[Berkshire Bill]

"Gerry Atrick" wrote in message
...
One of my stupid mules decided that the cord on his stock tank heater
was something to eat, and chewed the cord right off the thing. This
is one of those portable heaters that drop in the water and get
plugged in. Needless to say, I was extremely ****ed to find my brand
new $70 120V heater with the cord chewed off, and I mean it was
literally chewed in half (all 3 of the wires - white-black-green).
Lucky for him, it was on a GFI. (I always use GFI's around livestock
after having a horse get electricuted once, but I saved his life).
That horse was down and was quivvering and I could see he was being
electricuted, so I got one of those adrenalin rushes and ripped the
cable right out of the building with my bare hands. He got up after a
minute and was ok. Ever since, there is a GFI on every outlet used
for animals.

Here's the question. I cant just toss a new $70 heater. I'm not made
out of money. I want to splice the wires and will solder them and
tape them well. But I need a means to seal the entire connection to
insure that water dont get in there. He only left about 6 inches on
the heater, so my splice will be under the water. Therefore it MUST
be watertight. Does anyone know of a method to do this? The cord is
just one of those common rubbery black cords like on most power tools.

Yeah, I know some people will highly advise to NOT do this and buy a
new heater, but like I said, I cant afford to keep buying these things
and this is not the first time this has happened. I have two more
chewed ones sitting in my garage, but those were old ones so I
replaced them with new ones. I should mention that if for some reason
my splice were to allow leakage, I ALWAYS plug them into a GFI so the
worst thing will be a tripped GFI.

One idea I have is to put some hose over the cord before I make the
splice, then slide the hose over the completed splice and pump the
hose full of pure silicone caulk around the cord, which will extend
several inches on both sides of the splice.

Anyone want to buy a stupid mule?
From now on I'll stick to horses..... They have more brains.....
(By the way, this same mule ate a 6X10 blue plastic tarp a few months
ago.... All that was left was about a 2X3 foot piece when I caught him
in the act.)

Gerry

It might be worth a call to Tractor Supply or a similar retailer. They
might know of somebody that makes those kind of repairs. I can think of
places to get waterproof connectors and all the individual pieces but a
specialty shop might be able to do the repair cheaper and have everything on
hand.

Bill