Winter water

[Mominis]

We've never been fancy and have always just done plain old buckets. But with last year's terible winter fresh in my mind, I've been thinking of going with heated buckets this year. Our barn charges $15/month extra for them, but $30 (2 horses) is a small price to pay to know my horses will drink well all winter long. I have been looking at insulated buckets, but I don't like the cover thing that they all seem to have. I'm not sure Shake would want to drink out of something with a floating lid, heck, I wouldn't either.

So....what do you do?

 

[targetsmom]

I use heated buckets on most of the stalls but I have a couple of minis that I just don't trust with electic cords. For those, I use home-made insulated buckets that are just carefully chosen buckets that fit inside one another and I add a sheet of closed cell foam insulation in between. One outer bucket is the kind that hangs over a fence with the hanger part removed. The inner bucket for that one is stuck and I use it all year around that way. The other thing I do is top off the buckets at bedtime with warm water. Even without styrofoam on the top the insulated buckets have no more than a thin layer of ice on top in the coldest weather that we get here in CT.

For the heated buckets, I love the ones that have space in the bottom for the cord so you can use them year around.

I used the regular insulated buckets for my big horse in his boarding barn and had no trouble with the styrofoam. But of course, that wasn't a mini and Target is VERY sensible and trustworthy!

 

[~Lisa~]

I have a couple of those insulated buckets and like them. Never had a problem with someone not drinking usually just took a day for them to figure it out.

 

[normajeanbaker]

We got heated buckets 2 winters ago. After going through the past 2 winters with them, I will never do another winter without them! My horses drink more through the winter, I dont have to keep lugging hot water to keep buckets from freezing, etc. I LOVE them, as do my horses! They are worth the purchase price, especially if you have the cold winters like we do here in Maine.

Jen

 

[Mominis]

Thanks for that, guys. Looks like I'm in the market for two heated buckets!

 

[Leeana]

We do the heated water buckets, the blue ones from TSC. I have the smaller/medium size for stalls and the bigger ones for the pastures. They are great. The only thing that I hate about them is they are a pain the dump, as you have to fool with the cords and unplugging them...plugging them back in.....I HATE that...I have so much patience but that is the one thing I dread.

What we do, to keep the electric bill down, we only plug them in when needed. So, we may only plug them in a couple hours a day to unthaw them if need be, not around the clock 24/7. But that is easier for me since I do not board, and the barn is only a short walk from the house.

 

[palsminihorses]

We also use the heated buckets. I like the flat-back ones for the stalls.

Pam

 

[Matt73]

This will be my first year with heated water buckets and I can't WAIT!!!! I'm tired of tempering water with hot water two, three, and four times/day in the winter months

 

[muffntuf]

Ahh wow they will only charge $15 a month extra - trust me they are not making any extra money off of you and it sounds like it would be peace of mind! The only thing I caution is they get skunky smelling in a week's time if in constant use.

I have 17 indoor heated buckets - trust me $15 is cheap, that's .50 a day!

 

[Miniv]

For indoor stalls and one small paddock we use the blue flat backed heated buckets.

For all of our big troughs outside we use the caged trough heaters. BUT Larry has a timer system connected to each of them. The timers are all staggered for three hour intervals so none of our 10 troughs are ON at the same time.......Our barn circuit wouldn't be able to handle it!

Just for the record, our electric bill doubles during the winter, even though we use a wood stove as our main source for heating our house.

 

[georgiegirl]

Heated buckets. Use heave duty extension cords as the buckets use a lot of electricity. Small extension cords are not good enough.

Be sure to clean them often as the heated water encourages algae.

I make sure there is no way to pull the extension cords into the stalls to be chewed on.

 

[~Lisa~]

We just got electric in the barn and got heated buckets in the summer while they were on sale

Before I did use the insulated ones in the barn and did have heated ones in the foaling stalls since that has its own breaker.

Also in our dry lot turn out but the one thing I learned is that it is important (at least for my horses) to have the heated water and regular water. Sometimes it seems the heated buckets do keep the water at a warmer tempature (meaning not just keeping it from getting ice) and most of my horses prefer to drink cold water. I have the 2 next to eachother in the turn out so they can choose and it is the water I break ice in that they usually drink more of.

Of course I am glad to not have to trudge out 2 or 3 times a night to the barn this year but I am guessing since I finally have them... it will be a warm winter here lol

 

[OhHorsePee]

We have both insulated buckets and heated water buckets. What we have noticed from our horses is they do drink better from the insulated buckets. We do not put the float in. When we tried one of them with the float and he would try to play with it and then end up getting bedding etc in their water. We always make sure we fill them in the evening and have, knock on wood, not had an issue. We will be adding the last two insulated buckets this year and do away with electric ones for the horses all together. Of course we will keep them just in case we need them for some odd reason but we are definitely insulated bucket lovers.

 

[Charlotte]

Wasn't that an ugly winter Mominis? Geez! I'm hoping for better this year for sure.

Although our barn is fully insulated and never gets below freezing, I use a few heated buckets in there for my picky drinkers. Cowboy's stall is right next to an overhead door and even closed down some air leaks around the sides (actually, I like this for ventilation reasons and all windows are cracked open even in the coldest/windiest weather) The cords are all outside the stalls..nothing for little mouths to chew on.

In the worst weather if the horses aren't getting out to move around I do feed them wet meals....just run warm water on their bucket feed.

Charlotte

 

[Mominis]

We clean Shake's bucket daily, so the alge shouldn't be an issue. His Nibs is quite indulged, as will be his 'brother' when he arrives. lol

Thanks for telling me what a pain they are to dump, Leeana. But, it's a small price to pay to have fresh water in front of him n hte winter. I always stress about water intake in the colder months.

Yeah, it was a witch of a winter! This year, I'm in a truck and not a sports car, thank goodness. But I'm still not 4 wheel drive, so I'll have lots of sand in the back.

Also, glad you guys told me that $15/month was reasonable. I was thinking it was a little bit high. Now, I don't feel so bad about paying it.

 

[Taylor Richelle]

I also use heated water buckets! The cords are a pain! So far none of my horses try to chew on them...So thats good! I would never go back to regular buckets in the winter ever again! I hated getting up everyday and taking a hammer to the ice that would be covering the water. We get very cold winters up here in Maine! Brr!

 

[wpsellwood]

We use the electric buckets here in colorado. They have a heated tub that maybe you could share between the two horses dont know how your stalls are set up or even if they are next to each other. Just a little tip, when I clean my buckets I take a 5 gallon bucket in the stall so I dont have to remove the bucket and the cord, then drag the cord and bucket outside to dump. Just makes it a tad bit easier.

 

[Mominis]

We use the electric buckets here in colorado. They have a heated tub that maybe you could share between the two horses dont know how your stalls are set up or even if they are next to each other. Just a little tip, when I clean my buckets I take a 5 gallon bucket in the stall so I dont have to remove the bucket and the cord, then drag the cord and bucket outside to dump. Just makes it a tad bit easier.

Ooooh! Very smart!

So, am I going to have to drill a hole in the wall of the stall for the cord, or how does that work? I think my boarding people will be unthrilled with my drilling a hole in anything (except my wallet, lol!)

 

[MindyLee]

I would LOVE to use my heated buckets BUT my electrical is shady in the barn so I have to do it the old fashion way.

$2 TSC 5-gallon buckets for everyone!

Everyday twice a day, rubber maloting the ice out and putting fresh water in morning and night.

I personally hate that I spend more time bundling up to go do chores then the actual time it dose take to do the chores!

LOL!

You would think after 2 winters here (this will be winter #3) I would have fixed the wireing in my barn by now!

LOL!

 

[Margo_C-T]

Like "wpsellwood", I also take an empty bucket(and a long-handled scrub brush)around with me when I need to dump, clean, and refill buckets. Also--I use the small(@ 2 1/2 gal.) heated buckets inside, the larger(5 gal.)ones in their outside connected runs, so I don't have to carry the heavy water(each gallon weighs about 8 lbs., you know!)back and forth when they are shut in at night during really cold weather, but can stay 'shut' outside on nicer days(so they can't simply use their stalls as the bathroom!)

If you read the info in the catalogs(I've ordered all of mine from livestock catalogs...Jeffers, Valley Vet, KV...no TSCs around here!), you see that these buckets don't individually pull a lot of wattage--though I know that if you have a LOT of them, the total could be high. I have 6 in operation in winter, plus one floating 1000 watt tank heater.

Another thing that REALLY helps is plugging them into a timer; it is especially helpful at managing the cost of operating the tank heater! I set mine to coordinate with my 'Time of Use' electric rates(my house is all-electric; for years, we heated ENTIRELY with wood to be able to afford to live in it...but about 9 years ago, my rural electric co-op began offering Electric Thermal Storage(ETS) heating units, and 6 years ago, when they offered one that would work w/ hot water baseboard units, and would install the system for free, and I could pay off the actual unit interest-free over 5 years, I opted in!) With use of these kind of units comes TOU electric rates....high during the hours of greatest use, lower during more 'off' hours. It does help...still, my electric bill triples or quadruples during the winter...so I try to do EVERYTHING I can think of to minimize use, esp. during the 'high' rate hours. Anyway...plugging the heated buckets/tank heater into timers is a BIG help! I use extra HD outdoor-rated extension cords, plug two buckets into each, so only 4 timers needed, including the one for the tank heater, which has its own plug, and an outdoor-rated timer, which I put under a waterproof cover, anyway! Best are timers that have 24/hour settings. I got mine at Walmart; they aren't horribly expensive, and most have lasted several seasons, at least.

I do think that the heated buckets *can* keep the water at a temp warmer than some like; using the timers, so that they aren't heated ALL the time, helps with that, in my experience.

Margo