Frozen tundra = another frozen water/bust waterer

[U_Stormcrow]

@Ted Brown I wish I could help, I've valued some of your contributions to BYC, but I just don't have experience with the sorts of cold the rest of the nation suffers. I use the huge polytotes, they are what, 275 gallon? That's a lot of thermal mass to freeze, but it doesn't help with the nipples/cups attached. If I had real cold, I'd submerge a heater into the polytote, and wrap my PVC with the heat tape they use to keep RV pipes from splitting - but it seems an expensive solution.

 

[Ted Brown]

A stated above I did use the separate heater base during the last part of the winter. I used a standard plastic 3 gal. water fountain with the heater base and it worked when temperatures remained above -20c. Unfortunately we got a number of colder days that required changing water.

I also found heated fountains on sale for $40 (half of normal) so bought two. I will add a plug connection cover to avoid the birds disconnecting it.