making a heated waterer…tank de-icer or aquarium heater

[DickMidnight]

Just keep an eye on the nipples, if you bought the one that floats. You may have a problem with the nipples freezing, if it gets really cold where you are. I saw it a few times on here, when using floating type. The water needs to be the warmest down at the nipples. A five gallon bucket or larger may warm up the top half and turn off before the bottom gets above freezing.

i ended up going with a plastic safe stock tank deicer which sits on the bottom of the bucket.

i drilled the holes for the nipples about 3/4” above the top of the deicer so they can never drink the bucket dry.

 

[blackdog043]

i ended up going with a plastic safe stock tank deicer which sits on the bottom of the bucket.

You will be happy with that! I use a 250 watt stock tank deicer that sits on the bottom of a 14 gal drum and it works great!

 

[DickMidnight]

You will be happy with that! I use a 250 watt stock tank deicer that sits on the bottom of a 14 gal drum and it works great!

so far, so good. it took the birds 4-5 days to fully get the hang of the nipples but now they’ve all got it down and i’ve had no issues with water freezing.

it’s running off of an extension cord right now but i’m having electricity run to the coop next month for the deicer and an electric fence