TLDR: Don’t buy this bucket. It will fail. I definitely would NOT recommend this bucket. Over the last 2.5 years we have purchased two of these buckets. The first one lasted just over a year and then the heating element shorted and kept blowing the breaker on the outlet. So then we bought another thinking maybe we did something wrong. With the second one we took great care to not bend the cord right where it goes into the bucket. Same result. Bucket failed. Now I have two buckets that are barely capable of just being a bucket. Here’s what I mean: Water gets past the bottom of the bucket into where the heating element is. You can’t clean it and if you dump the water out, the water keeps coming. Plus it makes it much heavier. Another design flaw is that the cord, where it enters the bucket, has no protection and bends and wears down quickly.

the rubber is the way to go the plastic three gallon buckets were horrible they wouldn't use them they algaed up fast and froze over

Never froze in all the cold weather we have had. Goats love it!

I wanted a rubber heated bucket because the plastic ones eventually crack. This bucket leaks at the cord bucket connection. I thought I just bought a defective one but I exchanged it for another one and it leaked too…..