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 Dr. Ruth
Posts: 9891
    
Location: Blissfully happy Giants fan!!! | Something is shocking my horses. We have now tried to completely different water heaters and while they keep the ice off the water, I think it is shocking them. I know the first one did-I watched it. We tried the new one last night and, while it did the trick, I watched the horses and they were afraid to go up to the water this morning. I pulled it out and they should drink now but this is frustrating!!!
Any advice?
We have one of those large size heavy duty plastic tubs. Is it the type of tub that is the problem? |
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 Water Weight Barbie
Posts: 6829
Location: Oz, Kansas | I had a heater go bad in my stock tank a few years ago & stupid me put my arm in it but luckily I was standing on a rubber stall mat wearing rubber boots. I have the rubbermaid tank with the heater in the bottom & once I switched out the heater he went back to drinking out of it. He wouldn't come within 5' of it before that. Before I could get it fixed we would just bucket water out of it every few hours so he had fresh water. |
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Dr. Ruth
Posts: 9891
Location: Blissfully happy Giants fan!!! | These are brand new heaters. Like we took them out of the box and used them the one time and this is happening. And our water tank isn't metal if that helps.
eta: my husband has also plugged them in then stuck his hand into the heaters both times and didn't get shocked. And when I told him I thought it was shocking the horses he put his hand in the water then and nothing happened to him.
Edited by sassy&tessa 2014-01-06 8:57 AM
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"Heck's Coming With Me"
Posts: 10797
Location: Kansas | We're still breaking ice. Everything we've tried has left a current in the water and we finally gave up. Even had an electrician out who thought he had solved the problem through grounding.
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 Go go girl
| Had that problem when our fence charger wasn't grounded enough. You can put your hand in and not feel anything, but the horses still can. I am sensitive to electricty and could barely feel a buzz when I stuck my whole hand in the tank. When we grounded our electric fence charger better the problem was solved. So it might not be your heaters, it may be something else traveling through the line.
Edited by MrsHound 2014-01-06 9:17 AM
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Expert
Posts: 1314
Location: North Central Iowa Land of white frozen grass | Its coming from your power company. Its called stray voltage. A lot of dairy farms up here in Iowa have had it and it will ruin a dairy herd. Its being back fed thru the earth to your water tank. Your horses are grounded to the earth much better than we are because we wear rubber shoes. |
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"Heck's Coming With Me"
Posts: 10797
Location: Kansas | sassy&tessa - 2014-01-06 8:56 AM These are brand new heaters. Like we took them out of the box and used them the one time and this is happening. And our water tank isn't metal if that helps.
eta: my husband has also plugged them in then stuck his hand into the heaters both times and didn't get shocked. And when I told him I thought it was shocking the horses he put his hand in the water then and nothing happened to him.
I think the current is not a constant. Two of our horses wouldn't go near the tank so I brought a good ole guy horse from another pen who drank for quite a while, then suddenly jerked back. Plainly he had received a shock. |
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 Thread Killer
Posts: 7545
| I don't like tank heaters for this very reason. Our horses would NOT drink out of the trough when the heater was plugged in. I put my fingers in the water to test it myself. I didn't get shocked the way you think you would, but I did feel what I believed the horses were feeling. A little pin prick type of shock. Not terribly alarming or dangerous, but unpleasant. We opted for heated buckets and have had 0 problems. They are the big blue ones they have at TSC. They are a little pricey, but worth it. We bought our first 5 or 6 years ago and it still works - and has lived outside for the last 2 or 3 years (we use it for our llamas now). The horses have a newer one that is at least 3 years old that works great too.
I probably sound like a heated bucket salesman, but I don't know how we survived in the many winters without them. The only downside I can see is that they are kind of small. I think ours are only 15-20 gal. But we only have two horses so it works out well for us. |
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Water Weight Barbie
Posts: 6829
Location: Oz, Kansas | sassy&tessa - 2014-01-06 7:56 AM These are brand new heaters. Like we took them out of the box and used them the one time and this is happening. And our water tank isn't metal if that helps.
eta: my husband has also plugged them in then stuck his hand into the heaters both times and didn't get shocked. And when I told him I thought it was shocking the horses he put his hand in the water then and nothing happened to him.
I stuck my arm in the tank & didn't feel anything. But when I tried leading the horse up to it he would lock up & try to bolt so I knew there had to be a problem. We had just rewired the barn so I knew the outlet was fine. My vet said that if I would have grabbed the heater I would have figured out real quick the element was bad, that is if I lived to see another day. You might want to check your outlet and/or extension cord if you're using one. |
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  Ms. Potato Head
Posts: 9162
Location: BFE, Idaho | They are a needed evil. My guy hates them, shock or not, so I only plug his in about 4 hours a day, break ice also, it seems to work, he has a huge metal tank.
My daughters mare got shocked once and if it is floating in there will not drink so she waits until I take it out.
Seems to work, winter is a pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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 Star Padded Honey
Posts: 8890
Location: NW MT | it might be the grounding yet. Several yrs ago, we had that issue - new heaters, but horses acted like it was "getting them" even tho we felt nothing. Folks on here recommended a few things & this is what we do now: We do have the tank inside an insulated "box" w/half of the top covered to help hold the heat. We have a DEEP copper grounding rod next to it & a COPPER wire going from it TO the heater itself - wraps around the metal. We also put the tank (it is a rubbermaid one too) up on a pallet to get it off the ground - that also seems to help both in less freezing & shocking. No problems anymore w/it all like that. I was told back then that the copper wire from the grounding rod & touching the wire on the heater was the big key. |
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 IMA No Hair Style Gal
Posts: 2594
| This probably sounds crazy, but what about building an insulated water tank?
No more worrying about shocking your horses or melting your tank...and it cuts down on the pull of your electricity.
Here is a how to:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/SolarHorseTank/SolarHorseTank.htm
I got the idea from buying insulated water buckets for my barn because I don't want to risk my horses chewing on the cord or burning my barn down. |
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Dr. Ruth
Posts: 9891
Location: Blissfully happy Giants fan!!! | Thanks everyone. I think the amount of time we deal with freezing water is less than a week a year. Two days this week and then it won't freeze for at least a week after that. I have never had this issue before so this is new to me. |
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Folks on-line