Hi all! Ok, another ‘northern climate’ question for all of you that live where you need hot water for many months in your barn.
What kind of hot water heater do you use?
We were told at Lowes to look at ‘mobile home’ water heaters-are there ‘outdoor’ water heaters for barns or shops?
Electric or propane?
Brand?
Yays or nays?
We are looking around for one but need some serious direction from those that have used them.
I have the Eccotemp L5 portable outdoor water heater. Runs on propane and a D battery. Haven’t replaced the battery yet in the 2 years and the propane tank lasts me about 3-4 months with me using it 4x a day for meals plus washing here or there. Perfect when the vet needs hot water or for any use! The water gets to be about boiling HOT where you will burn yourself. Best $100 I ever spent!!! :yes:
Kiwayu’s solution sounds like a good one.
But honestly, in 10yrs I’ve never had a “need” for heated water in my barn.
Even through last winter’s Polar Vortex.
Stalls have heated buckets & there’s a frost-free hydrant inside the barn.
So horses can be watered in all sorts of weather.
Unless the power goes out, I’m Good to Go.
Thankfully my longest outage was “just” 11h & bottled gallons from the $1 Store got me through.
I can also use the 50gal barrel that is my outside trough. It is kept liquid with a sinking de-icer & stays that way long enough for me to draw at least 4-6 buckets if the electric goes out.
When I had to do twice daily, 20min warm soaks for one horse I just filled a large thermos from the house tap. House is 250’ from the barn.
My only need for hot water in the winter is for soaking feed for my two oldsters. Over the last few years, I have tried several methods, and have found the easiest way to transport the hot water from the house to barn is with a 5-gallon bucket with a sealable “spout” lid like this one: http://www.lowes.com/pd_211831-1152-50750_0__?productId=3689756&Ntt=bucket&pl=1¤tURL=%3FNtt%3Dbucket%26page%3D1&facetInfo=
I have a utility sink in the garage (that gets hot water directly from the heater - so it is WICKED hot!), so it is simple to fill the 5-gallon bucket in that sink and not make a mess. The lid/spout makes it easy to carry to the barn without sloshing out, and the spout makes it easy to pour without getting it everywhere.
In the previous house, that did not have a utility sink, I had to either fill it in a bathtub, or stretch the kitchen sink sprayer aaaalllll the way to the floor to fill it. It wasn’t so much fun then, but it worked.
If I needed hot water for winter bathing, I would probably go with a propane unit like Kiwayu has. No sense spending $ to heat water if I don’t need it 24/7.
Kiwayu, thanks for the firsthand info.
I think we will actually need to do an electric, after talking with installers, contractor, etc. we use propane in our house ($$) and would need to drop a 2nd tank to supply the barn, as well as run new lines, etc. etc. Our electric bill is very low due to where we live, so electric it is! So, let me edit this to ask:
anyone use an electric outdoor water heater?
We have an electric water heater and it works quite well. Being able to run water that’s lukewarm vs. 54 degrees helps the bucket water stay thawed a bit longer. Being able to truly hot water is also useful at times.
We also have a propane powered instant water heater that we bought for bathing horses and that will do a similar job with less efficiency.
Where we are located, we have been told we cannot do tankless water heaters either due to the cold weather-you would need 2-3 in a row to heat the water enough to temperature…
How cold does it get where you are? I used to visit a place in the mountains in WV that was a barn converted into a house. They had a tankless heater that was located in the unfinished basement…really a half basement due to barn’s location on a hill. It was where the pigs used to live. So, not extremely insulated down there. It is pretty cold/snowy up there, and that heater worked so much better than the traditional heater they used to have. Water was plenty hot enough for showers, which is probably warmer than I’d use for horses 99% of the time.
Interesting. Coldest would be -30F or so, at night.
We spoke with a mechanic (and store owner) in the area that installed hot water heaters and tankless, who told us we couldn’t put just one in-we would need at least 2-3 tankless water heaters in line to heat the water hot enough,…
I need to ask around more…anyone use a tankless (electric) at their barn?
-30 is about 30 lower than our coldest night here. I would be sure about the appliance you install.
Keep in mind that the water line to the heater can never freeze either.
David
Mountain horse they are not pulling your leg or anything.
I am in NY and we use 40degF for the coldest temperature of the water coming out of the ground for calculating purposes, you probably use something a little closer to freezing. That means if I want tepid water (85degF) you need a 45 rise (you would need say 50deg rise) at whatever your flow rate is. If you want sort of hot water (100degF) I need a 60deg rise (you would need 65deg rise) at whatever flow. Etc. The higher the temperature rise the more power/fuel needed to make that rise.
This can also be accomplished by running the water heaters in series, like you have been told.
My experience, having my barn 150’ from my house, is that it is not worth it to have a water heater in the barn. The cost to heat a space to keep the water heater from freezing, etc makes the inconvenience of having to bring hot water from the house the few times I might need it a none issue.
http://www.sstack.com/Stable_Bathing-Necessities/Insta-Hot-Equine-Portable-Washing-System/
What about something like that?
I know a few people that have that and love it. That’s what I want for my new barn when we build it (hopefully in the next few months). I don’t think I’d use it enough to warrant a “real” one.
That might be what they were talking about as far as a propane water heater?
We have an Insta-hot and that’s what I was referring to. They don’t create Hot water in the middle of winter but they make the water pretty warm and that’s usually enough.
David
[QUOTE=mountainhorse;7719283]
Interesting. Coldest would be -30F or so, at night.
We spoke with a mechanic (and store owner) in the area that installed hot water heaters and tankless, who told us we couldn’t put just one in-we would need at least 2-3 tankless water heaters in line to heat the water hot enough,…
I need to ask around more…anyone use a tankless (electric) at their barn?[/QUOTE]
Ok, that is colder than it gets in WV, even on this mountain. I would think electric tankless would take too long to heat up, but I’ve only had experience with gas tankless.
I appreciate the thoughts all. Will continue to update as we research. Anyone in the ‘northern’ climates who has a barn with a H20 heater please comment! 
http://www.sstack.com/Stable_Bathing-Necessities/Insta-Hot-Equine-Portable-Washing-System/
I wish this would work (<3 the price and portability), but it would not provide hot or really warm water, which is what I need.
This unit would probably work for you.
Clearly it is not a portable unit and would require hard wiring, etc. You would also have to install it in a location that it would not freeze.
You can not run endless items on it at once but 2pgm will probably work OK for you.
Thank you Tru, we are looking into that one. Anyone with more experience in water heaters, know why that unit wouldn’t work? We cannot seem to find any. If not, that will be it. I’ll update what we decide.
[QUOTE=mountainhorse;7729755]
Thank you Tru, we are looking into that one. Anyone with more experience in water heaters, know why that unit wouldn’t work? We cannot seem to find any. If not, that will be it. I’ll update what we decide.[/QUOTE]
That unit requires 112 Amps and 27000 Watts of power. Wowza!! In my barn going up in a few weeks I’m only going to have a 60 Amp service panel. Some old houses don’t even have 100 Amp service! Check your panel… you may not have enough power to run it.
Wow, I iwould not have enough power for that!
Just as an option not knowing your set up, we put in an outdoor faucet onthe side of the house, that runs off the house hot water heater, so about 50 ft from the barn (but outdoors) is hot water. Very useful for cleaning, soaking, compresses, etc. And no need for a hot water heater in the barn (but only helpful if you are close).
Always interestedin new ideas so keepus posted!
