Very intersting. Thanks for posting that.
At first I thought they were going to use that electric unit and I was thinking "fire in the making". Then I saw how they redid it.
I like the ceramic and metal. What concerns me is the wiring. Which is always what concerns me in those cookie tin heaters. I imagine you could get a heavier wiring that is really made for outdoor use...
I have one of those cookie tin heaters. This will be the 5th winter it is put to use. I don't think it cost me $5 to build. It has proved to be one of the cheapest, and most useful thing in my coop, for the winter. When building one of these, you don't want to use the thin cheap wire that is used in the popular link around here, for the heater. You should use a heavier gauge wire like this:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Cerrowire-250-ft-14-2-NM-B-Wire-147-1472G/202304609?N=5yc1vZc57a You want to have that copper ground wire, connected to the tin. You don't want to go with a thin, cheap, two strand wire, with no ground.
I had a scrap piece laying around from some other home project, and put a 2 ft, section of it to use for the heater project. You can buy a plug at the store for a coupla bucks. Or you could use a short piece from the plug end of an extension cord, if you don't have any Romex laying around. Then, so as not to just waste a good extension cord, you go to HomeDepot, and get a new plug for it. Where the wire passes through the side of the cookie tin, you want to have a proper clamp there to hold the wire. Like this:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Halex-3-...C-_-NavPLPHorizontal1_rr-_-NA-_-100133208-_-N You don't want to just cut a hole and jam the wire through there, and let it it rub/wear against the cookie tin. The cool thing about a properly made cookie tin heater, is that the bulb is totally enclosed. You, or one of your chickens spills water on it, no problem, because the bulb is enclosed and protected. You would have to dunk the whole assembly under water to have a problem. That may not be the case with a pile of concrete blocks.
You could just buy a heater at
TractorSupply, for what? $50 now. Then you will have a fine piece of ChineseEngineering, that may last a day, or a year. But when it craps out, and it will, all you can do is toss it in the garbage, and buy another one. With the cookie tin, the bulb burns out, pull off the top, put a new bulb in, and you're back in business. You can't beat it. I've seen there are more elaborate, and involved versions of the cookie tin heater. But for me, a simple bulb in a tin is the way to go. It just flat out works.
