Like many others here, I've been battling the frozen waterer. I've been using a homemade pvc water dispenser with the nipples and they would freeze up in no time. Yesterday I put a bird bath de-icer(bought from amazon for $36) in the container. Just checked it and nipples are free of ice and operational! I've got it plugged into a gfci. My water container probably holds 2 gallons of water. I only have 3 hens so it's plenty big enough for me. If you had a larger container, say up to 5 gallons, I think it would still be o.k. In my head i thought it would work, but was still concerned about the nipple being exposed to colder temps and it would want to freeze up. Guess the warm water transfers enough heat through the stainless steel tip to keep it from freezing up. woohoo for me! On a side note: if you give ACV in your waterer you probably wouldn't want to use this method. The heater is metal and that would not be a good thing with the vinegar. I plan to give water with acv in a bowl separately. I hope this helps someone.
