Calling Canadians how do you stop your water from freezing?

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showqa

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Surely in Canada there must be a way of keeping their water troughs unfrozen - are they heated? If anyone knows, and anyone knows whether it's a compatible system with the UK, I'd love some info (prepping for bad weather again). Worry of my life, keeping the horses hydrated when we were in minus 12 for a week.
 
Sorry to disappoint, not a canadian - but certainly know about keeping water troughs free of ice having grown up in New England ;)

We used drop in water heaters which were plugged in to an extension. This kept the water from freezing too much (might get a skin on though in the coldest weather, but for the most part it was good.

For the stabled area, we had a 100 gallon tank that was insulated with clapboard siding and a layer of insulation inside (between the galvanised metal and wood) and then it was kept lidded with a tank heater in there too. We would use a milking pail to dip in to it to get water out to top up the buckets for the stables. However, the rubber buckets had to be emptied of ice...which was a job for a hammer!
 
Hey - thanks for that. Certainly given me some ideas.

Excuse me for being thick, but the heater was put in periodically or in it all of the time? Wonder if there's anything simlar that we could buy here. Would certainly be ideal in some of the weather we've had this year!
 
Well don't put salt in it like someone told my friend to do in Hartpury Equestrian college eek!

I had seen someone else say she'd heard of doing that on here.

Then my friend wondered why her horse was drinking loads !
 
You can get troughs with internal heating (also, 20 litre buckets for stables, cat bowls, dog bowls - I have heated pet bowls in the barn and the dog room)

...then there are floatation heaters, these just do as it says on the tin, float. (try looking in garden centres for pond heaters perhaps) I hate floatation heaters, I have one horse that used to pick his up and fling it!

...then there are heating units that sink to the bottom.

I could not manage without my trough heaters, but they aren't infallible, even my auto fill/auto heat troughs freeze up at -25C

Building insulation around troughs helps, especially if the wind hits them. I know someone who used to use a freezer as a trough, swore that the insulation worked.

I do know that farm suppliers have heated troughs available in the UK, they really are worth their money in effort saved. I will see if I can find the link.

http://www.delaval.co.uk/Products/CowComfort-and-farm-supply/Water-troughs/E1_E2/default.htm
 
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we have just had heated water drinkers put in! All the piping has heated cabling running along it with insulation (and metal cover anywhere horses can get their teeth round it)

Makes such a difference!
 
My mare was in quarantine in Canada, living out in her paddock at -40 odd! They use special drop in floating heaters, she was reaching over the fence and pulling out the heater from the horse in the next paddock, they noticed he was a bit dehydrated later that day and were about to call the vet when they discovered what the little minx had been up to!!!

From the pics I saw they have little heating emelents underneath a float and are wired up to the mains, you would have to fit an adapter if you got one as the voltage is different but here is a link to a supplier. I do remember the chap saying you could get propane heaters as well?

http://www.jefferslivestock.com/search.asp?camid=LIV&ss=tank heater&search-submit=GO

You could also PM Enfys on here she lives in Canada and I am sure will be able to get you much more info! Please let us know if you do decide to go ahead as I would be interested as well!!!

she got there just before me!!!!
 
Enfys, have you ever come across any which are solar powered? The fields at our yard are mostly at the top of the farm where no extension will reach!

I have seen one available here which was for a fishpond, but I'm not sure how effective it'd be on a deep, narrow metal tank...

(of course, it didn't help that the supplies to the tanks froze too:o)
 
The thing about trough heaters though, is they do require a lot of power so you need relatively long, sunny days regularly if you're going to run one off solar power. (A place I used to board rigged one up for a small tank - it worked but wasn't reliable on overcast/snowy days.) Having a big tank heater will also draw a lot of power so pretty much has to be on a mains source and will add to the electricity bill. Obviously everyone is Canada is used to that and it's not like there's an option anyway, but if you're using one for the first time you might want to keep it in mind.

For milder temperatures (Enfys can testify to the non-mild weather in Ontario this week, I'm sure ;) ) you might be able to get away with a milder, intermittent source of heat and really good insulation. Years ago we built a set up that was essentially a wooden box filled with insulation, with a hole in the top for a bucket and a light bulb fitting on the inside for warmth. It was for inside so not exposed to the elements but it did the trick.
 
Yes we heat the water. Lots of options. Electric trough heaters for larger troughs either floating (horses sometimes play with these), sinking or drain plug mounted. We also have heated buckets of various sizes, I use 16 gallon size in my individual paddocks - generally they need to be filled every other day, we cart hot water from the house. They have a built in thermostat, so are only supposed to be on when the temperature dips below a specified level which helps on the power bills. There are also the standard stall sized heated buckets. I have seen solar powered heaters. In my younger years we had a propane heater as we didn't have access to electricity. Allied precision and Farm Innovators are two companies that make various trough heaters and heated buckets. I have buckets from both companies and they both work well. It's hard to determine how much of our electricity bill is due to the horses and how much is just due to our shorter days in winter; the bills do tend to rise a bit.
 
showqa said:
Hey - thanks for that. Certainly given me some ideas.

Excuse me for being thick, but the heater was put in periodically or in it all of the time? Wonder if there's anything simlar that we could buy here. Would certainly be ideal in some of the weather we've had this year!
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We had longer days of extended cold than we get here in the UK (even in Scotland) so left ours running 24/7 til the threat of freezing was over. Enfys reminded me about the freezer thing - our outside trough was an old freezer (and massive one that probably measured 4' x 4' x 3' deep and we had the lid and hinges removed and then the water heater dropped in. We had ours as I recall sort of half way under the fence so that the element could be dropped in on the non-horse side so that they wouldn't grab the wire or heater. I can't remember now if we did this, but you could also cover the non-horse side with a bit of ply wood to again protect the electrical side from horses grabbing at it. I don't think ours ever did to be honest.

One of the first things I looked for when I got horses over here was a bucket type heater, and never could find one - so not sure where you would. But if you google you might find something.
 
Just marking my place in this thread, as we hope to be building our own house at some point, and my first priority before even where the house goes is how to stop the water freezing - can you tell I'm a bit fed up of carrying buckets after 8 weeks :rolleyes:
 
now_loves_mares said:
Just marking my place in this thread, as we hope to be building our own house at some point, and my first priority before even where the house goes is how to stop the water freezing - can you tell I'm a bit fed up of carrying buckets after 8 weeks :rolleyes:
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Can you get "gravity taps" in the UK? They're worth looking for if you're building from scratch. They effectively "store" the water in pipes underground so it doesn't freeze and work on a sort of vacuum pump faucet. I have no idea whether or not it's possible to work something like that from the plumbing systems here (outside lines in Canada are buried under the frost line - judging from the number of burst water mains this year and last, I suspect that's not the case here!) but it's a good way of ensuring you always have running water. We had them at intervals in the barn with hoses to the buckets in the stalls. Obviously it doesn't keep the water from freezing once it's in the tub/bucket though.
 
Most of our stables have automatic waterers, water lines are buried below frost level and then run up inside the building. Inside water lines are run on interior walls, rather than exterior walls. Many of our outdoor paddocks also have automatic waterers along with various heating arrangements and of course hydrants which drain the standing water to below frost line when not in use. Hope that helps. We still get frozen water lines from time to time and it's generally a bit of a nightmare as the pipes burst/leak when the ice thaws.
 
now_loves_mares said:
Just marking my place in this thread, as we hope to be building our own house at some point, and my first priority before even where the house goes is how to stop the water freezing - can you tell I'm a bit fed up of carrying buckets after 8 weeks :rolleyes:
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Suggestion if I may, IF you are building stables/barn, include a pump room!
It only needs to be a small room that can be insulated where the tap/s can be located, and hoses can be rolled up and stored, sacrificing a bit of space is well worth it I promise you. Oh, and you can get heated hose pipes by the way, have you seen them?

My pump room is only 11' by 5' it is heated 24/7 in winter (thermostatically controlled heater) because it is there that all water for the property is drawn from the well (no such thing as mains water where I live!) if my pipes freeze then the entire place is without water.
Our house is only about 50 years old but it speaks volumes when all power and water goes to the barn first and then to the house!:)
 
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I'd second the advice above and then make very, very sure everyone keeps the door closed! :D I shared a barn once with a woman who seemed pathologically unable to close the pump room door in the winter and I got very good at patching split pipes! She's lucky I didn't solder her to death!
 
showqa said:
Surely in Canada there must be a way of keeping their water troughs unfrozen - are they heated? If anyone knows, and anyone knows whether it's a compatible system with the UK, I'd love some info (prepping for bad weather again). Worry of my life, keeping the horses hydrated when we were in minus 12 for a week.
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We have trace line heating on my yard. One of my liveries works in fire prevention and this is how they protect the hosesetc from freezing in extreme weather. They have also ensured that the water troughs are insulated and traced heated. Big job but worth it!
 
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