We are in Michigan, some years it is VERY COLD during the winter. Not sure of
your location, so you might not need to do things our way to still keep your tanks
open for drinks.
First thing is we barn the horses at night. No one is outside at night. This helps
us be able to close up the tanks to hold in any warmth, keeps the cold wind
off the water.
Husband built wooden boxes to drop the metal water tanks inside of. The wooden
sides are pressboard or plywood, just so they are solid. 2x4 framework inside
the boxes allows sheet styrofoam insulation to fit between outside wall of box
and outside of tank in the box. The tank is half covered on the top, so only
one end is open for drinks when the animals are outside. We use ONLY sinking
style tank heaters, so horses can't touch or play with them. Heater is under
the covered end, with cord coming out the fence side of tank where horses
can't reach cord or play with it. The half cover on top is screwed down tight
so horses can't open it or flip it off the box.
We only plug in the heater at night. The open half of tank is covered nights with a
second piece of wood, cuts off any wind. This lets you use cheaper night electricity,
and there is NO CHANCE of horses getting shocked by a malfunctioning heater
running while they try to drink. Heaters seem to go bad for no reason, get to
leaking electricity so horses get a shock touching nose to water, because horse
hooves ground him. Horse is VERY easy to shock, they feel even the tiniest bite
so they quit drinking from that tank!! Now you are in trouble if this problem is not
noticed, impaction colic with not enough liquid intake. Our tank heaters are totally
unplugged during the day.
I usually only NEED to plug the heaters in when temps will get below 25F during the
night. Mostly just putting the cover over the open end, will keep the tank ice-free
overnight and all the next day. We top tanks off daily, so we keep an eye
on water consumption. We KNOW what is "normal" daily amount they drink daily.
Drinking much less or tank dropping water levels a lot, means there is a problem.
Not drinking enough means I have to do other things to get horses drinking enough
that I don't have colic problems. Water dropping sharply can mean a leak in the
tank or some equine comedian playing in the water. Either way, I NEED to know why
the water levels have suddenly changed with this group of horses so I don't have
a problem to surprise me.
We use the metal tanks because they can tolerate the heaters. Lots of folks use the
plastic tanks with screw-in heaters. I had a Rubbermaid tank that caught fire from a heater
that snagged on the side! Burned to the waterline!! So no heaters in any plastic tanks
at this farm.
We think that the insulated wood boxes save us a LOT in electricity because we don't
need to run the heaters so much. Running the heaters at night, is cheaper than day usage.
We don't get any "shy drinkers" with them never getting bit by a bad water heater, so
I don't have to worry about colic issues. Popping the covers on or off each AM and PM
only takes a couple seconds, and you check the water anyway to make sure it is open,
ice-free before letting the horses out.
Topping the tanks off daily, keeps the water level high for easy drinking. Some horses
don't like putting heads down inside the box or tank for drinks. I am willing to do stuff
that keeps my horses drinking as much as possible.
We have dedicated, GFI outlets, buried wires beside each tank location for plugging in the heaters. Any
of the tank heaters will draw A LOT of electricity. The further the wire runs from the circut
box, means you lose fractions of power to supply the heater. The heater will run longer,
wear out faster, because it can't work at full capacity when heater is WAYYYY out far from
the circut box. Using extension cords is also a power drain, especially if the cord is a small
gauge wire, like 14-16-18 sizes. The lower the number, means the heavier the wire inside
the cord, which means the easier the electricity flows to the power user, like a heater. I only
keep 12 gauge extension cords in the barn for any kind of use. They are not cheap, but safer to use.
Using those high number gauge size cords, means electricity is not running full force, so heater keeps
trying to get more. These light gauge cords CAN OVERHEAT, get hot, start burning plastic ends
with constant demand by the heater trying to warm up water. You might even be able to FEEL the heat with
your hands on the plugs or cord. Heat means it COULD start a fire at either end of the cord!! Scary thought!!!
