Good morning all. I ordered the heated buckets for each stall this year and though we have an outlet (GFI) at each stall, the cord is still too short to reach. Who has used extension cords with the buckets? I have read you should not. Any idea what rating for the cord if you have? Makes me nervous, but I don’t see us rewiring all the outlets this year to move them all of two feet :(.
We use very short and properly rated extension cords on our heated buckets. The outlets are about 3’ too far for the cords on the buckets to reach. I will have to look at the cords to see what they are, but I know they are heavy duty appliance cords.
I had an electrical engineer look at it and he said we were fine.
12 guage extension cords are good for any heater. 14 would be fine for individual buckets. Spend a few extra bucks for the higher quality cords.
Don’t use a light duty cord. You can usually find cords made for appliances or window AC units in 3-5’ lengths.
Thank you all! I am now on the hunt for 12 gauge 
I am a bad person who uses extension cords with heated muck tubs. However, I do not stall my horses, the tubs are just in their run-in, so if it did burn itself up, they could leave…unless they are very very stupid.
All of this is why I informed DH just the other day about how I want the barn totally rewired with a new electrical service, including a plug for each stall.
12 gauge wire is the same as what is in your walls for a 20 amp circuit. Absolutely no issues with using a reasonable length extension cord of this size.
I agree that extension cords should be fine, and be sure to get outdoor cords.
might want to do a test run as some GFI breakers will not tolerate the cycling of a immersible heater
I’ve used 6’ outdoor-rated extension cords for 10yrs now.
I ran the cords on the buckets out the feed opening in my stalls grilles to GFI outlets above the stall doors.
My geldings don’t mess with the length of cord they can reach - enclosed in wire coil anyhow - but if you worry about that you can drill a hole in the stall wall so no cord is reachable by horsy lips.
[QUOTE=clanter;7839433]
might want to do a test run as some GFI breakers will not tolerate the cycling of a immersible heater[/QUOTE]
The OP is talking about the hanging buckets with the built in heaters.
My barn is all GFI and I have no issue with my heated buckets or the submerged heater in my trough.
