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 Veteran
Posts: 173
 
Location: Wyoming- where its always windy! | Going to be installing auto waterers in our pens this summer. We have 3 pens so I was thinking one double and a single would work. Just wondering if anyone has recommendations for good brands? I live in WYoming so it would have to be something that holds up to cold temps. TIA! |
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  More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
  
Location: Riding Crackhead. | I think mine are Mavericks. They are made in Iowa if I remember correctly. Old as the hills but keep on working even in our lovely winters of SD. The only thing I have to keep replacing is the float mechanism. I have to say though that the float isn't from Maverick, I buy them at Runnings. If I bought an original one I'd probably have better luck. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 304
Location: Up and over to the right | We have Nelsons and I love love ours. A breeze to clean, no ice (unless it's -30…) and every horse on our farm drinks from them. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 305
| We live in WI. Our 17 Nelsons sucked. We now have switched to Richie outside they with stood the last cold blast with out missing a beat. They are out in the middle of a field with no wind break. Our Nelson Leaked, froze , and would ramdomly not fill up. They were installed correctly spent many hours on the phone the company. The older nelsons were much better than the new ones. Good luck. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2604
Location: Texas | LOVE my Nelson waterers. This is the fourth barn we have built and we installed Nelson waterers in each of them. They are the bomb! |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I have a mirafount that is ancient now. It's insulated with a ball in the opening. I've heard that the ball will freeze shut in some instances, but I havent seen that down here. I would think the more animals you have drinking, the better tho. The things I like most are the water staying cool in summer and algae doesn't grow in it. I still have to clean it from them dropping feed in it, but not nearly as often as I did the open heated waterer I had. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 206
| Richie. Just bought a bunch of new ones, and didn't have an issue with the -20/30 temps. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1100
Location: Southeastern Idaho | Three 4 Luck - 2014-01-10 8:18 AM
I have a mirafount that is ancient now. It's insulated with a ball in the opening. I've heard that the ball will freeze shut in some instances, but I havent seen that down here. I would think the more animals you have drinking, the better tho. The things I like most are the water staying cool in summer and algae doesn't grow in it. I still have to clean it from them dropping feed in it, but not nearly as often as I did the open heated waterer I had.
We just put in 5 Mirafounts in our bull pens, LOVE those things. 20 below with a stiff wind and the most I have had to do is knock the ball loose. No power bill and no risk of shocking the animals. Horses will use them, I have a gelding that plays with the balls constantly so I have to take them out when he is in the corral. We also put a Bar Bar A single in 3 years ago in our horse pasture. It has been great as well, no power to it either. Horse pushes a flap down that causes the bowl to fill, they drink and when flap is no longer depressed the water drains out of the bowl into a french drain you build below. Horses learn to use it quite easily, I just had to show one of them. |
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 The Bling Princess
Posts: 3411
Location: North Dakota | Ritchie!! Have owned ours now for going on 8 years and it never froze up in the -60 weather we had last week.  Easy to clean , has held up great, AND I've even used it as a mounting block a time or two:)LOL |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 975
Location: The barn...where else? SW Missouri | We own 2 Ritchie brand waterers. They are over 20 years old and still working awesome. Have only replaced 1 valve and a heating element in all those years. Parts are cheap also. Wind chill was -20 here this week and no issues with them freezing up at all. |
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Regular
Posts: 68
Location: oklahoma | We have mirafount and love them! Never had any problems with them! |
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | ritchie........
m |
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 Queen Bee Cat Owner
Posts: 3629
Location: Way up North | We have a MIrafount without the ball and it has been great, best investment ever! Now my sister and several other people I know have Ritchies and have had multiple issues with them including freezing up. We had probably at least 12 at the place I worked at in high school and I hated those buggars.
I am going to get the JUG stall ones when we put stalls in our barn. They have a really cool system and the company that owns them is only a couple miles from us.
Edited by AllAroundRider 2014-01-10 1:44 PM
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Location: Philly | ritchie.
make sure to get the enclosed ones. they actually (used to) make one that had an open air trough for the water that is about 4-6 inches deep and about 2x3 ft wide. in the winter they it had a function where it would literally spray water constantly out onto the trough in an attempt to keep it from freezing. just made a big mess. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2457
| I have used Richies in SD, ND, WY (laramie) and IN. Still have them now in KS. THE BEST OUT THERE. The one's in WY were OLD as dirt and still worked great. SD and ND ... about5 years old both places and we never had a problem. My SO's father has 9 at his place, IN, and they are awesome - no problems or anything. They are totally worth the cost!
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Veteran
Posts: 173
Location: Wyoming- where its always windy! | Sounds like Richie's or Nelsons are the way to go. I appreciate everyone's input! Thank you |
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Best auto waterer?