[2SCHorses]

Wow, not sure where to post this.

So, I moved to a colder climate and I need an insulated water tank. I can't build for crap, and I don't have a lot of tools. I have never been handy. I see a lot of people building insulators for stock tanks. I am wondering if I can just buy an old chest freezer and put a foam cover over the top and have that as an insulated water tank. Does anyone else use a chest freezer or do cold climate people build the tank insulators? It seems cheaper for me, personally, to get an old chest freezer as I would have to buy tools to build the tank, and then building it would take me probably forever. I don't have a barn with electricity. The horses live outside in a 25 acre pasture. There's a 2 sided 12x12 shed on skids for them so they have a shelter from the wind. The water tank is near the house and I run a hose from the house to the tank. I just need a way to keep it insulated so it doesn't freeze. Any other ideas, or does anyone use this method?

 

[JCnGrace]

I've never seen one used for a water tank. I think it would probably be pretty hard to dump old dirty water and rinse out before refilling with clean water.

I use a 100 gallon Rubbermaid water trough and drain plug heater. I promise you running an underground electric wire and installing an outlet near your trough is money you will be glad you spent.

 

[Chevaux]

My initial thought is that it will not be durable. Granted it is designed for handling freezing but it is not designed for horses pushing, striking, rubbing up against it -- the outside shell is fairly flimsy that way and I suspect the interior frame of it isn't built with that in mind either. Also, as JCnGrace said, it won't be the easiest thing to drain.

The Rubbermaid trough is a good way to go. I use a big one in the summer. In the winter, though, I just haul the water to the back door of the barn and put it in a couple of round rubber tubs (I think they hold about 10-15 gallons of water each); with two horses you might be able to get away with just one. If the water freezes in them before the horses drink it, it's easy enough to flip them over, bang the sides, etc., to get the ice out -- they are quite tough as well as flexible and withstand horses bouncing on them.

 

[Acadianartist]

I thought of doing the same thing. But as other posters pointed out, it would be hard to drain. I don't know where you live or what kind of cold we're talking about, but you're probably going to have to run a tank de-icer out there. So you need a design that takes into account an electric cord running out of it.

Since you say the barn doesn't have electricity, I assume you can't run it out to the shelter either. Are you going to run electricity to your water trough from the house to plug in a tank de-icer? You might be able to find a water trough that would fit inside the freezer. Add some extra insulation around the trough. It will still be a pain in the rear end to lift out and drain though, but you could build a platform so the water trough doesn't sit all the way on the bottom of the freezer. Another place to put insulation, and easier to lift out the water trough if you need to do that. Get one with handles if you can!

My horses have access to their stalls (dutch doors stay open whenever they're out) where they drink water from their heated water buckets. They won't drink water outside anymore once it gets too cold, so I just put away their outside water trough in the winter. Saves me a lot of breaking up ice. Couldn't live without my heated water buckets.

 

[Alder]

We used a chest freezer as a water trough for a while. It worked well, there was no problem tipping out the water to clean it, it survived the horses and the height meant our rascal horse couldn't get her feet into it and muddy it up. However we never used it as an insulated tank, we used the tried and true break-the-ice method for winter water.
We don't use it now, mostly because it didn't look good in the pasture!

 

[beau159]

If you are in a truly cold climate, honestly, I don't see how you would keep any water trough from freezing without some sort of heat source.

Even the heated waterers can freeze up when it's really cold. Insulation alone won't cut it. And you don't want to have to dink around with frozen water during a blizzard -- over prepare so you will be good to go in those situations!

Can you run a heavy duty extension cord from your house to the barn? Or to where you are going to have your water? Heated water buckets can be a pain because they are not very large and you have to fill them often but they will keep the water from freezing, and will do the trick in a make-shift situation.

You'll also need to bring your hose inside each time you use it, to keep it from freezing. Yes, draining it properly is important but if we're talking REAL cold, you'll have problems with the hose freezing up on you.

 

[Dustbunny]

Can you run a heavy duty extension cord from your house to the barn? Or to where you are going to have your water? .

This would be my suggestion. If you run a hose you should be able to run an electrical cord and plug in a tank heater. Personally, I prefer the floating type..

 

[4horses]

My advice would be to run an extension cord to the barn. Use some pvc pipe to protect your extension cord or bury it. My barn did not have power and we buried the extension cord in pvc pipe. About 4-6 inches deep.

 

[Acadianartist]

We used a chest freezer as a water trough for a while. It worked well, there was no problem tipping out the water to clean it, it survived the horses and the height meant our rascal horse couldn't get her feet into it and muddy it up. However we never used it as an insulated tank, we used the tried and true break-the-ice method for winter water.
We don't use it now, mostly because it didn't look good in the pasture!

Yeah, I thought I could just break the ice too. After about two weeks of that, I gave up and bought heated buckets. They're quite large, and I only have two horses, so I only have to fill them twice a day and they never are completely empty. The buckets also have a liner, so they're already insulated.

But honestly, the ice-breaking method sucks unless you don't really get cold weather (perhaps the above poster doesn't). Here, we can have -20C for weeks on end, and it can get down to -40. That ice would form within an hour. Which meant that when I was at work for a few hours, the horses wouldn't have water. That's not acceptable to me. I know someone who just doesn't give his horses water until they come in at night. Says they don't need it during the day!!! I think that's appalling. However, if you're able to offer them water at regular intervals during the day (like 4 times a day), they might be ok. They can program themselves to drink at certain times a day. In the summer, mine go to a back pasture (all the pastures are connected) and create their own schedule where they come in for water back at the barn at certain times a day. It encourages movement too.

 

[cbar]

We have an old chest freezer here - b/f did some work to it and installed a heater in it to use as my winter water trough. I actually haven't used it yet, so not sure how it will work. My concern was the draining and cleaning of it.

This winter I will give it a shot and see how it goes. It gets quite cold here too and I always worry about the horses getting enough water.

 

[QtrBel]

You could box in a rubbermaid trough leaving the drain exposed. I'd add insulation sheets to the wooden box exterior and then fill the spaces with spray in. You'd still want a heater but if it was in the sun it could keep the ice at bay a little longer or not as thick if the trough was big enough.

 

[RockyMountainBaroque]

I wouldn't use an old freezer, far too easy for a horse to pull up a piece of the metal and shred himself on it. Where we live, we have freezing winds which through the winter are regularly +60mph (heck the last couple of nights we had wind gusts in excess of +164mph), whipping off of 14,000ft mountains, it can easily get to be -40F before you even start to factor in a wind chill... We wouldn't be able to keep horses up here if it weren't for propane stock tank heaters.