Cattle water stray voltage

How can I trace where stray voltage is getting to my cattle water? It has a submerged heating element and it has been replaced. I put a ground rod at the cattle water, but the animals still shy away. I do not feel any shock when I touch the water. Animals will drink when the power is off. What can I do to solve the problem? Thanks

That could be as simple as having the hot and neutral wire switched 180 out.

Or it can be very complex, involving a well 700 feet away acting as a deep ground rod with mixed wiring.....

Often I hear of floating neutrals, where the load is imbalanced between one leg and the other at your place, and 25-50 volts shows up coming off of the neutral wire? Or something along those lines, can be hell to track down.

Good luck.

Paul

First thing you need is a digital meter. They are very sensitive and enough to detect stray voltage. Thing is you really need a rock solid hard earth ground. Copper rod driven several feet into the ground. Now take that meter and see what readings you get from all of the wires. Neutral should be very close to zero and ground should be ZERO!! Bet you get a tingle like when you were a kid testing a 9volt transistor battery with your tounge. If you have any weak heart problems don't do any touching kind of tests. That is what your cattle are feeling in their big wet fuzzy noses. This past summer I was changing the battery on my garden tractor. Very hot day, sweaty arms , touched across the battey. KATINGGGLE!! Trace voltages can absolutely destroy a milking herd. Production can crash. They used to use a VTVM meter. Very expensive meter with a tube amplifier in it. Todays $5.oo HF digital does it in a snap. The folks who used to do these tests were the county agent. That is back in the early 60s. If you don't know what you are doing don't screww around. A trace voltage can kill you. Just be careful. Also check for corrosion in your electrical boxes and look for loose connections too. Bet you find a corroded twist of wires inside of a twist nut connector. Have found more than a few where moisture is involved. That copper rod and the digital meter will point you to something very quickly. If any questions, GET AN ELCTRICTIAN !!!!!

Stray voltage has put more than a few people out of the livestock business. Get whatever help you can.

This could be as crazy as telling him not to tinkle on an electric fence. Trace voltages can drive you nuts. Here at work they got water in one of the plugs on a unit in a kitchen. Had to unscrew it and take it down to the shop. Luky me I had a bottle of 91% rubbing alcohol. Put it in a plastic bag and shook everything up really good. Then took an air hose and blew everything out good. After that the circuit breaker stopped tripping. Doggie and fence.
dog and fence.

With that digital volt meter, run a single wire from a building ground rod out to the water source. with a tin pie plate in the water test between the pie plate and that extended ground wire. It should read zero. (it won't) take the heater out, or unplug it. if no voltage, you have a bad heater that leaks AC into the water. Use a different brand, or ? Jim

O look they have horses!!
horses

Sometimes a person needs to hire a professional. This could be one of those times.

I had this same problem a few years back. use a multi meter put one lead in the water the other in the soil, you will get a reading (MINE WAS 9 VOLTS AND VARIED ACCORDING TO THE LOAD). I finally traced my problem to a broken neutral wire in the overhead triplex leading from the main supply. A hair puller for sure!

I had a similar experience many years ago.....Horses shied away from a metal light pole. Turned out that workers digging a ditch damaged an underground wire (220 VAC) about 200' away from the pole.

For sure check everything out.

A nicked insulation inside a flooded conduit, or a direct burial cable can cause real problems. So can a poor neutral connection.

Be sure you do all the tests with the heater connected and on so there is a load on the system.

Another solution would be to add an isolation transformer between the heater and the end of the line connection. It and all connections would need to be well protected from the weather.

I've been out of NEC practice for years, but there used to be certain exceptions regarding Grounding at remote outbuildings used to house livestock for the very reasons you described IE animals receiving shocks from perhaps watering devices.

What can happen is due to inductance and capacitance among the long parallel wire runs where Hot Neutral and Ground are all bunched together the Green Equipment Grounding Conductor (bonded to a metal waterer outer case/frame) can at the remote site have a potential HIGHER THEN LOCAL MOTHER EARTH. Then when old Bossy is deep in mud and water and her nose touches the water she receives a shock OUCH. It can be that even if the watering device has some contact (likely NOT a good low resistance effective ground) with mother earth, due to resistance it, which has its case bonded to the Green Equipment Grounding Conductor carried out, still has a potential HIGHER then the wet earth where Bossy stands.

Sure your heating element may have a problem, but even if not, the metal case/frame of the watering device which contains the water HAS TO BE AT THE SAME POTENTIAL AS THE WET MUD WHERE BOSSY STANDS.

The methods to reduce such shocks to animals consist of good tight low resistance non corroded connections back at the feeder panel,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Good tight low resistance Neutral connections,,,,,,,,,,,Good Neutral/Ground BONDING,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Good low resistance earth grounding of the Neutral at the main panel,,,,,,,,,,,Proper low resistance NEC approved methods (of which I forget) to hold the watering device at the same potential as mother earth where it stands.

Bottom line: Good Grounds,,,,,,,,,,Good Neutral connections,,,,,,,,,Good earth grounding,,,,,,,,,Good non defective no leaking heating elements

NOTE all these methods and equipment used to verify them MAY REQUIRE A TRAINED PROFESSIONAL instead of non electrician farmer Billy Bob and Bubba solutions lol. The energy levels are so low a cheap volt meter may be ineffective to find a voltage difference yet its still enough to shock old Bossy, you may need a professional electrician using good equipment to find and solve this ??????

Sorry I forget all the NEC rules and exceptions regarding livestock housing grounding and electricals

John T Toooooooo long retired Power Distribution Design Engineer and rusty as an old nail SO NO WARRANTY ON ANY OF THIS yet its still true the watering device MUSTTTTTTTTTTT be at the same potential as the wet muddy earth on which it stands or Bossy is shocked !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does it trip a GFCI?

There has been some Michigan cow farmers had experience with this problem. I believe it was quite near a large power transmission line.

I work for an electrical coop. and part of my job is resolving this type problem. First how is the power to the heater turned off? Switch or plug? If it has switch that only breaks the hot wire and switching it off resolves the shocking problem your problem is likely in the heater. If it is plug in and unplugging resolves the issue this proves nothing and you will need to do neutral to earth voltage test on the receptacle it is plugged in.
To do a neutral to earth test will require a digital voltmeter and an earth probe. The earth probe can be as simple as a locating flag wire which is what I use. The earth probe is pushed into the damp soil at least 6 foot away from any other earth ground. I use a jumper wire with clips on each to go between one lead of the volt meter and the probe. With one lead of the volt meter grounded to the earth probe use the other lead to test for voltage in the round hole of the receptacle. Cows are very sensitive to voltage and may shy away at 2 volts or less. If you have questions I will try to answer them. Since I use classic view I may not see the question unless you make a new post.
If you wish to educate yourself on this subject just google "neutral to earth voltage".

Ain't nuthin funnier than getting a city cousin on a hot wire fence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to everyone for all the comments. Will need start checking connections and see what I can find. Thanks

I've seen plenty of times where a poor connection on the utility company connection was the problem. Basically, power goes out on the black, comes back on the white, but if the connection up top is going bad, the voltage bleeds off on to the various grounds. I have seen it travel through the television cable, the phone line, kitchen sinks and just about every thing imaginable. Electricity takes the easiest path to ground? Not always. It takes all paths in relation to the impedance on the line. A stock tank makes a perfect storm for stray voltage, and because it is back feeding, the GFCI is completely useless. A ground fault only compares the current flow between the hot and neutral. The ground can be carrying twice as much as long as the flow on them is balanced.
If you look at most overhead connections the lines are covered and protected, but the neutral is open to the elements.
It doesn't take much voltage to kill a cow. Bedding barn in SoDak went down in ice several years back. Lost several cows that came in contact with broken light bulbs.