Automated, non-electric horse waterers

[BeezFun]

Looking for horse waterer that doesn't require heat in winter or electric to operate. Anyone have any experience with these two, or any others?

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Waterer - Automatic Waterers for horses and livestock by Drinking Post

 

[tcreeley]

I've never seen one of these before. Seems to work like a frost free hydrant. For the winter I think I'd like to see alot of plastic parts for when the temp is 10-30 below so the horse's muzzle doesn't freeze stick.
We use a tank and heater now. I like this.

 

[BeezFun]

We also use tank and heater but to me putting something electric in a tank of water that some creature is going to drink out of has always seemed like the beginning of a bad joke. I wouldn't put something in my bathtub that was plugged into the wall, I don't care if I wired it up myself and inspected it every day.

 

[whistlepig]

We have a Nelson automatic waterer. The installation theory is similar although the Nelson is a bit more involved in the installation. Our Nelson has an optional electric heater on it. When the wind chill gets 15 degrees below zero or colder the Nelson will freeze up with out the heater on. It freezes at the top. A bowl of unheated water sitting outside with 25 degree below wind chill is going to freeze and freeze quickly. No matter what the manufacturer claims.

 

[tcreeley]

One year our horses did not want to drink from the metal tank though they acted thirsty. I unplugged stuff, shut off the main breaker, and finally discovered a short of 3-4 volts from the tank edge to a ground rod. I wondered if it was the electric fence, a short in the wire to the house. Finally I called the electric company and they came out and discovered a short in their transformer on the pole. They fixed that- end of problem. Horses started drinking again.

 

[BeezFun]

A bowl of unheated water sitting outside with 25 degree below wind chill is going to freeze and freeze quickly. No matter what the manufacturer claims.

No question about that. This drinker never leaves any water above ground. It has a small drain in the bottom of bowl, when the horse finishes drinking the bowl drains empty. When they push the paddle, fresh water fills the bowl. In addition to (hopefully) avoiding freezing problems, it also means the horse gets fresh water every time, warm in winter, cool in summer. Makes sense assuming it works. My wife had her horse at a seminar where they had these things indoors and they worked great. But it was a heated building so they really couldn't say how it would hold up to freezing.

 

[bigtiller]

My brother-in-law put something like this outside of the barn for his horses years ago. His had about a 16 inch wide tube 12 feet long. 10 foot of this tube gets buried like a post in the ground. It was well insulated and supposedly the ground heat from 10 foot down would keep the water from freezing. He got tired when digging the hole and stopped 2 feet short of the required 10 feet. It froze up the following January.

 

[BeezFun]

It froze up the following January.

Yes if it's a cold climate I think it's necessary to have a design that drains the supply line and drinking basin whenever the horse isn't actively drinking. Otherwise it's going to require a heater.

 

[whistlepig]

I didn't do a good job of reading the links you sent in your original post. I didn't realize that the bowl drained after each use. It is set up like a frost-free hydrant and frost-free hydrants work very well. Even with the electric heater running on our Nelson waterer the top of the waterer can get a heavy layer of ice on top of it from the horses drooling on it after drinking in high wind chill. We talked to the Nelson people a long time before we bought our waterer. They told us that the Amish use these Nelson waterers without electric by digging a pretty elaborate hole for allowing ground heat to rise and heat the bowl. Also they take a plastic drum, fill it with insulation, cut a hole in top of it, and slide it over the watering tower.

 

[AaronD81]

I know it's been 10 years, but I'm looking to install this type of waterer and was wondering if anyone ended up using these and how they've been working. I have Nelsons and although they work fine, $25 of electricity for each one every month adds up fast.