Hounddog

I have a 150 gallon rubber stock tank in a pasture that is controlled by a pipeline company.Yesterday I had a horse killed at the tank.I also have a floating stock tank heater in the tank by www.Alliedprecision.com The heater is on its second season and the elect.suppy to the tank is a year old.underground wiring to a above ground outlet.The heater is suppose to have a internal thermostat etc(60 degree day)when I touched the water I was wearing LL Bean rubber boots and felt current hit me.Unplugged heater NO current.the Pipeline company asked me if they could turn power off till Monday to CHECK SOMETHING??? I need advise to possable cause and scenario etc.any advice guys?? Thanks!

electrifried

What shape is the GFCI? A good one of them would have eliminated this problem. In a case like this I would use a breaker type to protect the whole circut (including the underground).

tshikle

I agree. A breaker GFCI would have protected the circuit. Most likely you have a bad heater element that is in contact with the water after it burned open. If it is on a regular breaker there is not going to be enough current flow to trip the breaker, but it will give healthy shock.

Dodgecaveman

Sounds like your heater may have lost the grounding part of the circuit. Could be in the heater itself or could be in the line going to the tank. There is a product that is made to check the circuit that simply plugs into the outlet or use a multimeter if you have access to one. Too bad about the horse just glad you made it out of the water yourself. 115v is usually not too bad but it is still rather shocking . Bad joke? Definitely don't leave it plugged up until it is solved.

Hounddog

Explain please about breaker GFCI please.This all was just installed (last year)by pipeline company wuith them being responsable for water 24/7 etc due to a inground fuel leak 3 years ago.Is this what they(elect.contractor that is a sub for pipeline company)wants to check Monday??? They have JUST redone a whole grid of electrical things were the power source comes from.Thats why the elect.contractor was there at 6 pm on a Saturday afternoon etc."He" offered real nice and quick to bury horse.There were 7 more on that pasture and thank gode THEY didn't go drink! Is there TWO issues.Their(elect.installers)and tank deicer issues?????

Copenhagenjunkie

I would say it's the heater, I have seen this before first hand but didn't kill my horses. Over several days I noticed the horses were leary to drink at the fiberglass tank, went a stuck my finger in there and yep it bit the crap out of me. I unplugged the heater and no tingle. It took almost a week to get the horses to drink from the tank again. I had to use 55 gal plastic tubs cut in half and put them next to the tank and slowly wean them back to the large tank. Do you really need a heater in Ga? Sorry about the horse, that sucks.

P.J

Ground Fault Circuit Interupter.

A MUST HAVE in outdoor or indoor kitchen/bath situations. Not only should the appliance itself have a GFI, but the circuit it's plugged into should be protected somewhere in the line with a GFI.

I am not the quick to litigate type, but blame (what/why/who) needs to be looked into here. The sooneer the better.

Sorry about your loss. Sucks.

rockwithjason

You have a ground fault in the heater circuit. Current is leaking out of the heater circuit and energizing the tank. You need to replace the heater, install a GFI on the circuit and ground the tank. If the tank was grounded the breaker might have tripped saving your horse.

tshikle

A GFCI means Ground Fault Current Interrupter. What this does is that the breaker not only monitors the current flowing through the hot lead but monitors the ground lead wire also. If any current is sensed on the ground lead it throws the breaker. To make the GFCI work correctly, you have to have the loadcenter grounded correctly and three wires going to the heater unit(3-wire plug). In the load center the neutral bars and the ground bars can not be tied together.
A GFCI looks like a regular breaker with the exception of a reset button by the handle.
Talk to the electrician about it. Make them do whatever is requiered to fix this properly. Truth be known the NEC(National Electrical Code, electricians Bible) requires that any circuit outdoors or near water (bathroom, kItchen Swimmming pool) have a GFCI. If it doesn't They are at fault, and are responsible for ay damage or injury caused by the faulty circuit.
Sorry about your horse!

Hounddog

I'm betting it was on a regular breaker with no GFCI.As far as blame when it involves DEATH I need to KNOW what happened or where to most likely look!Thats what the the Electrician is going to check Monday and why he wanted it uphooked from system until then.Ys you need a heater in Georgia.May be 60 today and 20 tomorrow night and low 30s for 4 days etc.This winter not much of that but it happens a lot here.I waited until November and a frezzing night to take it over and plug it in.Sure enough I unplug it it will freeze for several days.we can and do get ice storms here until mid March.

smokin05

man sorry about the horse... the GFCI breaker should have been installed at the panel where the power comes from ALSO a GFCI plug at the above ground box....however none of this works if there is not a ground terminal on the heater...silly question is this a three wire plug on the heater? Cause if it is not, or if the ground wire is not "pulled to the plug at the tank you will fry until the breaker trips....this is how so many people dies w. the old' electric two prong plugs on the outdoor weed eaters and bush trimmers when they would get wet!

Hounddog

The deicer and plug in are both 3 plug.The plug in and underground wiring to it are recently new as are lots of NEW etect.worked being done.Thats why the elect.contracter was there at 6 pm on a Saturday .The deicer was used last winter,stored dry and I just reinstalled it in November.Do I need to go TALK to pipeline company tomorrow morning and find out about GFIC and is that why contracter wanted it turned off(power)and CHECK SOMETHING Monday.How do I test heater? Do I have TWO ISSUES.

12valve@heart

I'm not electrician and I'm not a lawyer but I'd say "YES", you may have 2 separate issues.

One is a problem with the heater "leaking" current externally. I don't know the proper way to test a heater but it needs to be tested or replaced. If nothing else, call the manufacturer about how to test it.

The second is that the circuit didn't detect the problem and trip the breaker. Unless the line was run specifically for heating the water tank, I could understand where GFCI may not have been used - ie. I would guess that most outside outlets do not use the more expensive GFCI breaker and plug unless they are intended for use around water.

IF the line was run specifically for the purpose of heating the water tank, then GFCI should have been used from the start and the installer may have some liability. IF you put the tank near an existing outlet so that you could plug in the heater, there probably is no liability on the part of the installer because they didn't know what you would do with the outlet.

I had an experience years ago on a dairy farm where a wire burned thru underground and the entire milking barn was electrically hot with trace voltage; the milking stalls, the bulk tank, anything metal. We didn't feel it because of wearing rubber boots but you can imagine what the cows thought and did when they were touching a metal stall and we washed their udder.

Sorry for the loss of your horse.

99 cummins

I have had problems with heaters charging the water and it always made the horses leary to drink for a while, but never did any physical damage. That would take enough voltage that it should have totally cooked all the electrical cords and heater both just from heat. Are you sure there is not another reason for the death and this water tank just happened at the same time. Just hard for me to magine enough juice being able to flow through that cord to kill an otherwise healthy horse. Can't even explain how sorry I am for your loss.

Hounddog

Was told it did NOT take much voltage to kill if all four feet standing on wet.YES the line was run ONLY for the heater by the pipe line company.I got enough current through me to alarmn me and I was wearing rubber boots.Any one KNOW if this is voltage will kill????