Heated bird baths / Review
K&H Super Ice Eliminator Review: What You Are Actually Buying
The default drop-in de-icer, judged on the three things that decide whether it works in your yard: the wattage, the basin it has to hold open, and the cord — which is eighteen inches long.
Buy it if you already own a bird bath larger than about ten gallons and want one thing that works. K&H publishes 80 watts, a three-year warranty and MET safety listing, and the thermostat means there is no switch to forget. The catch nobody mentions: the cord is eighteen inches long, so an outdoor extension cord is not optional. If your basin is small, the 50 W version is the cheaper buy and the cheaper run.
Winter Perch is funded by affiliate commission. If you buy through a link on this page we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it never decides a ranking. Full disclosure · how we pick.
Quick picks
Ranked, with the trade-off named. Tap a row for the full write-up; the price button goes straight to Amazon.
| # | Product | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  K&H Super Ice Eliminator Bird Bath De-Icer, 80 WThe 50 W unit with enough extra element to cope with a bigger basin and a colder night. If you are buying one de-icer without measuring anything, buy this one. | Most yards, most winters — the default de-icer | $28.91 · See it on Amazon |
| 2 |  K&H Ice Eliminator Original Birdbath De-Icer, 50 WFifty watts is the smallest published draw of anything here, and it is a rock-shaped lump you drop into the bath you already own. For most people this is the cheapest correct answer. | The lowest running cost on the site | $24.99 · See it on Amazon |
| 3 |  API BDT250 Bird Bath De-Icer, 250 WCast aluminum, thermostatically controlled, made in the USA, and 250 W — the heavy end of the range, and overkill for a small bath. | Big basins and genuinely severe cold | $57.99 · See it on Amazon |
| 4 |  Farm Innovators HBI-150 Heated Birdbath, 150 WThe one heated bath in this category whose maker puts the wattage on the listing, and it is also the easiest one to lift off and clean. | Deck rails, and anyone who wants a published wattage | $89.99 · See it on Amazon |
#ad how we are funded · price as of October 10, 2026
The picks in full
Top pick Most yards, most winters — the default de-icer
K&H Super Ice Eliminator Bird Bath De-Icer, 80 W
The 50 W unit with enough extra element to cope with a bigger basin and a colder night. If you are buying one de-icer without measuring anything, buy this one.
Specifications
- Rated watts
- 80 W
- Form
- Submersible, natural rock shape
- Control
- Automatic
- Finish
- Paintable enamel
- Safety
- Safety listed for outdoor submersible use
Trade-offs
- 80 W is the sweet spot: enough for a 20-inch basin, well under a 150 W bath
- Automatic, so there is no switch to forget
- Same drop-in convenience as the 50 W, same paintable finish
- Works in the bath you already own, at any mount height
- 60 percent more draw than the 50 W for buyers with a small basin who did not need it
- Still a cord in the water
- The rock shape takes up basin space small birds could be standing in
Wattage: 80 W
K&H states 80 watts, and the listing is explicit that the unit is safety listed and automatic. Eighty watts holds a typical 16 to 20 inch basin open through a normal northern winter night.
At full draw for a four-month winter (120 days), plugged in around the clock: 80 W x 2880 h = 230.40 kWh, x $0.1834/kWh = $42.26 — $42.26 at $0.1834/kWh. A thermostatic unit will land under that.
Who it is forThe default buyer: an existing 16 to 20 inch bath, a normal northern winter, no interest in replacing the bath itself.
Skip it ifSkip it if your basin is under about 14 inches. The 50 W version does that job and costs less to run every single day of the winter.
#ad how we are funded · price as of October 10, 2026
No. 2 The lowest running cost on the site
K&H Ice Eliminator Original Birdbath De-Icer, 50 W
Fifty watts is the smallest published draw of anything here, and it is a rock-shaped lump you drop into the bath you already own. For most people this is the cheapest correct answer.
Specifications
- Rated watts
- 50 W
- Form
- Submersible rock-shaped housing
- Safety listing
- Tested and certified by MET Labs
- Finish
- Paintable — spray to match your basin
- Control
- Automatic
Trade-offs
- 50 W is the lowest published draw on this site
- Uses the bath you already own, so the whole purchase is the element
- Solid housing is weighted to stay put instead of floating out
- Paintable, so it stops looking like a gray lump in a stone bowl
- 50 W will not hold a large, deep or wind-exposed basin open in a hard freeze
- It is a cord in your bath water, which some people simply do not want to look at
- No published thermostat set points
Wattage: 50 W
K&H states 50 watts. That is the difference, at the cited EIA rate and at full draw for a four-month winter, between roughly twenty-six dollars and roughly a hundred and thirty — and no thermostatic de-icer runs at full draw all winter.
At full draw for a four-month winter (120 days), plugged in around the clock: 50 W x 2880 h = 144.00 kWh, x $0.1834/kWh = $26.41 — $26.41 at $0.1834/kWh. A thermostatic unit will land under that.
Who it is forAnyone who already owns a bath they like and wants water in it in December for the least money and the least power.
Skip it ifSkip it if your bath is wide, deep, or sits in open wind, or if you are routinely below about 10 F. Step up to the 80 W Super or an API de-icer.
#ad how we are funded · price as of October 10, 2026
No. 3 Big basins and genuinely severe cold
API BDT250 Bird Bath De-Icer, 250 W
Cast aluminum, thermostatically controlled, made in the USA, and 250 W — the heavy end of the range, and overkill for a small bath.
Specifications
- Rated watts
- 250 W
- Material
- Cast aluminum
- Control
- Thermostatically controlled
- Origin
- Made in USA
- Also rated for
- Small ponds
Trade-offs
- 250 W will hold open a basin nothing else here can manage
- Cast aluminum survives freeze-thaw better than molded plastic housings
- Thermostatic, so it is not a dumb element
- Doubles as a small pond de-icer
- Five times the rated draw of the K&H 50 W — the running-cost gap is the largest on this site
- Aluminum against a glazed or ceramic basin can mark it
- Total overkill in a mild winter or a small bath
Wattage: 250 W
API states 250 watts. This is the highest rated draw on the site. It is the right answer for a large or deep basin in a severe climate and the wrong answer for a 14-inch bowl in Virginia. The thermostat means it is not drawing 250 W continuously, but it is the ceiling you are signing up for.
At full draw for a four-month winter (120 days), plugged in around the clock: 250 W x 2880 h = 720.00 kWh, x $0.1834/kWh = $132.05 — $132.05 at $0.1834/kWh. A thermostatic unit will land under that.
Who it is forLarge basins, deep basins, exposed sites, and northern-tier winters where a 50 W unit gives up.
Skip it ifSkip it unless you have measured your basin and know your winter. On a normal 18-inch bath this is the most expensive way to keep water open, and it is easy to buy on the assumption that more watts is better.
#ad how we are funded · price as of October 10, 2026
No. 4 Deck rails, and anyone who wants a published wattage
Farm Innovators HBI-150 Heated Birdbath, 150 W
The one heated bath in this category whose maker puts the wattage on the listing, and it is also the easiest one to lift off and clean.
Specifications
- Rated watts
- 150 W
- Water capacity
- 1.5 gallons
- Dimensions
- 5" x 20" x 25"
- Weight
- 5.25 lb
- Mount
- Twist deck mount, hidden electrical connection
- Thermostat
- Internal
Trade-offs
- Publishes a rated wattage, which most of this category does not
- Twist-off dish lifts straight off to dump, scrub and refill
- The electrical connection sits under the dish, so the cord is not draped over your rail
- 1.5 gallons is a real reservoir, not a puddle that boils off in a dry wind
- 150 W is the top of the range here — the K&H de-icer draws a third of that
- Plastic, so it looks like equipment rather than garden furniture
- Deck-mount only; there is no pedestal version of this model
Wattage: 150 W
Farm Innovators states 150 watts, with an internal thermostat so the element only draws when the water is near freezing. At 150 W it is the highest rated draw of any complete bath here, and the thermostat is why that ceiling is rarely the real bill.
At full draw for a four-month winter (120 days), plugged in around the clock: 150 W x 2880 h = 432.00 kWh, x $0.1834/kWh = $79.23 — $79.23 at $0.1834/kWh. A thermostatic unit will land under that.
Who it is forThe established feeder owner adding water to a deck rail they can already reach from an outdoor socket.
Skip it ifSkip it if your bath already exists and you like it. A 50 W de-icer dropped into the bath you own does the same job for less power and less money.
#ad how we are funded · price as of October 10, 2026
What this page is and is not
We have not bench-tested this de-icer and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What follows is built from what K&H publishes on its own product page and listing, the arithmetic this whole site runs on, and what matters about keeping water open through a northern winter. Where a figure is the maker's, we say so and link it.
What we will not do is invent a temperature rating, a basin diameter or a running cost we did not compute from a published wattage. The de-icer category is full of unsourced numbers — the roundup ranks five units on the same basis, and this page is the long version for the one that usually wins.
The cord is eighteen inches
Start here, because it is the specification that decides whether the thing is usable the day it arrives, and it is buried on every listing. K&H states the cord is 18 inches long.
Eighteen inches reaches from inside the basin to just below the rim. It does not reach the ground, it does not reach a wall, and it certainly does not reach an outdoor socket. Every buyer of this product also needs an outdoor extension cord, and that is not an upsell — it is the only way to install it.
This matters more than it sounds. The failure mode in this category is almost never the element; it is the connection. A cheap indoor cord run across a wet lawn, or a junction sitting in a puddle, is the actual hazard in a product that is otherwise sealed and safety listed. Outdoor power and cords covers the cord gauge and the GFCI socket this needs, and it is the page to read before this one if you have not wired the spot yet.
What K&H actually publishes
| Specification | Published figure |
|---|---|
| Rated power | 80 W |
| Unit size | 4.5" x 6.5" |
| Cord length | 18 inches |
| Control | Thermostatic — switches on and off as needed |
| Safety | MET listed, stated to exceed UL requirements |
| Warranty | 3-year |
| Basin guidance | K&H directs baths of 10 gallons or less to the 50 W model, larger baths to this one |
Every figure here is K&H's own, from the product page linked in the sources below. We have added nothing to this table and estimated nothing in it.
Two of those deserve attention. The three-year warranty is unusually long for a sealed element that lives in standing water outdoors, and it is a real part of the value at this price. The MET listing is a third-party safety certification rather than a self-declared claim, which in a category full of unbranded imports is worth more than any feature on the box.
The sizing rule, in K&H's own words
The single most useful thing K&H publishes is also the thing buyers most often get wrong: baths holding ten gallons or less should take the 50 W Ice Eliminator; larger baths should take this 80 W Super. That is the maker's own guidance, not our rule of thumb, and it resolves the question people actually arrive with.
Ten gallons is a bigger bath than most people picture — a typical garden pedestal basin holds well under it. So the honest consequence is that a lot of buyers of the 80 W unit did not need it. It will work; it will simply draw sixty percent more power than the smaller unit every hour it runs, forever, to hold open a basin the 50 W would have handled.
Buy the Super when the basin is genuinely large, when the bath sits exposed to wind, or when you are somewhere that spends real time well below freezing rather than hovering around it. Buy the 50 W otherwise. Heated bath vs de-icer covers the prior question — whether a drop-in element is the right product at all.
What 80 watts costs to run
This is the site's signature arithmetic and the reason we insist on a published wattage. Here is the working for this unit, at the cited national average electricity rate:
K&H Super Ice Eliminator, 80 W
Per day: 80 W x 24 h = 1.92 kWh, x $0.1834/kWh = $0.35
Per winter: 80 W x 2880 h = 230.40 kWh, x $0.1834/kWh = $42.26
Four-month total at full draw: $42.26
Two things to hold on to. First, that figure is the ceiling, not the bill: the thermostat only energizes the element when the water is near freezing, so the unit is off for most of a mild winter and most of every sunny afternoon. Second, it is the honest comparison point against a complete heated bath — the Farm Innovators unit on this page is rated 150 W, nearly double.
The full running-cost page has the formula, the cited rate, and how to substitute your own, and the wattage ledger records which makers in this category publish a figure at all. K&H is one of the few that does, which is a large part of why this unit keeps winning here.
What it is like to live with
The unit is a sealed element in a weighted housing shaped and finished to look like a rock, with a paintable enamel surface. Dropped into a basin it reads as a stone rather than an appliance, which is the whole reason for the shape.
At 4.5 by 6.5 inches it occupies real space in the bowl. In a wide basin that is irrelevant. In a shallow one it is a lump that takes up standing room birds would otherwise use, and shallow standing room is the thing that actually makes a bath get used — bird bath depth and stones covers why an inch or two at the edge matters more than the diameter.
There is no switch, no app and no display, and that is a feature. The thermostat is the entire user interface. You drop it in, plug it in, and the only maintenance is the same cleaning any bath needs — cleaning feeders and baths in winter covers doing that when there is no hose and nowhere warm to dry anything.
Where it does not help
A de-icer keeps the water liquid. It does not keep the basin dry. Concrete and unglazed ceramic absorb water into the material itself, and if the power drops for a night that trapped water freezes and spalls the stone. No de-icer prevents that, and this one makes no such claim.
If your bath is concrete, this is the wrong product and the honest answer is a complete heated bath in plastic or metal — which is why the Farm Innovators unit appears on this page as the alternative rather than as a competitor. The decision is worked through properly in heated bath vs de-icer.
It also will not help a bath nobody visits. A heated bath in the open, far from cover, stays unused and merely costs you electricity — keeping a bird bath from freezing covers siting, and the no-electricity options cover the cases where running power to the spot is the real obstacle.
Who should buy something else
What we would skip
Anyone with a bath of ten gallons or less
K&H's own guidance sends you to the 50 W Ice Eliminator, and it is both cheaper to buy and cheaper to run every hour of the winter. Buying the Super for a small basin is the most common way to overspend in this category.
Anyone with a concrete or unglazed ceramic bath
The element keeps the water liquid and does nothing about water absorbed into the stone, which spalls the basin the first time the power drops in a freeze. A complete heated bath in plastic or metal is the real fix.
Anyone without an outdoor GFCI socket within reach
The cord is eighteen inches. Until there is a properly wired outdoor socket and an outdoor-rated cord in place, this is an appliance you cannot safely install. Outdoor power and cords is the page to fix that first.
Anyone who wants a thermostat they can set
There is no adjustment of any kind — the thermostat is internal and fixed. If you want staged control, the API BDT250 on this page publishes multiple thermostatic settings instead.
How we judged it
How we picked
- The maker's published wattage, because a de-icer with no stated figure cannot be costed, and costing it is the whole argument of this site.
- The maker's own basin guidance, rather than a diameter we invented — K&H states the ten-gallon split between its two models and we use that.
- Cord length, which decides whether the product is installable where you want it and is the specification every listing buries.
- Third-party safety certification, since this is a mains appliance sitting in standing water outdoors.
- Published warranty, as the honest proxy for expected service life on a sealed element we cannot test.
- What it does not fix, specifically the concrete-basin case, because the category sells to people it cannot help.
- Claims separated from measurements. We report K&H's figures as K&H's, and we do not invent our own.
- Current availability, checked against the Amazon catalog on the day of writing.
- Live price, refreshed daily and never typed into this page by hand.
We have not tested any of these. What we did instead: read the manufacturers’ own listings, compiled the published specifications, computed the running cost at a cited electricity rate, and refreshed the prices daily. The full method is published.
Questions people actually ask
- What is the difference between the K&H Ice Eliminator and the Super Ice Eliminator?
- Wattage and the basin each is intended for. K&H rates the original at 50 W and directs it at baths of ten gallons or less; the Super is 80 W and intended for larger baths. Both are thermostatic, submersible and safety listed.
- How long is the cord on the K&H Super Ice Eliminator?
- K&H states 18 inches. That reaches the rim of the basin and no further, so an outdoor-rated extension cord and a GFCI socket are part of the installation rather than optional extras.
- How much does an 80 W bird bath de-icer cost to run?
- Far less than 80 watts continuously, because the thermostat only energizes the element near freezing. The running-cost page has the arithmetic at a cited rate and the formula for substituting your own.
- Is the K&H Super Ice Eliminator safe to leave in a bird bath?
- It is designed for exactly that — a sealed submersible element, MET listed and stated to exceed UL requirements, with an internal thermostat. The risk in this category is the cord and the socket, not the unit. Are heated bird baths safe covers the wiring side.
- Will it work in a concrete bird bath?
- It will keep the water open, but it will not stop the basin spalling. Concrete absorbs water into the material and that trapped water expands if the power drops during a freeze. A complete plastic or metal heated bath is the right answer for a concrete bath.
- Does it have an adjustable thermostat?
- No. The thermostat is internal and fixed, which is why there is no switch to forget. If you want selectable settings, the API BDT250 publishes multiple thermostatic options.
Sources
- K&H Pet Products — Ice Eliminator and Super Ice Eliminator bird bath de-icers: 80 W, 4.5" x 6.5", 18-inch cord, thermostatically controlled, MET listed, 3-year warranty, and the ten-gallon split between the two models
- Tractor Supply — K&H Pet Products Super Ice Eliminator Bird Bath Deicer, 80 W, published specifications
- U.S. Energy Information Administration — Electric Power Monthly, average residential price of electricity (the rate used in the running-cost arithmetic)
Read next
- The Best Bird Bath De-Icers
Five drop-in de-icers from 50 W to 250 W, matched to basin size, with the running cost worked out for each.
- Heated Bird Bath vs De-Icer: Which One You Need
Complete heated bath or drop-in de-icer? The decision in one table, plus the concrete-basin case that changes the answer.
- What a Heated Bird Bath Actually Costs to Run
Watts to kilowatt-hours to dollars, at the current US average residential rate — the table nobody else in this category publishes.
- Outdoor Power for a Heated Bird Bath
GFCI protection, cord gauge and jacket ratings for gear that sits outdoors all winter — and the one practice that is genuinely dangerous.
- The Best Heated Bird Baths for Winter
Nine complete heated baths ranked on published wattage, basin size and mount type, with running cost computed for each.