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Expert
Posts: 1414
 
| I'm looking for a non-electric waterer for my horses. My friends gave me some suggestions - Bar Bar A, Cobbett and Drinking Post.
Does anyone have one of these, or have any experience with them, or others? Thanks |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
  
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I've had a mirafount for a long time and it works really well for me. I've heard in super harsh climates the ball can freeze closed, but I haven't had that problem here. I love that it keeps the water out of the sun so it stays cooler and algae-free in the summer. It's easy to clean and it has never taken more than a couple of days for new horses to catch on to how to use it. Mine is at least 15 years old, probably older and the only thing we have had to fix was to replace the valve after we moved because our new place has higher water pressure. |
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Regular
Posts: 82
| We have had the Bar Bar As for about 5 years and love them! During our huge blizzard last October our horses were completely snowed into the barn for days but had water the whole time. They are easy to maintain. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2604
Location: Texas | Don't know where you are located, but if you don't need heat to keep them from freezing I have had the Nelson Waterers for probably the past 10 years and absolutely love them. I live in TX so don't have to worry about them freezing too often. And the rare occasion that it may get down to freezing I simply put insulation down in the unit around the pipes and they are fine. But if you do need them heated to keep them from freezing where you are they are available with that option (but do require electricity of course). |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1100
Location: Southeastern Idaho | I live in Siberia...AKA....Idaho. :) We are at 6000 feet elevation and we have WINTER here. We have both the Mirafount and a Bar Bar A. Love the Mirafounts...no issues with them as long as you have enough animals on them. We use it in our bull pens and for the cow herd. Rarely freeze and if they do its easy to thaw them. When you place them make sure they are where the sun will hit them all day in the winter. Helps a ton.
Bar Bar A...good water trough, they learn to use it easily. One issue is the filter will plug up sometimes and then the trough will freeze. Make sure you place it away from the feeder if you have a hay dunker. Also, the french drain underneath is critical! We have a high water table here and about January our french drain will be saturated and the trough will freeze up until that clears. If you have a low water table you shouldn't have an issue with that. |
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Expert
Posts: 1414
| Good info thank you!!! I'll only have 4 horses drinking out it and it won't be near a feed source. We live in MI so we get snow, cold and did I mention snow?
We had Nelson's for 14 years at our old place. I liked them but would like to try a non-electric waterer this time around. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1100
Location: Southeastern Idaho | One thing you may want to think about since you get a lot of snow is make sure the bowl doesn't get snow packed during a blizzard. That happened to us once and it can freeze then. Simple to thaw out if you have some boiling water handy but putting a wind break near the water trough would help prevent that. |
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I am a Freak
Posts: 3326
Location: Nowhere Special | I'm in SD so I know all about the snow and cold.. We have both the mirafont (ball drinker) and the Bar Bar A waters. I also have heated auto waters as well. If I had it to do over again I would go with Bar Bar A waters soley. I have 3 horses on the pasture with the ball water in it, I have to put a heater in it to keep it from freezing as I don't have the number of livestock it would require to keep it from freezing. I do scrub it twice a year but it does stay relatively clean. I have two horses in the pasture with the Bar Bar A water in it and even when it was well below zero for days it functioned properly with no heat. The Bar Bar A cost me a LOT less to install and purchase, the water is always clean, always fresh and I have had no trouble with the filter nor had to clean it. So if I ever have to do it over again I will go soley with the bar bar A waters I don't run huge herds of livestock and often rotate pastures with varying numbers of animals so I want to know my waterer is going to work without having to keep a set number of horses on the pasture.. |
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