My barn owner is afraid of the heated buckets but my horse’s water is frozen an hour after she gets into her stall. Has anyone come up with some sort of a bucket that keeps water from freezing…at least for several hours?
http://www.ranchcity.com/product.cfm?productID=185
http://www.homesteadersupply.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3,29&products_id=1541
Maybe?
From most ghetto (and cheapest) to least ghetto, but all effective:
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Find empty muck bucket. Stuff with hay, straw, manure, newspaper, basically whatever you have available. Nestle water bucket into this homemade insulation.
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Use duct tape to wrap bubble wrap and/or insulation and/or closed cell foam around your existing bucket. Consider combining this with the above solution.
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Buy a Coleman cooler and put it in the corner of your horse’s stall. For added insulation, COTH member Daydream Believer recommends going to the hardware store and buying a square of insulation foam (thicker and heavier than regular styrofoam). Have it cut slightly smaller than the opening of the cooler. The horse will learn to dunk the insulation to reach the water.
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Build an insulated bucket using spray foam, wood, and a slightly larger bucket. See post #6 here (and read the rest of the thread while you’re there for other ideas, like the Wild Angel Cozy):
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4649304#post4649304 -
Buy an insulated bucket. They’re usually around $80-$100. Example:
http://www.horse.com/item/insulated-bucket/E000395/
Do insulated buckets actually work in really frigid temps?
[QUOTE=hundredacres;5284127]
Do insulated buckets actually work in really frigid temps?[/QUOTE]
Define frigid. At some point, you just have to accept that you’re dealing with a substance that freezes at 32F. IME a good insulation system might get you down to 10 or 15 degrees of ambient temp. Depends on the bucket’s exposure to wind, heat, sun, etc.
I just ordered one of the Wild Angel Cozy’s, I will let everyone know how it works!
[quote=Ju
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Wow, awesome! I might have to try something like this for the outside waterers! :yes:
[quote=hundredacres;5284127]Do insulated buckets actually work in really frigid temps?
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Like the AP said, it depends. Depends on what “frigid” means, depends on where the bucket is (in a barn versus outdoors), etc. I find starting with hot water works much, much better. Where I am, temps sometimes dip into the teens at night and stay below freezing during the day. They RARELY get into single digits at night and actual temps below zero are basically unheard of.
My buckets are in shedrow stalls right now and rarely have any ice over them, even when the temps are down in the teens. They are dumped and refilled with warm / hot water every day. When it’s very cold and/or when I start with colder water, they will develop of a thin film of ice on top – one that can easily be broken by the horses. On those days, my non-insulated buckets in the same stalls wind up with 2"+ ice on the top. In my situation, I can count on the horses having water all night 99% of the time with the insulated buckets. In colder climates, I think the insulated buckets would at least keep the water from freezing for at least a few hours longer than plain buckets in the same situation.
Also, at least one of the links posted didn’t seem to include a float for the bucket. I think the float is somewhat key, whether it is plastic or styrofoam.
thanks, 
the buckets do plug in (hence the hole plug at the bottom), but, they are temperature controlled. the heater only comes on when it reaches a freezing temp. then its something 260 watts! add 2 buckets and thats 520 watts every time the heater needs to come on… thats HUGE!
with the wind chill out here, we can get as bad as -20 or more
with the bucket cozy, the water stays warmer longer, causing less heating from the heater.
they cost about $30 to make. we are hoping the cozies will save us a lot more on that on electricity bills.
these are very sturdy. my yearling mule had both front feet on it and didnt break it.
here are a couple of pictures during construction.
[IMG]http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g305/BearFooteFarm/inside1.jpg)
[IMG]http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g305/BearFooteFarm/inside2.jpg)
we did put a screen on before we tacked the insulated bottom on. the reason is because last year there were some spider nests in where the heater is. we plugged the cord hole with steel wool.
Thank you so much for the additional pictures! I might have to get DH and FIL to start on these! 
I have one of the Wild Angel bucket cozy’s- it works well. The barn help fill it with hot water when they leave (it is one of three buckets of water in the stall, the other two are just plain buckets) and it cools slowly and does not freeze overnight. It was 8 degrees here last night. The horse drinks from it very well. He kind of likes it when it is warm water. In fact that is an “old horseman’s” trick to get a horse to drink - try warm water rather than right out of the hose.
Mickeydoodle, was it still unfrozen in the morning? On line they cost $38.00, well worth it if they work. I tried 3 different things today. I happened upon a guy at Home Depot that you dream about and whatever they pay him, it is not enough. I went in with my bucket and explained my problem. He took me around the store telling me what he was thinking. First he cut up a long piece of hard insulation and dug out a small square in one piece and laid down three handwarmers in the square. he then told me to cut out a circle in the next piece and put the bucket into the hole but sitting on the piece with the handwarmers. My test started 3 hours ago and the water is still warm on my back deck. The temp is 21. Next he showed me this thing called a bucket jockey that a paint bucket fits into. It has pockets all around, inside and outside and you can put hand warmers in there. I will test that tomorrow. The thing I did at the barn was to take a “metal” bucket and fill it with hot water and tape 2 hand warmers to the bucket with insulation tape. He reminded me that the metal bucket would conduct the heat from the hand warmers more easily. I will report back. The metal bucket is certainly easy…I hope this works; I do not sleep well knowing my horse has nothing to drink all night long.
Correct me if I am wrong but doesn’t hot water freeze faster than cold water?
smokey1428- To bring out my nerdy chemistry side, it it thought that in some very specific cases, hot water can freeze faster than cold water. It depends on a lot of things, such as bucket size and shape or the amount of dissolved or evaporating gas in the water. In most general cases, cold water freezes faster. Let’s say that the temperature of the water coming out of the faucet is 5C and the hot water you put in to the bucket is 45C. In a normal case like this, it is highly likely that the cold water will freeze faster because it is already close to 0C. As long as the hot water is not boiling or very close to boiling (and evaporating water molecules and taking heat energy away from the liquid), you’re ok.
The Wild Angel Cozies do work. As long as your horse will leave them on. Out of three we have one horse who is respectful of them. The other two regard them as clever intelligence testers and love to prove that they can remove them in five minutes or less.
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[QUOTE=smokey1428;5285366]
Correct me if I am wrong but doesn’t hot water freeze faster than cold water?[/QUOTE]
I’m no chemistry nerd, but I do remember that the molecules in hot water are already excited, and therefore quicker to react to the temperature change, so do, in fact, freeze quicker than cooler water.
But, as it pertains to horse buckets, that only gives you a skim of ice on the surface. The bulk of it does seem to stay warm quite awhile.
[QUOTE=SmartAlex;5285652]
The Wild Angel Cozies do work. As long as your horse will leave them on. Out of three we have one horse who is respectful of them. The other two regard them as clever intelligence testers and love to prove that they can remove them in five minutes or less.[/QUOTE]
:lol::lol: yea, this is why I wont even bother. mine would have them shredded in five minutes or less, for sure…
You’re wrong. 
[quote=SmartAlex;5285655]I’m no chemistry nerd, but I do remember that the molecules in hot water are already excited, and therefore quicker to react to the temperature change, so do, in fact, freeze quicker than cooler water.
But, as it pertains to horse buckets, that only gives you a skim of ice on the surface. The bulk of it does seem to stay warm quite awhile.
[/quote]
As I posted on another thread recently, hot water can freeze faster than cold water only under very specific, extremely rare circumstances. Those circumstances are NOT being in water buckets at your barn. Hot water does not, as a general rule, freeze faster than cold water.
Jumpin horses…your bf is a genius…keep him. nice looking holders, and saves on electricity.
I may try and make some this winter.
I also use the insulated muck buckets that eklitika linked…which are great prices. I paid 95 for mine.
I tested them outside here in NH.
Filled them up to where the insulation stops, so I didn’t expose the lip of the 5 gallon bucket.
With the lid(the float that comes with them), they stayed unfrozen for 2 nights and days, without the lid only one night.
This was in temps hovering around 0 at night and 10 during the day.
Currently I use both heated and insulated buckets.
the insulated ones are in the barn, where temps get to 10 degrees and stay that way for most of jan and feb.
Some of my horses are real slobs, and the buckets were just too hard to keep clean so we switched back to electric for those horses.
I am in NH, and we know cold…like things frozen from now till March.
no ice in the morning, still water
