Re: stock tank warmers

In article
<c7e96ad9-d3c9-4041-9b95-15eee1361856@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Dana Compton <dana.c@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Ok.... the barn insisted I have one of these things.... (mutter
mutter) so I procured one (mutter mutter) the water trough looks
like it does when there isn't one in it (I'm tempted to mutter again
but I guess that would be overkill). So how do I know if the stupid
thing is working? Is it normal to have a *** of ice on the top?

Usually no. Depends on the heater, though - floater, or submerged? How
big a tank? What's the wattage of the heater? Submerged is more likely
to ice up, but unless it's ridiculously undersized, wattage-wise, in a
huge tank, or extended periods of sub-zero cold, there should be, at
most, just a "skin" of ice on top. Dunno why, but floaters tend to be
less prone to icing, in my experience, but if it gets cold enough, they
might let a skin form, although they'll usually keep a clear area around
where they're floating, no matter how cold it is (Assuming you're not
talking about below-zero temperatures for days/weeks at a time...)

As far as telling whether it's operating, plug it in, give it 2-3
minutes, and "tap" it with your fingers. It should be at least warm to
the touch, if not outright *HOT*. *DO NOT* leave it plugged in for more
than about 3-5 minutes unless it's in the tank, though - You're likely
to burn it up if you do.

not cold enough for it to be on that much (Oklahoma). Thor is now
afraid of the trough. But this is the horse who actually shied at his
own shadow one day, I laughed so hard I almost fell off. I swear he
can see electrical fields, he can spot an electric fence 100 feet away
or hear it. He was fine with the thing being in the trough and plugged
in until it came on apparently.

Check the grounding of the heater. I've seen heaters put anywhere from
15 to 90-ish volts (as measured by putting a probe from a meter into the
dirt, and the other probe into the tank) in the tank when they don't
have a good ground. Dunno about anybody else's sensitivity, but I
personally can dip a finger into a heated tank with a bad ground, and
feel it down to about 17-18 volts (not usually enough to do any damage,
but doesn't feel anywhere near pleasant, either) and horses are known to
be more sensitive than most humans when it comes to electricity.

Just had this problem last winter over in Montana - Noticed that the
water level in the heated tank (a real monster - 8 feet in diameter, and
three feet deep) wasn't dropping like it should have been - 5 horses in
the pasture to drink it down, but during a cold-snap that took us from
about 40 degrees to sub-zero literally overnight, then stayed below zero
for about 6 days, they all stopped drinking.

Not long after noticing that the water hadn't dropped significantly from
when we topped it up the day before, I saw both Popper and Shadow
approach as if to drink, but both of them showed very clear "I want it,
but I'm scared of it" behavior as they walked up - Snuffling, snorting,
head-tossing, the old "hairy eyeball" routine, really hesitant, reaching
toward it then flinching away, the "stretched out" stance and "giraffe
neck" that says "I want it *REALLY* bad, but I don't want to get close
enough to actually take it", and the capper: when they finally did work
up the courage to try to take a drink, a screamingly obvious jerk/flinch
reaction the instant they touched the water, followed by backing off a
few steps, only to repeat the whole thing again a few minutes later.

Once I saw that, I pulled out the meter, took a read from tank water to
ground, and found 63 volts of AC. Pulled the heater as defective, coaxed
everybody up to get a drink (convincing them that it wasn't going to
bite them took some doing...) and between the 5 of them, they sucked
down better than 8 inches worth in just a few minutes. Once they were
done, dropped a spare heater in the tank and plugged it in. Read 58
volts of AC. Pulled that one out, and replaced it with a freshly bought
unit, and read 62 volts. OK, three different heaters, one barely used,
another brand new, and ALL of them are defective? I'm thinkin' "NOT!"

Which led me to checking the outlet. (A GFCI unit in a supposedly
weather-tight box, since it was mounted outside) Sure enough, found that
the wire and screw of the ground connection had turned into a black-ish
green mass of corrosion that was just about as useful as a screen door
on a submarine - When I hooked up the meter so it was jumpered across
the hole for the ground pin to a clean section of the ground wire, and
read for resistance, it was higher than the 99K-ohms the meter could
display. It should have been close to zero ohms. Trip to the hardware
store for a new GFCI socket, re-wire the box, and take a resistance
reading like before - close enough to zero ohms that the difference
didn't matter. Plug in the heater and check the water. 0 volts. Problem
solved. Took a couple more days before the four-legs completely trusted
the tank again, but at least it wasn't "biting" them every time they
tried to drink...

I always wondered if you could heat a house just by piling composting
manure up to the roof on all the sides LOL. If the walls didn't fall
in it might work... I know I think about weird things.

Sure, it'd likely work just great - For a few months - until the walls
rotted away along with the manure... And the smell likely wouldn't be
anybody's idea of a picnic, either...

--
Don Bruder - dakidd@xxxxxxxxx - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd> for more info
.