Cookie Tin water heater

[LynneP]

Another way to do this is to buy a pet bed heater and place in the cookie tin instead of a light.
Advantage is ease of construction, disadvantage is that it costs more. Looks like an oval hockey puck with a cord, made by PetSafe

Found one at Canadian Tire...

 

[lockedhearts]

Hubby and I made our way into town to collect supplies to make enough of these heaters for all the chickens, we got a few done today and will make the rest tomorrow, we went to Big Lots and were able to buy a bunch of cookie tins for anywhere from .25-.50 each. We bought several feet of lamp wire and sockets and plugs. I am so looking forward to not having to haul water to chickens twice a day!

 

[nhnanna]

I bought two of these for my two litters of pups but never used them. I never thought of using them for under the waterers.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Safe-Heated-Bed...ZViewItemQQptZUS_Pet_Beds?hash=item3a56987818

 

[donnie]

hey guys i made some of the cookie tin water heaters and they seem pretty cool, but my chickens are so greedy lol that they keep tipping the bucket over , but i just put it in the coop a few hours ago, i used a 60 watt light buld ( regular house light buld not the energy efficient ) will this buld work ?

 

[skippacheval]

Cookie tin heaters are great. Just made one right before the weather turned bad(high of 16degrees today) very unusual for OK,. They word great. No ice!!

 

[B'villechicken]

Quote:
A 60 watt bulb will work fine. You do not want an energy efficient bulb as the waste heat is what is used to prevent your water from freezing. I have a 40 watt bulb in mine and it was -13F here this am. The coop was +10F. The 40 watt bulb kept the water relatively frost free but the outside ring that the hens drink from had some ice. To keep the hens from knocking the waterer over, I put a small cookie sheet (baking pan) on top of the cookie tin and screwed it to the wall through the lip that sticks up. The pan I used was an old one that began to rust and had a rough surface to it. The other option is to put two bungees across the top of the waterer to hold it down.

 

[20tundra]

I just built one of these last week with a 40 watt bulb. I sat my TSC water fount on it and even when it got down to 8 deg at night it stayed unfrozen.(The water is inside my coop.) I had to put a small groove in the can to allow the base of my water fount to sit level.

 

[madmantrapper]

Its been getting down to the mid teens overnite here. The forty watt bulb is not keeping the water thawed. I am going to try sixty and see how that works.

 

[donnie]

guys i went to check out my cookie tin heater and the bulb had gotten to hot and do it stopped working
but the bulb i used was one i got from dollar tree so it was porbally bogus , so im testing another bulb out tonight and we will see what happens, otherwise if this dont work im switching to the fish tank heater lol , thank goodness for plan b , and if plan b fails , i will just buy a heated dish

 

[Doopy]

donnie - I think that maybe a 60 watt bulb is too big. Try a 40 or a 30. The heat build-up inside the cookie tin could be to much for the 60 watt bulbs to handle. It's also a possible fire hazard.

These cookie tin heaters are very good for keeping a dog or cat warm during very cold times. We have six (I think) barn cats and six old plastic picnic coolers turned upside down with a cut-out for a door. Inside of each we have a cookie tin heater with a 25 watt bulb. It looks like all of the cats use their little dorm room every night. I'm a fire hazard freak so I go overboard on heavy duty wiring and take extra measures to make it as safe as I can. I check these dorm rooms almost every day. I have also rigged up a simple little thermostat to turn them off at 40°F.