Water in tank is shocking horses when they drink....

[Daffytoons]

Because this seems to be an ongoing issue for many people, I wanted to start a new thread to offer a solution and what worked for me.

I live in Michigan and have had an extremely wet fall and muddy winter, so far. Ever since I plugged my tank de-icers in this winter, my horses stopped drinking from the tanks. Here is my story.

I have been dealing with stray voltage this year ever since I plugged in my tank de-icer (Rubbermaid tank with de-icer that runs through the drain hole in the bottom of the tank). I noticed that the tank was not being drank from, and I have a shallow spring in one of my pastures that has a lot of foot traffic around it since then. I have had the same tank set up for over 30 years and have never had a problem until this year.

A multimeter (very sensitive voltage tester) showed 0.45 volts when I tested the water in the tank. It doesn’t seem like much, but it sure does to my horses! Touching the water myself didn’t produce an effect on me, but I was wearing rubber boots. I didn’t want to try it barefooted.

I poured over Google searches on how to fix the problem, and the only thing I could find was to drive a ground rod into the ground near the tank and then run 8 aug copper wire from the ground rod, over the edge of the tank, and run the rest of the length of copper wire down through the water tank and weigh it down with a brick. I did that, and it did reduce the voltage in the water to a degree, but it was still showing 0.325 volts.

So I set up a 2nd tank with a de-icer in another pasture on the other side of the barn. Brand new tank, brand new de-icer, brand new 25’ outdoor-rated extension cord. To my dismay, the new tank registered 0.9 volts as well as 3 amps!! YIKES!!

I had our power company’s agricultural electrical engineer come out to look for stray voltage. He could not find any from their end where power comes in at the pole. We played around a bit with breakers and such and found that if I kept BOTH tanks plugged in, it would try to even out the voltage, and both tanks would average 0.3 volts. But that still wasn’t good enough for me. Horses and donkeys still wouldn’t come near the tanks.

So, I took the newer tank that I had just set up and moved it way over into yet another pasture that was powered by a completely different grid. The initial power was coming from my mom’s property, and I hauled it over to my own property. Got the tank set up, another brand new longer extension cord, filled the tank, and plugged it into a brand new outdoor GFI that is a dedicated line for my pool pump. It pulled 0.8 volts. UGH!!!

I went to Tractor Supply and purchased three items: A cage de-icer (the kind that hangs over the edge of the tank and rests on the bottom of the tank), a 16-gallon heated bucket (the kind where you can see the heating element at the bottom of the tub), and a flat-backed heated 24-qt. bucket (the kind where you cannot see the heating element because it is inside the walls of the bucket). The cage de-icer pulled 0.8 volts, the 24-qt. tub pulled 0.7 volts, and the flat-backed bucket pulled a full volt!! And this was from a completely different power source than the initial tanks!

Now what do I do??? We live in Michigan, and at some point the spring where my horses and donkeys have been drinking will eventually freeze over once we get hit with a polar vortex.

Back to the drawing board. I went back to Google. Page after page after page after page. New keywords, trying to find pages that addressed this issue that I haven’t already read. Somewhere on page 12 of a Google search, I found a blog post. It said that to fix a stray voltage issue with tank de-icers, to use a 3-prong to 2-prong adapter with a ground eyelet, plug the de-icer into the adapter, the adapter into the GFI, and run a 12-gauge wire from the eyelet to the ground rod that I had already installed. I couldn’t wait to try it!!

I went to Ace Hardware first thing in the morning, spent $1.69 on the adapter, and headed out to the water tank. Got it all hooked up, and now the moment of truth! ABSOLUTELY NO VOLTAGE!! The multimeter read 0.00 volts. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Our power company ag engineer was scheduled to come out again that day to search further for stray voltage, and I told him what I did. He took his equipment out there and tested the water on the tank with is equipment. NO VOLTAGE!! He loved the setup, took several pictures, and asked me to forward to him the blog post that I had found so that he can share the solution with other properties with similar issues.

Since then, I set my 2nd tank up with the same adapter, another newly installed ground rod, and again, NO VOLTAGE!

Here is a link to the blog that I found: http://blog.henrymilker.com/2014/10/…ing-truth.html

I was able to entice my horses and donkeys to bob for apples in the water tank, so I’m hoping that after a few days of this fun game, it will convince them to actually drink from the tank. I will keep you all posted!

[ShotenStar]

Well Done You! Stray voltage issues are always a ‘female canine’ to resolve.

star

[clanter]

@ShotenStar

Well Done You! Stray voltage issues are always a ‘female canine’ to resolve.

star

well that was not a Fix, it is a patch as the leaked voltage source has not been located …really need to check all wiring as the insulation does degrade as it ages

[goodhors]

We also had free astray voltage last year. Since we DO NOT keep heaters plugged in when horses are using the tanks, it was a real problem.

One touchy mare would bob, up, down, trying to drink. In a burst of inspiration, i connected pulsing of fencer to her timing of head bobs!

So it was the fencer providing the shock. The wooden posts were saturated with water, allowing current to travel thru them even with insulators on the hot wires. As you say, not much voltage, but enough that horses got bit trying to drink. Not an easy cure because you can’t leave the fencer off or horses lose respect, start trying stuff with the fence itself.

I ended up putting the tanks in an insulated box up on a double layer of stall mats, then putting enough stall mats around the tank box so any horse drinking is keeping all 4 hooves on the mats to be insulated from the dirt. It worked! Even Miss Picky got real drinks now, not head bobbing at the tank anymore!

We are also in Michigan, central area. It does get really cold at times. We built insulated wooden boxes with metal tanks inside. We have tops half covered for smaller opening to drink from, lose heat from. All our horses come in at night. We then cover the open top of tank and plug in the heaters to run overnight, heating water above freezing. In the morning tanks are uncovered, unplugged while horses are out. Insulated boxes keep water unfrozen, no ice unless it gets very cold, single digits. Even then it is just icy edges, not ice covered before night when horses go in the barn.

We first started the unplugging idea when the tank heater got a hairline crack leaking voltage. No horses drinking then either! After finding cracked heater, we figured “Even if heater cracks again, there is no power if not plugged in!” Water stayed unfrozen in the insulated boxes without daytime heater running, so the unplugging idea also saved power costs.

We use metal tanks because one horse pulled the plugged in tank heater partly out, set the Rubbermaid tank on FIRE!! Passing neighbor saw the flames on outside tank, stopped and threw snow on tank to put it out!! That tank burned to the waterline, charred some fence rails, melted the heater cord. So no tank heaters in Rubbermaid tanks at this farm! Neighbor was a hero!! We would have lost the barn if tank had been any closer to the barn instead of front paddock corner, close to the outside outlet plug. This was before we thought of using the insulated boxes.

Tank heaters here are sinkers, cords fastened down under the covered top side. Even a diver horse can’t reach the heater cord in tank to pull it out with the tanks filled daily! Cord comes out the backside of insulated boxes, not reachable by horses.

You might check wooden posts if you have them, as the source of stray voltage in the dirt. Our ground is heavy clay, saturated with water from fall rains still. Posts are soaked too, which can make them conductive, though you never think that of wood. Our non-hot wires are hot now! We have good grounding, 3ea spaced out 8ft rods on the fencer, ground wire clamps not corroded. Yet we still have the leaking electric issue.

[sophie]

Thank you so much for this thread! Voltage in the heated tanks is a current (!) issue at my barn.
My mare refuses to drink from the tank even though some horses are less sensitive to it seems. I will forward this thread to my BM.