Cookie tin heated chicken waterer 2.0
The humble ‘cookie tin’ water heater beloved by chickens everywhere gets some new ‘bells and whistles’ this year at our place with the addition of:
- Double bulb setup in case one bulb fails (not bullet proof but a little better).
- Thermostatic control with probe.
- Concrete ring surround.
- Stone pot to better hold the heat (better than the old metal one).
- Raised to keep water clean.
- Alarm if water freezes.
I was determined to improve our water heater setup this year, not only to make our life easier, but also for our very kind neighbours who look after our chickens while we’re away on holidays etc.
Enter the cookie tin heater 2.0
I had a few ideas to upgrade the standard cookie tin heater. To start with I added another bulb socket to run two 20W bulbs, on the basis that the power consumption of two 20W bulbs with a thermostat will probably use less power than the old simply switched 20W bulb that was on 24/7.
I used a simple thermostatic controller that’s widely available on ebay/amazon etc. for very little money, I paid less than £7/$10 for mine, including postage!
NOTE: I say simple….. well they are once you finally understand how to wire it and set it up lol! See wiring diagrams later on…
These cheap controllers are fantastic! They’re basically an on/off switch based a temperature reading from a small waterproof probe on the end of a wire. PLUS they have an alarm if the temp goes out of parameter! Cool, so if both bulbs under my cookie tin blow and the water starts to get too cold this magic box will beep to let me know. Marvelous! (They are popular in the ‘home brewing’ and ‘aquarium’ communities too, from what I see online).
There seems to be two common ones The STC1000 (heating and cooling) and the MH1210 (heating only and no failure to reach temp alarm).
STC1000 and MH1210 thermostatic controllers.
Here are the schematics for a MH1210 I used and also another for a STC-1000… (better explanation coming below….)
MH-1210 and STC-1000 wiring schematics as printed on the box.
The problem is with wiring diagrams is that they show the theoretical connections needed, but that often differs to how the real connections look using actual cable. Here is how it looks once connected…
I hope that’s clearer than the ‘official’ diagrams. I know that most folks use ‘jumper’ cable to connect terminal 1 to 3 but I love the WAGO style connectors and once you try them, you’ll love them too. Simple, reliable, cheap and safe; what’s not to love? Plus it means that you only need one cable in each terminal which I prefer for better reliability.
IMPORTANT: Don’t forget the above wiring doesn’t include an earth connection. You’ll need to run a separate earth cable if the heating appliance needs one. I wasn’t happy having water over the top of a metal tin, so I drilled a hole in the tin and connected an earth terminal directly to the tin and back to the earth point in the socket.
The instructions for the thermostatic controller are comprehensive (arguably too much so) but they don’t really explain that all you need to do is press the SET button briefly and then use the up and down arrows to put in the ideal temperature you want. In 99% of cases all the other settings can be left at their default value.
And finally in place and working!
Heated cookie tin chicken waterer 2.0 in operation.
Hope this helps you figure out your own designs, let me know if you know of a better way (there’s always a better way lol!)
Stay well
Ian
