Water heaters

[crazyhen]

Yeh!, my hb built me two of the cookie tin water heaters. They got their test last night and are doing great. No frozen water this am. One question. The base for the light has a reg. socket. Did anyone find one for a candalubra ?( spelling) base? Finding a small 25 watt bulb for a large base was not easy here.

Anything below 40 watts seems to have the small base.

I went to Lowe's. I know there is an adapter but I am talking about the base itself.

Gloria Jean

 

[gsim]

For standard sized 25 watt bulbs, just go to any auto parts store. That is the old original standard for the mechanic's trouble light. It is a rough service bulb, not easily knocked out by jarring it.

Gerry

 

[crazyhen]

thanks so much Gloria Jean

 

[Truffle]

Can you explain in a little more detail how you made your heaters? I live in upstate NY and The water starts freezing as I walk away. It's soooomuch work! Any other water heater ideas out there?
Thanks! Truffle

 

[crazyhen]

Truffle, First you need a metal cookie tin. I got a big one recently at walmart full of butter cookies. Then go to an Electrical place and buy a socket for a light with a switch on it also a 12ft or longer cord in the lamp section. Take the cookie tin and drill two small holes in the side close to each other. Put the cord through one and the light holder with switch through the other. split the wires. Wire the two together. Put a light in the socket. plug it iin, turn it on. You have a warmer. Put the lid on and set a metal waterer or pan on it. I put mine up on solid 4inch. cinderblocks. Since it is higher than usual I put an extra block close by for them to stand on. There is a connector on the light holder to attach it to the tin. Hope this helps . There are pictures on this forum somewhere. I think hinkjc first posted them. Gloria Jean

 

[oldchickenlady]

Quote:
I made mine from the largest metal cookie tin that was for sale at Walmart. I used a hammer and a nail to start a hole in the side of the tin, then enlarged the hole until I could get some cheap wire cutters I bought at Tractor Supply into the hole. I cut the hole big enough for the plug end of an extension cord to go through. If you make the hole too big, you could probably fill it in with a hot glue gun...I just made sure there was no sharp metal sticking out. I pulled the plug in part (the part that plugs into the wall) of the extension cord through the hole from inside the can and pulled it all the way until just the end was in the can. I found at Walmart a thing with a light socket on one side and the prongs that plug into a wall plug on the other end (as if you were just plugging a light bulb into the wall). I plugged that into the extension cord in the can and put a 40 appliance bulb from Lowes (they also had the light socket thing) in it. I attached the extension cord to a thermocube that I also found at Lowes (that was an ordeal as most of the men I talked to thought I was talking about a thermo coupler...took the manager of electronics to figure out what I was talking about). The thermo cube controls the electricity to the extension cord (the one in the can), it only comes on when the temperature falls below about 40 degrees, so the heat lamp is only on when it's cold, not all the time. The thermocube is attached to a 3 outlet plug that is plugged into my big extension cord running from the house. I used the 3 outlet plug because I also wanted to have a light in the coop at night for a while to see if I could get the girls to start laying a little better than they have been. I looked for a timer to hook that to, but found a thing with 3 plugs on it, but instead of having a timer, it had a photoelectric eye that would 'see' when it got dark. When it got dark, the power would come on and the light inside the coop would come on. You could set how long you wanted the light to stay on, either 2, 4, 6, or 8 hours after it came on. Since it gets dark about 4:30 in the afternoon, I set it for 4 hours. Now the chickens go in the coop at dusk and the light comes on and goes off by itself. Same with the water heaters (I have two) and I don't have to do anything except keep the feeder and waterers filled. I LOVE IT!!! There is a thread on here about this with pictures but they used lamp parts to make it.