Farm Innovators Heated Flat-Back Bucket, 3-gal

I've been using this bucket now for three weeks in a cold climate (upstate NY) to water horses in barn stalls. We used to use this brand's rubber heated buckets, but the rubber bucket's design has serious flaws, and we've been through 5 of those in the past two years (and they're not cheap). I was reluctant to buy another product from this company, but so far, this plastic bucket is showing itself to be quite sturdy, and it doesn't have the design flaws of the rubber bucket they make. The heating chord is wrapped to stop nibblers from electrocuting themselves, and the chord comes out the bottom of the bucket, which reduces rubbing of the chord against barn stalls that then cause shorts in the circuitry. So, sturdy and well designed, and the heating element seems to be working well. The only complaint is that it was nearly impossible to get the bottom lid off to reveal the electric chord. It took several tries to finally pry it apart without snapping the hinges, and there's no instructions for how to get it off cleanly. Also, note that the bucket is actually a 6 gallon bucket, although for whatever reason, it's advertised as 5. It also doesn't have a grounding prong. Our electric is all grounded, so it's not a issue for me, but it's worth noting if you have electrical concerns.

It worked great for a few months, through the winter but now water gets in between the 2 walls where the heating element is. When cleaning it out it just keeps refilling itself with water slowly. Hopefully there is nothing in that heat element that would slowly poison our girls and we dodged the electrocution risk because it has been unplugged since the weather got warmer.

So Loki's water bucket isn't frozen or have ice in it.