waterer elements life expectancy

[Engler]

Wondering if anyone can give me some help on this one. We have 6 Mirafount waterers scattered around the farm from new to real old. Some have a couple steers on them, others big groups of ewes, others plenty of cows. All but 1 are protected from the wind. It seems like every winter we have 2-3 of the elements be nice out on me, and as we all know that always happens on a really nice day. We have most of the waterers over a big 10-12" pipe so we're pulling plenty of ground heat up and that usually keeps the guts and the middle of the deal open, it's just the bowls that they drink out of that freeze. Changing them out isn't a huge deal as I just have to pull 2 screws to get at the side panel and they plug right in to a 110 outlet on one end and it drops right in to the bowl where the guts are on the other.

We have all the outlets wired to switches so we're able to turn them off each spring. We have used some elements that come from the company and some that we have bought at the local farm store but it doesn't seem to matter what brand we can't get much life out of them. Is this normal? Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? $40-50 a crack is getting a little old, nevermind the hastle and stress on the stock not having water for a period of time.

 

[SRBeef]

The instructions say to remove the heater from the waterer when not needed. I have two Mirafount 3100's. I take the heaters out in the spring and put them back in at fall.

One thing that may help is that the Mirafount heaters come in two versions, the standard 250 watt and an optional 500 watt. I use all 500 watt and have not had one fail since. I did replace a 250 w that failed. Maybe the 500 doesn't have to work as hard. Our dealer handles both the 250 and 500w. They look the same.

I would try the 500w and take them out over the summer. Less lime buildup on them which cuts the heat transfer ability and they have to work harder.

Good luck.

Jim