Frozen Side Mounted Horizontal Nipples - How to keep them from Freezing?

[Terri126]

Things have been good here too, -2 f today and we had water. Real test will be Saturday calling for -9 we don’t get that cold but once every 20-30 years if it lasts that we should be good!

That's great to hear!! What are you using??

 

[JMotuzick]

If you read though this thread you’ll see my posts...

I’m using a 5 gallom bucket 6 Horizontal nipples three at the bottom and three up about 3 inches. 250w stock tank heater keep things warm.

 

[JesseM]

Here's the deicer I've been using:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002QXN1EQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It keeps the water a bit too warm, as I mentioned previously.

Hoping to get the new bucket set up tonight since we have 6-10" snow rolling in tomorrow followed by -12 forcasted for Saturday.

 

[Terri126]

I've taken the temperature of the water in my bucket with the 150W and it stays around 40 degrees which is perfect. The nipples have not frozen over yet. We have had -4 here a couple of nights ago.

 

[JesseM]

With big thanks to @JMotuzick, our frozen water buckets are solved: We moved the nipples to a point above the heater in a new bucket and had no problem last night. It only got down to about 18 degrees outside last night, but we've got a couple below-zero nights coming up that will really test it out. I'll provide another update this weekend.

As an extra bonus, we switched from a 2gal bucket for water to a 5gal bucket which apparently solved the overheating-water issue we were having. Temps are now consistently between 55-60 degrees instead of swinging from 55 to 115 degrees.

Thanks for all the input from everyone here!

 

[JesseM]

-5*F when the girls and I got up this morning. 1 nipple still unfrozen, the other had a minimal amount of ice in it that I suspect would not have stopped the hens from getting water. Thanks again for all the help here!

 

[JMotuzick]

Same thing here! -8 water in the top 3 nipples!

 

[Terri126]

OK, so another update...we have had 14 straight days of temperatures being consistently in the below freezing mark. Ranging from -5 (with a wind chill of -22) to in the 20's. My water has yet to freeze and the nipples have not frozen at all either. Love this product so far!!