Food and water inside or out or both

[Smorz]

To whoever asked the question regarding horizontal water nipples over the vertical and cup style ones. I use the horizontal nipples only. Why? Simple...they don't leak at all. The vertical nipples which hang from the bottom of a bucket will sometimes (not always, but sometimes) leak. The cup-style ones will freeze up on you quickly during winter months. What I'm doing for the winter months here where I live...SNOW COUNTRY and we get down below zero quite often ... is dropping a very small stock tank heater rated at no more than 500 amps (anything bigger amperage will have the probability of melting your bucket). That's it, that's all .. I love the horizontal style nipples...works for me!!

That was me - and thanks. Very useful info!

 

[iwiw60]

You're quite welcome @Smorz !!

 

[RJSorensen]

@Smorz

The answer is the same as given above, they don't leak, at least not enough to matter. Yes they are the ones that look like a cross. As to winter and freezing weather I just put a bird bath heater inside the bucket. Stock tank heaters work as well, and I understand that the submersible fish tank heaters work for some.

The bird heaters have a thermostat that regulates the 'on' temp at around 38 degrees, so it is not on all of the time if it is not below that temp. There are also these 'cube' outlets, They plug into a single outlet and give you three thermostat controlled ones. They come in several versions, on at 36 and off at 40, on at 20 off at XX etc. Amazon sells them, I think there are at least 3 choices of them. This way they could be staged, for what ever your conditions require.

Winter weather need no longer be the terror it once was, of which I for one am very grateful. Oh, I am building a PVC waterer that will have a aquarium power head, connected to a plastic hose that will pump water to the end of the pipe via the hose. I have hope that this water movement plus some heat will allow me to use a larger PVC pipe setup in the winter as well as summer. But, for me at least, it has yet to face a winter test.

Hope this helps,

RJ

 

[iwiw60]

@Smorz

The answer is the same as given above, they don't leak, at least not enough to matter. Yes they are the ones that look like a cross. As to winter and freezing weather I just put a bird bath heater inside the bucket. Stock tank heaters work as well, and I understand that the submersible fish tank heaters work for some.

The bird heaters have a thermostat that regulates the 'on' temp at around 38 degrees, so it is not on all of the time if it is not below that temp. There are also these 'cube' outlets, They plug into a single outlet and give you three thermostat controlled ones. They come in several versions, on at 36 and off at 40, on at 20 off at XX etc. Amazon sells them, I think there are at least 3 choices of them. This way they could be staged, for what ever your conditions require.

Winter weather need no longer be the terror it once was, of which I for one am very grateful. Oh, I am building a PVC waterer that will have a aquarium power head, connected to a plastic hose that will pump water to the end of the pipe via the hose. I have hope that this water movement plus some heat will allow me to use a larger PVC pipe setup in the winter as well as summer. But, for me at least, it has yet to face a winter test.

Hope this helps,

RJ

Agreed with one side note. If you DO live in snow country where the night temps get down below freezing continuously I would not recommend a fish tank heater. They are not designed to work on a constant basis and most likely will burn out. This is why I use a stock tank heater, 500 amps no higher, and no problems at all. Where I live our late-day and night temps go down to +10 constantly, and for about 2-3 weeks go well below that, thus why I went with a stock tank heater.

 

[Smorz]

Thanks for the replies to the water questions. We live in zone 7b, which has pretty mild winters overall, but last year we were in the teens a number of times through the winter. I'm also looking at heat tape to see if that might help, since our weather is so sporadic and doesn't get below 32 "that" often. It's hard to prepare for the what ifs. Thanks again for the input.