This may help some of you with freezing water tanks/buckets

J

JadeWisc

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After reading so many stories on here recently with people struggling to keep thawed water avail to horses I thought I would see if I could find any tank heaters/de icers avail in the UK.

Being frozen solid half the year we truly rely on them and they are life savers. I think it is a wise investment for many of you even if you only have to use them a handful of times each year. The trouble is that I had a heck of a time finding any online source for a product like this avail in the UK?????
Seems odd to me considering you do get quite cold every year and have had some especially bad winters recently. I did manage to find a ton of these on EBAYUK but they all seem to ship from the US so I would make sure the plugs will be adaptable to yours or that a convert is safe at this wattage beofre you purchase.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?LH_Av....co.uk/i.html?_nkw=Tank+de+icer&_arr=1&_rdc=1


If anyone on here knows of somewhere in the UK that sells these products I think it would be nice if you put the link or source up here too as that is obvioulsy the best option to get is as local as possible.

If you do not have elec close to where your tanks are I strongly suggest moving horses and tanks temporarily to an area where you can do this when you get these deep freezes predicted. ( if possible of course) It is well worth the initial effort imo. and I am sure many of you would find these products a god send.

I have good luck with the floating tank de icer but if you feel your horses may pull it out or play with it I suggest the submersible drain plug option. My horses never mess with mine and I have never heard of anyone personally having a safety issue using these
 
Thanks JW, I didn't even realise such a thing was available. The trouble is, this kind of weather is so unusual for most of the U.K. that we're all caught on the hop by it. I'm managing with a kettle to defrost the tap, and carrying buckets, very low tech but not too bad...!
 
I bet that if anyone in the UK is selling them they are making a killing right now.
I also thought that if any of you were able to find these and share a tank with liveries you could share the expense of the unit to offset cost even more seeing as you would not use it that often. I also use heated buckets for my mini who cannot reach my stock tank and I went out this morning and it was thawed temperate water even having been left out all night in -18C
 
I had a look at them (although can't find anything in UK) but my horses aren't near elec nor is it possible for me to move them near to a source.

Humphing water barrels from bath to car to horses is it for the winter.
 
The only problem with solar is that sun is unpredictable this time of year. That is a good option to try though and the price looks right for an experiment in function :)

Good find!



And as for what else we do to cope.....

Besides good warm boots and clothing all you really need to cope is a good shovel/snow blower , access to a snow plow to keep large areas cleared, salt to melt ice or grit sand for traction, and making sure in advance your watering system is well insulated and protected from the elements. I am lucky that my horses winter area is very close to my house so all of my water piping is inside my home to stay heated. I just have to be sure to drain my hose after each use or it will freeze solid and be useless.

Ample good quality hay must be stockpiled as there is NO forage whatsoever here in the winter. All of it is covered in snow and ice. A minimum of a field shelter needs to be provided and most healthy horses do well here with only the above mentioned and out 24/7 with no rugs.
 
If you're handy you can make a bucket sized version with an electric light bulb. Basically you need a wooden box with a light fixture in the bottom of it and a hole in the top large enough to set a bucket into. Build a support for the bucket so it doesn't rest on the bulb, line the sides, top and and bottom of the box with insulation (styrofoam works in a pinch) and seal it well. Fill the bucket up below the level of the box, plug in the light bulb and voila, DIY bucket defroster. :)

For pipes you can get heat tape which wraps around and plugs in but they also need to be insulated and protected from wind. Leaving the tap dripping a TINY bit can also help if it's not too far below zero.

Remember though, things like heat tapes, trough heaters etc suck power so they won't be cheap to run. Winter is an expensive time with horses and most places in winter countries are set up for it, with gravity taps, electricity run out to fields, insulated barns (you would be hard pressed to find outside stabling in anywhere that gets cold - there's a reason they're known as "American barns"!), heavy machinery for snow clearing, huge hay storage barns etc. It's never NOT been cold in places like the Northern US and Canada so horse keeping has adapted accordingly - there's nothing "wrong" with people here that they're not prepared for Arctic living!
 
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