Livestock need water in winter as much as in warm weather. Without using tank heaters, the water will freeze. the animal wont get water and the costly tank will likely be damaged too. These heaters are plugged into an AC outlet and submerged in the water. If a break in the cord or short in the heating coil develops, you can end up with dead animals, and this used to be common on farms.
I have horses, and I nearly learned the hard way years ago when one horse could not let go of a tank as the AC surged thru his body. He fell, but was still stuck to the tank. Luckily I saw this happening outside my window, and ran out the door barefooted on freezing snow, and ripped the power cord out of the outlet which was on a pole about 25 feet from my door. The horse survived and is still alive some 10 years later. The next day I bought a whole case of GFI outlets and replaced all outlets that these tank heaters are used. I even made up some plug in ones by putting a GFI into a waterproof electrical box with a cord to a regular outlet. Those are for when I need to plug in a tank heater for temporary, and dont feel the need to replace the built in outlet for a one time use.
If it was not for these GFI outlets, several horses may have likely died. Some of them seem to like to chew on strange things, like wooden fences, plastic feed bowls, and power cords. Damaging all of these things tends to piss me off, but chewing on cords can and will kill the animal. That's where the GFI comes in. I have never lost any animals, yet each winter at least one tank heater cord gets chewed up or chewed completely in half. At around $50 a piece for these heaters, that really makes me quite angered, but knowing the animal is ok, is what matters most. (even if they are stupid ).
But I've noticed a pattern. It seems that once they chew a cord, they never do it again. This makes me wonder if they do indeed get a shock for a very small milli-second, before the GFI trips????????
Horses are intelligent, but there must be some reason they dont chew a cord again.....
Heck, if they chew on the fence boards, I paint cayenne or jalepeno pepper powder (mixed with mineral oil) on the board. That stops them for awhile, but they seem to always try chewing wood again. Yet, when they chew off a power cord, I have never seen that horse or pony chew a cord again.
Somehow I cant get myself to grab a GFI protected hot wire while standing barefoot on wet ground (remember, horses, cattle, etc are barefoot, or bare hooved) In other words they are grounded. This is the reason electric fences keep them contained (but that wont kill them). Therefore the question arises, while the GFI trips extremely fast, there must be a brief moment that they feel the voltage. Otherwise why would they stop chewing cords?
Of course, I'm glad they do. At $50 a pop, the cost would add up fast if they did it over and ober.....
Yea, I do my best to run the cords thru steel pipe, and try all sorts of things like that, but if they want to chew the cord, they will pull the heater out of the water and pull it out of the pipe, sometimes unplug it, and .... well, they can just be a major pain in the ass at times.... At the same time, they are the best pets anyone can have, and fun to ride too. I would not want to lose any of them from electrocution.