# Scary Story! -kinda long



## Spamela (Nov 23, 2013)

So the day before yesterday I noticed some weird pawing marks by the donkeys water tank, and I thought mmmmm... thats weird. Then yesterday morning I noticed they hadn't eaten any of their hay given the night before( now I KNEW something was wrong)

So for some reason I was just lazy yesterday and I didn't want to go all the way to the hydrant to get water for the chickens so i just dipped a bucket into the donkey tank. I got shocked! The water heater in the tank was shorting out!

My poor donkeys hadn't been able to get a drink for at least two days without getting a shock! I brought over buckets of water and between four of them they probably drank 25 gallons if not more. Then the poor things started shaking (not sure why but I think it might have been because they were not able to eat the past day and their stomachs were empty, then they got a bunch of cold water)

Well they are ok now. The reason we didn't notice the water going down was because my husband and I were alternating who was doing chores and we just thought that the other one was refilling it I felt so bad, especially for my momma donk who is still nursing...:sob It reminds me of "Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink"

So I just wanted to share, so if anyone else ever sees any pawing marks by the water tank to investigate it, I know I will from now on !


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## rhaige9 (Oct 31, 2010)

We just went through this. Water had gotten in between the two plugs on the extension cords. The Ground prong was also broke off of one of them. We had just switched to a larger tank, but I thought that surely more water should have been gone. I sat and watched one horse come up and look like he really really wanted a drink, but only touch the tank and paw at it. We replaced the tank heater, the end of the cord, and made sure everything was dry and wrapped in electrical tape to keep moister out. Ours went about a day and a half without water.


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## froebeli (Feb 14, 2012)

All outlets outside should be on a ground fault circuit interrupt (GFCI) breaker or if not that then install a GFCI between the electrical device in the water and the cord. Very inexpensive and can be found at any hardware store. 

These are the plugs that have the button in the middle that pops up and stops the electric circuit if the item in the water malfunctions. We sell water garden supplies and recommend these plugs to anyone that does not already have one. Could save your life or the life of your fur companion.


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

This is why I never have the heater on when the horses have access to the tank. We run the heater at night, tank is in an insulated box, so it stays unfrozen all day, even in very low temps.

I have had a couple heaters try to die, but only made the water electric, so horses could not drink. One horse got VERY leery about drinking from the insulated tanks, before I started unplugging the heaters. Took her a couple years to get over that!

Having the heater on at night is cheaper electric here, get the night rate. And with heaters unplugged in daylight hours, there is NO chance of getting shocked when drinking. Our horses all get stalled at night during the winter months, have buckets in there.

You just never know when a heater will croak or be giving off shocks until YOU get bit.

Get the lower number gauge electric cords if you MUST use an extension cord, so a 12GA is a good size, wire cord. Means the wire is bigger for easier electric power travel. I wouldn't use a 16GA at all, that is pretty light wire inside the cord. The longer the cord, the lower the amount of electric power reaching the heater, so that can burn out a new heater in a year or less. Heaters draw a LOT of electric power!

Better to plan on running buried wire next year and putting in a GFCI outlet right by the tank to plug in the heater. Extension cords are not made for continuous use outside exposed to water, sunshine and getting run over by vehicles.


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

froebeli said:


> All outlets outside should be on a ground fault circuit interrupt (GFCI) breaker or if not that then install a GFCI between the electrical device in the water and the cord. Very inexpensive and can be found at any hardware store.
> 
> These are the plugs that have the button in the middle that pops up and stops the electric circuit if the item in the water malfunctions. We sell water garden supplies and recommend these plugs to anyone that does not already have one. Could save your life or the life of your fur companion.



Agreed. We do have GFI's on our barn outlets and we did have a trough heater short and it popped the GFI and shut the power off. Exactly how it's supposed to work.


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## rhaige9 (Oct 31, 2010)

My extension cord was plugged into a GFI.


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

rhaige9 said:


> My extension cord was plugged into a GFI.





rhaige9 said:


> The Ground prong was also broke off of one of them.


If the GFI or the extension cord didn't have a ground, that could be a problem.


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## mulemom (Feb 17, 2013)

We have had that happen twice with poly tanks with the thread in heaters-never with a steel tank with a submersible. Have one mule and one old mare who still refuse to drink out of a poly tub. Very good idea about the GFI-maybe manufacturers should add that to their directions.


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

I loathe the electric trough heaters. The suck power like crazy and they seem to have a high failure rate. It's never a problem having a defective one replaced but you have to chip them out of an ice block first. 

I've only had two that shorted out but after the second, I switched to aluminum troughs and propane heaters.


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## CIW (Oct 2, 2007)

Along side of your trough pound in a grounding rod. connect a heavy piece of copper wire to the rod with a lug. Drape the wire over the side and down to the bottom of the tank. If you have a steel tank a wire can also be connected directly to the tank.
GFCI's are a good thing but take some amps to trigger. You can have a slight short that will just give a small shock to the animals when they want to drink but not trip the breaker. Just enough to hold the off from drinking.
I do have a mule that seems to have an attaction to the ground wire and will pull it out so I put it in a piece of pvc that hooks over the edge and down to the bottom of the tank. He left it alone after that.


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

CIW said:


> GFCI's are a good thing but take some amps to trigger. You can have a slight short that will just give a small shock to the animals when they want to drink but not trip the breaker. Just enough to hold the off from drinking.



Not true if installed properly according to my electrical engineer husband. It only takes a few microamps to trigger a properly installed GFI breaker. A microamp is nothing the horse or you would even feel.


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## plowhand (Aug 14, 2005)

Ain't never had it happen cause of the heater, but not many folk use tank heaters around here. One day I kept hearing loud thumping noises...after a little I pinned it down to my 4 mules fighting over the water trough!...went to see what was wrong....water smelled like cheap liqour and was cloudy....drew out a bucket and set it the barn in case I needed a sample....I had 4 tipsy mules....A few months later the neighbor that lives behind me....his buddy was busted for running a liquor still.....first time for everything.


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## brody (Feb 19, 2009)

I'm glad they were ok - that'd make me feel badly too


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## Spamela (Nov 23, 2013)

So it happened again. New heater. But I'm sure I caught it right away this time. And this time I could barely feel the shock except around a hang nail.

But we know at least part of the problem now.
For the record, the tank and heater are in a barn plugged directly into the outlet. No extension cord. The problem was/is while the socket that the heater was plugged into had the three holes for the ground. The wiring itself in the barn (from the 30-40ish) only had the two wires and no ground.

So my hubby figured out the ground situation. But we still don't know what caused the stray voltage. We have had a tank heater in the barn with no issues for 3 years.

We are going to have to do some more investigating cuz something just don't smell right.:hohum:


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## Spamela (Nov 23, 2013)

actually i misunderstood... apparently there was a ground but the clamp on the ground cracked and was loose so sometimes it would ground and sometimes it wouldn't. Whewwww, glad we figured that out.


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