Livestock Water Heater
 

I know several of you have stock that you have to keep water to during the cold months, so I need ideas. I'm sick of these electric water heaters that I have to buy new every year. I don't know why but they keep shocking the stock now and then. Sometimes they don't and sometimes they do. No pattern to it and can't figure out why. I've had electricians check the system and it works fine when they're done, until I notice horses eating ice the next day when the water is juiced again.

I want to build an LP tank heater and I know it can be done cheaper then the $600 they want to buy a ready made system. Give me some ideas.

bubba, a water trough that goes in the ground works good for cattle.:tu:

Thought about sinkin it in the ground but then I can't drain it to rinse it out. I have to do this at least weekly or the moss takes over.

depending on the size of stock tank and on whether or not its permanent ...i dug a 8"x5' hole under a few of our temporary round tanks and put a heat lamp under em pointing up. just an idea but it keeps our 700 gal tanks out on stalks de-thawed.

my uncle does the same thing in his horse barn but he puts in a piece of 8" pipe with a cap on the bottom to keep it water proof and permanent

i forgot you are prob on flat ground. can you mound the dirt up around it so it cant freeze and then drain several feet away. the ones we use around here holds alot of water though.

What I have right now is a 400 gal round tank. If I can figure out how to build a propane heater I'm ponderin the idea of puttin in a concrete tank.

what possibly running a cheap pump to circulate water through some form of lp heating device.

my idea is to have a pipe which the water pumped through that is heated by something like a lp branding pit kinda thing

just circiulate it the flowing river dont freeze unless it gets REAL cold


there is always antifreeze :w2:

Bubba, do those heaters have GFI's on them?

I have an extension cord that I have used with a GFI in it. The problem is that it always kicks off even when there is to small a current moving through it to even know it's happening with using a voltmeter.

I know it's not right, but so far nobody has figured out why and after 7 years, I'm tired of fightin it. Have never had any problems with anything having feedback except these heaters. Typically if there is a short or bad ground it's easy to tell with the welders, they splatter all over the place and I don;t have any issues with this.

Any links to the heater your using? I'd put in some direct burial cable with a gfci breaker controlling the outlet mounted to the post next to the tank. How many feet of ext cord are you using?

put 4 D rings on it stick it in the ground and when you want to drain it to wash it out hook chains to the D rings and get a front end loader and pick it up problem solved :rocking:

The potential of 3500 pounds of water and trough weight sloshin around off the front of the tractor in the middle of winter with every splash of the water turning to ice everywhere it spills.

I'd hate to see the tank heavy duty enough to hold that weight on any amount of D-rings trying to lift it.

Back to how to build a propane heat source. Rural Coop electricity is high dollar stuff anyway. Actually, maybe even a kerosene/diesel fueled heater.

Come on, I know we got some others members here as cheap as I am and has built somethin like this before.

get a piece of 8 or 10 inch pipe, set it in the bottom of tank. cut whole in side, weld pipe to hole in tank stick pear burner in it?

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make sure the pipe has a cap on the end

what about just plumbing lines from it to a house water heater and back to the tank? or using that style element in another form...like stuck in threw the sides of the tank in a few places. could set it for 110 degrees and have hot tub for begle to play in.

dang i wish i knew what this thing was called i just thought about it it's almost like a heat lamp but you can stick it in water and it'll hang on the side with the heater part in the water of course and heat it that way

Not what I wanted, but so far this heat lamp in the pipe sounds like the easiest route here.

Back when my grandfather was alive he used to have cattle and he made a tank inside a tank that he used to burn wood in to keep it thawed. Worked pretty good. The inner tank had a cover, door and small stack on it.

we have put in alot of water tanks for farmers around here....have to have a pad built up a little, then put a good base of crusher run rock down..when we put the waterline in, 3/4" waterline, we put a piece of 8 or 10" diameter plastic corrugated around it....leave them stickin out of the ground bout 6 or 8 inches......dont put dirt inside the corrugated pipe, as the heat from the earth keeps it from freezing....set the tanks down over them and plumb them in...the tanks have 2 water holes on top that are bout the size of a basketball...they have balls in them that the stock push down with their nose to drink...then when done the balls seal back up....this keeps ice out....the tanks dont have any source of heat, except for what the earth is providing...out of all the ones we have done, none has frozen....the tanks aint cheap tho, but seem to be worth it....also keep in mind, im not sure how this would work in illinois, but in georgia where im at, it gets down to low teens here and no probs so far...i kno it gets colder up there :c:

Little late here.... but you could weld like a 4 or 5 inch pipe through the bottom of the tank, than take a small pipe and drill holes through it to make a burner, or use old bbq parts. That should be no more that 50 bucks. Than you could get fancy and get like a murphy switch and a silenoid valve to auto shut off at a certien temp.

I dunno just a thought

There is no late here cause I'm lookin for next year now so I have time to build whatever I'm gonna use. Keep em comin.

Or shoot take apart an old gas water heater, should have everything in it. Burner, therostat, pilot, pilot saftey and regulator