Anyone have a Nelson Waterer freeze up

[Hunterlover]

Any ideas on how to get my waterer to unfreeze? It's frozen down low somewhere unfortunately. It's sitting on a cement tube in the pasture so it uses thermal heat from the earth. However this wonderful sub zero NY weather plus a power outage has caused some problems. I putmy blow dryer in there for about 15 minutes but nothing happened. I truly hope the water line didn't bust...there is some ice build up just above the water line that makes me suspiscious. If you have any ideas how to thaw it out let me know?

[SonnysMom]

A friend of mine's Nelson waterer froze a few winters ago. It had been installed incorrectly. The piping inside was run so it was touching the cement tube. The cement was then leaching the heat from the pipes. The hole below the tube also was not dug deep enough. :(
I don't remember what she did to thaw it. One thing that might help thaw it and keep it thawed is if you go to Home Depot/Lowe's and get a silver reflective blanket. We had gotten some to use in our attic for our house bathroom vent to prevent condensation. It worked for that.

A local hardware store had a display of it. You just stuck you hand in the tube of silver stuff and it was amazing how warm it was. It came as a roll but I don't remember the name.

I am thinking if you wrap the inside of the cement tube with it that may help.

[elequine]

Yup!

Had to build an insulated box to put over it and a heat lamp in there for 24hours.

Total PITA

[saddleup]

In December we had a cold snap, with the highs only in the single digits. Mine froze in the barn, and I was worried a line would burst and the barn would flood when they thawed out.

I called the company and they suggested I try a hair dryer, but it didn't work. Once it warmed up the lines thawed and there was no flood. It's the third winter with these waterers, but the first time we've had such a prolonged cold spell, and the first time they've frozen.

This won't help you thaw them, but it might not be a disaster, either.

[lily04]

I used a torpedo heater to thaw mine and then wrapped it in some silver insulation that looks like bubble wrap. It's worked so far this year.

[DraperEquine]

I would definitely second a torpedo heater. They throw off a large amount of heat and would be able to penetrate pretty deep into the ground if need be. It's been extremely cold, but this also shouldn't have happened. I would contact whoever installed your system so you're not facing a larger problem later on down the road.

[MistyBlue]

Yep, torpedo heater. See if there's a place nearby that rents them...a Home Depot or hardware store.
Or if you're getting the warm up later this week like we're supposed to here in CT (40 a couple days from now) the warmer temps and sun will thaw it for you.
However....keep an eye on that waterer. If it froze inside the small lines that come out of the main water line...those little lines spit often when they freeze. However, replacing them is easy as pie. Hardware stores carry refridgerator water lines...it's the same thing as your Nelson water line. That small line should only be a short piece, no longer than 18" or so. There's a coupling on either end. Use a knife/exacto to snip off the lines, unscrew the two couplings (*after* turning the water off to that waterer ;)) and bring them to the hardware store with you and ask for new ones. The line just slides into one end of each coupling and then there's a small metal tube that fits into the line to secure it, with a nut over it to hold. Takes about 5 minutes to replace that section.
The blow dryer will also work as long as you feel the lines with your fingers and can find the "crunchy" frozen part and direct the blow dryer there.
If it's the main (thicker wider hose) water line that froze, that might be a bit too deep to feel all the way down for the frozen spot. Then you'll either need the torpedo heater or wait for a warm up and use buckets or muck tub meanwhile.
I'm guessing it's an outdoor waterer since it's in the cement sonatube?
If the small lines froze, then that can happen in an outdoor waterer if you lose electricity. The small lines depend on the ambient heat from the heating element to keep them thawed...it's the main water line that depends on themal heat from the ground to stay unfrozen. That main line should also be coming up out of the ground inside an insulated tube inside the cement sonatube.
There's also extra insulation you can add such as slide-on styrofoam tubes that looks like pool noodles (pipe insulation) and there's a sticky silver lined insulated tap you can wind around it too.

[Nanerpus]

You can call Nelson's too - I don't have any outdoor Nelsons but when we went to turn on one of our new stall water heaters, one was defective and we called Nelson's, sent it back, and got a new one in. They have really good troubleshooting employees.

[joiedevie99]

If you have any scraps of insulation, wrap it around as much as is exposed, and then wrap that in one of those silver emergency thermal blankets.

[deltawave]

Once you get it unfrozen, I'd seriously consider putting a heating element in there. My waterer is buried four feet down, below the frost line, and has six inches of insulation all around but would still freeze if I didn't have a heater built in. The wind chills here are ridiculous, and in Jan/Feb I have to crank it up almost all the way. I know a few people who have this type in places like Kentucky and Tennessee that never have to heat them, but they don't get the prolonged, bitter cold + wind chills that we do, and I daresay a lot of NY has weather as bad as ours or worse. Something to think about for next winter. :)

[Hilary]

Our nelson is outside and there's a concrete pipe going into the ground, but a wooden housing that lifts the bowl up to a better height - we have heat tape on the pipes, and of course the heating element under the bowl, but if it drops below about 10, OR if the wind is howling, it will freeze if I don't also have a lightbulb on in the housing. Not anything special, a 75w lightbulb works just fine.

To thaw, though, a hairdryer might not be sending enough heat. We've got a heat gun and I've had to set it in the housing for 20 minutes sometimes. It's a little more managable than a torpedo heater (never heard it called that before!) size wize but really sends a lot of heat.

[ticofuzzy]

We have indoor and outdoor nelson waterers and they have worked very well for many years in VERY cold temperatures.
One thing we have found is that if your waterer is freezing when it's super cold or windy, try raising the water level in the bowl so that less air can get up under the lip and freeze the copper piping. We have the water levels high and only the standard heating element in ours AND we live in a complete wind tunnel and they almost never freeze.
A heat gun works very well to thaw things if they do freeze (my "other" waterers would freeze all the time), although yours sounds like its far enough down that a heat gun wouldn't reach it. If you could rig up something that would force hot air down the cement pipe and cover the whole thing with a couple horse blankets, I bet it would create enough heat to thaw things out.

[Schiffon]

There is a very good manual on the waterers on the Nelson website with detailed trouble shooting instructions. We just had to replace a bowl heater.

I wonder if the OP did not dig a hole deep enough (6-8 feet) to get enough ground heat to come up. The hole needs to be deeper than to the frost line where the connection to the underground pipe occurs. Similarly, if you fill the entire tube with insulation you will probably defeat the design.