I am looking for a way to fill a horse trough located 125 feet from a frost free outside sipget. In the summer I can run a long hose from the sipget to the trough, but in the winter a hose will freeze. I do have access to an outlet at the watering trough. Does anyone have a source for a heated hose? My thought would be plug the hose in, wait a hour or so, then connect up the hose to the house and let the water run. Once the trough is full shut the water off and unplug the hose from the outlet.
The problem is locating a hose that has an electrical heating element in it. Since the trough is 125+ feet away cost is a factor.
thanks in advance for your help.
RickS
Replies
Don't know the answer to your question, but what are you doing to keep the trough from freezing once it's filled? Bubbler came to mind.
You could wrap the water hose with one of those anti-freeze coils used to melt ice on roofs. Seems like I've actually seen some made for pipes.
Farm supply sells trough heaters. They're a submerged coil, lay in the bottom and keep the algae happy.
Joe H
Get on horse.
Point head end South.
Say "Giddyup"
Joe H
Repipe your spigot so that (by changing valves inside) it can be fed hot water.
happy?
A bucket will work also, depends on how many horses you have though :-)
When I raised goats I had a similar problem. I left the water trickle enough to not freeze up, and channeled the outflow to my neighbors driveway so he could deal with the ice..LOL
Up here in the "Horse Capital of the World" KY, they have heated hydrants at the waterer...underground pipe toeach station.
I'm thinking foam insulation around the hose, with a constant trickle, and the end submergerged in a heated tank. When a hose is submerged it should have a vacuum break at the house. If your spigot has a plastic cap on top it is good to go.
You would probably want 1/2 inch hose (or less) to maintain a faster flow in the hose to to prevent icing, and I would put some type of flow restrictor in the hose so the spigot valve could be full open. A metal disk with a hole the proper size drilled in it should work.
A heat tape could be put on the horse tank end if the water gets too cold and freezes.
You could use heat trace.
http://www.nelsonheaters.com/
Or The poor man method--------- put a tee in the hose by the source hook up to air compressor, after filling trough shut water off & blow out water with air.
Then who cares if the air freezes.
I may be missing something in your post, but it would seem you are seeking a high tech solution to a low tech problem.
Connect hose to bib, fill trough as needed, disconnect hose, drain hose. Leave hose on ground for next use.
It takes precious little slope for a hose to drain by gravity. Unless the ground goes through significant dip of some sort in the 125', the tiny amount of water left in the hose can freeze without any real damage to the hose.
As long as the water / ice does not completely fill the hose cross section and make a plug, whatever ice is present will melt rather quickly when you begin to fill the trough. A little creative routing of the hose could quickly solve all of the drainage problems.
The water in the hose will not freeze during the filling operations, it is too warm and moving entirely too fast.
Save the outlet at the trough for a de-icing heater / bubbler if needed.
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
I have thought of the using gavity to drain the hose, but this is a significant dip the hose must travel through. I do like your idea or re-routing the hose, I will have to give that a try.
thanks.
Raise hose through / over dip via a post? cable? or would horses run into it maybe?
Luck!
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
Actually, I liked the compressor idea better than my own.
I see compressor hook ups for yard irrigation all the time so you can blow em out in the winter
think i'd fix it once... pex tube for the hose/water line so if it does freeze it will survive... a back flow valve so the valve drains after use... and 125ft of the lowest wattage heat wire you can get think i've seen stuff thats 2.5watts per foot ... think i'd use 3/8 pex so i could pull the wire and the water line thru a 5/8" waterhose ... don't know if it'd work or not...... i'd prefer to have it all underground then i think you'd be safe
2 thoughts on this one -
1. I'd rent a trencher and bury a line if you'll be doing this for very long and this is a possibility.
2. Be careful w/current and horses. Even the smallest stray microcurrent can spook a horse and he won't drink there any longer. My friends horses can sense everything.
buried mine about 3' for about 100' , the end comes up in a run in shed and is inside a concrete culvert pipe about 4' above ground .
On top of the pipe i have a "neilsen heated bowl " mounted .
The supply pipe is !" hd poly and has aa heating tape from the bowl till it pases into the ground a short distance , naturally the 110 power is run alongside the pipe underground
Wiyh the tank system i found one of them was always dumping in the tank i think when they fall asleap standing at the tank
Another trick is to throw the hose in the water after filling , it cant freeze if the water isent frozen I have ran the neilsen heater about 15 years now with very little trouble ,and i don't stable my horses year round aand they never get sick even when it hits 20 below f