I am really excited about these. My mare hates drinking from the heated blue buckets and is drinking great from the bucket warmer bucket. It does not freeze at well below freezing barn temps!!! I just ordered 4 more and am looking forward to the reduced cost on my electric bill.
They were a LIFESAVER last year. With temps going as low as -20 in western Massachusetts, we were having an AWFUL time trying to keep fresh water for 2 horses that live outside with a run-in with NO access to electricity, so heated anything was out of question. We were lugging hot tap water in huge jugs 2x day and that was not working.
I ordered the bucket insulators without high expectations BUT, amazingly, they worked to keep the water ice-free (or nearly ice-free) in the worst of temperatures. Granted, the buckets were inside the run-in, so they were well shielded from the wind, but I was still really surprised that they kept the water from freezing (or if it did freeze by morning, it was just a light coating, easy to break). I didn’t keep track of exactly what temperatures they worked at, but it was impressive. (Granted we were still putting some warm water in once or twice a day.)
Not to hijack, but do you think these would work on buckets used to feed soaked hay cubes?
[QUOTE=snowrider;8490283]
if you are very cheap you can get the same effect but putting one bucket in a larger bucket and filling the space with spray foam. Which is $2 a can. Just make sure they can’t get at the spray foam to eat it.[/QUOTE]
I might do that for a beet pulp soaker.
Absolutely designed to fit flat back 5gal buckets and has insulation on the bottom so my guess is that they work best when hanging but would be effective on any bucket
Thanks for this thread. I ordered one this morning from Smartpak.
Happy riding,
Jessie
thanks for thanking…honestly surprised I had never seen or heard of them before…live in new england and buy from SP regularly but admit I ignore the promotional e mails
What do you guys think about this for a bucket that the horse likes to poop in?
My new friend likes his rubber bucket as his main drinking source, but has started to poop in it.
Would the top [that I can’t see clearly on the Smartpak website] keep the poop out… or just make a bigger mess to clean up?
[QUOTE=Angela Freda;8498382]
What do you guys think about this for a bucket that the horse likes to poop in?
My new friend likes his rubber bucket as his main drinking source, but has started to poop in it.
Would the top [that I can’t see clearly on the Smartpak website] keep the poop out… or just make a bigger mess to clean up?[/QUOTE]
it reduces the surface area of the top and is washable, you could try
Ordered one myself for typical winter freezing conditions.
Hoping I love it!
Also have a heated bucket for extreme freezing conditions :yes:
The top can either be folded back behind the bucket, or it can be completely removed.
[QUOTE=vxf111;8498433]
it reduces the surface area of the top and is washable, you could try[/QUOTE]
I wonder if it could be put on backwards so the hole to drink through is at the back and the cover would be where he is most likely to poop, towards the front of the bucket?
For today we left the rubber bucket [with a small amt. of water in it to ease cleaning] for him to rub on [if that’s why]/poop in… and the heated one will then be behind it and less accessible for him to back the trunk up to for …erm… unloading as it were, but still where he can reach it to, you know, get a drink. He likes to dunk his hay as he eats it which was messy, but fine. But dude you can’t dunk in your pooped-in-bucket. Blech!
He’s a really nice horse… if this is the worst he does…
But why? I did a search and can not find any threads about this…
The only one I ever had that pooped in a bucket was a broodie who was being crowded by her foal… once weaned all was right…
ETA I did a Google search and found some COTH threads… why is it easier to Google then search right on COTH??
ANYWAY…
So why do they do this? I do not think it’s him being a jerk… but others are less convinced…
The half moon over the top of the bucket covers roughly 1/3 of the bucket, and is attached to the back via a wide velcro strip. I would image that if you were willing to put a velcro tab on the front, you could change the position of the opening cover. There are slits in the side of the short side over-skirts to accomodate the handles of the bucket. The material is 600 denier, in case you are considering sewing or gluing the velcro onto the front.
Got mine with my SP order today.
It seems very well made and heavily insulated.
Glad I bought it, even if the temps are back in the 50-60’s here again.
I bought a couple based on this thread and am a big fan! I add a couple gallons of hot water at night check and they have no ice the next morning except on the coldest nights. I do wish they were waterproof, my guys are messy and the top cover will get saturated and freeze.
