expect it to perform well. My water bucket is outside the coop in a covered run over sand. I suspect there are a few drips, but I honestly have never seen any evidence - must disappear into the sand.

My heater looks very similar, but not identical to the one pictured above from TSC.

 

[southdakota]

I highly HIGHLY recommend this one

I bought four of them for stock tank heaters for our horses, and had been using a fish tank heater in the 5 gallon bucket nipple waterer I made. I had a flash of inspiration and ordered one of these for the bucket.

I bought it off of Amazon and they have them in two styles, one with the floater ring on top and one without. I think it is worth the extra two dollars for the floater ring. The heater with floater ring is 29.74 and free shipping.

The best part is that it is only 250 watts instead of the 1500 watts of the other heaters I see here. I have a kill a watt electricity monitor and it saves a whole bunch of power ( and dollars) using the 250 watt heater instead of the 1500. I also use a thermo cube if it seems like they are coming on more then needed. The thermo cube only lets the power come on if it is below 35 and then shuts it back off when it gets to 45 degrees.

I am in South Dakota and so far it has been -1 outside but the bucket waterer has never frozen and the nipples don't freeze either.

Hope this helps.

 

[southdakota]

This is the other heater for 27.86..the only difference is it does not have the floater ring, but you can see it is advertised as a pail heater.
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-250-...N1EQ/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1324594073&sr=8-9

 

[southdakota]

FYI regarding electric cost
we were running four 1500 watt heaters in our stock tanks and I had $500 electric bills last winter
I changed over to the 250 watt heaters and so far, my power bill has not been over $150.
The 1500 watt heaters keep ALL ice off the top of the tanks
the 250 watt heaters keep all the ice off until it drops down to about 10, then it keeps enough ice off the top that there is a good sized drinking hole for the horses.
It has been down below zero and these smaller watt heaters are performing well in the horse tank. I expect it to do equally as well in the chicken bucket.
The chicken bucket is inside the coop, but my milk jug and pepsi 2 liter waterers will be frozen solid in the mornings and the bucket has not frozen yet.