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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 824
 
Location: Duvall, WA | We are thinking about adding automatic waterers to our stalls, are sick and tired of breaking ice and worrying about them in this cold weather. Our barn seems to already be plumbed for them, there are pipes in front of each stall. Obviously this will be a significant expense, we will need to do four stalls, so would like to do it right. What are the best waterers--Ritchie, Nelson? Is there another kind? I think we need to do something other than the $30 floaters or paddle type we could get at TSC. Oh, the stalls open to pens so it would be possible to have two horses share one through the pen fence, but we didn't get panels with special openings so not sure if that would work. Thanks!
Edited by NipntuckLR 2017-01-09 3:55 PM
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 Lived to tell about it and will never do it again
Posts: 5409
| We have the Miro fount (sp?) and love them. They have a gound heat well under them so you don't have to have eltricity to them. They come in single to four hole. We have 4 of the double hole ones and have them split the fence.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1100
Location: Southeastern Idaho | euchee - 2017-01-09 4:51 PM
We have the Miro fount (sp?) and love them. They have a gound heat well under them so you don't have to have eltricity to them. They come in single to four hole. We have 4 of the double hole ones and have them split the fence.
Mira founts, We use these as well in the cattle feedlots and horse pens. Very durable, don't have to worry about power outages or animals getting shocked. We also have a Bar Bar A and have had good luck with it as well. I like not having to have electricity ran to each water trough. It gets dang cold here in Siberia, I mean Bear Lake, and these water troughs hold up. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| We have Mirafounts as well. We do have electricity run to ours but don't notice a big spike in our bill.
We have 1 that splits the fence and serves 4 horses and 30 head of cattle (cattle also have access to the same set up on the other side of the pasture at my in laws.)
We plan to add 3 more next summer so all of our pens will have water available. They have a 22" (I think) wide 1 sided model that we will split between 2 runs. Right now if we have to separate any of the horses we have to haul buckets. Loooooove that everyone we have gets along now so we haven't had to do that. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | For individual stalls without electricity, we are replacing the behlen waters, which we have found to be awful, with Jug brand. We love them and they work very well!
Edited by Tdove 2017-01-11 10:42 AM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 824
Location: Duvall, WA | Thank you for your input. Wow, the Mirafounts look amazing. Can those of you who have them explain how it is they don't freeze? It looks like some of them do come with heaters. We typically don't have a lot of days below freezing, but this winter has been wicked and it was in the teens three or four days in a row. Would that kind of weather require a heater? |
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 Veteran
Posts: 174
Location: Cold Tundra | Automatic waters can't freeze or you are risk at breaking the lines. We have a Nelson bowl, and the heater is automatic. It turns its self on when it gets to freezing, and off when above. No fuss, no muss. If you have days that freeze water, then its worth having the heaters then risk breaking them.
Edited by TurnNThree 2017-01-10 12:28 PM
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 305
| Have 17 Nelson waters and have had nothing but trouble with almost all of them. We did replace the outdoor ones with Ritches, and have good luck wth them. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 695
Location: Windoming | Our Mirafounts are 21 years old, have been trouble free, but we do have to heat them in the winter. They must have changed if they don't need heated any more. If you have enough livestock drinking, they don't need heated, but we only have single horses in the pens. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1100
Location: Southeastern Idaho | Silly Filly - 2017-01-10 11:53 AM
Our Mirafounts are 21 years old, have been trouble free, but we do have to heat them in the winter. They must have changed if they don't need heated any more. If you have enough livestock drinking, they don't need heated, but we only have single horses in the pens.
We found this to be true, you have to have enough animals on these to keep them open. We have a pen with 4 yearling bulls and it will freeze up on occasion (it has to get well below zero for this to happen). Simply bail out the water, pour in a 5 gallon bucket of hot water and you are good again.
Where we have only a few animals we use the Bar Bar A, but it will plug with snow when outside, so you have to keep the bowl clear. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 595
Location: North Dakota | We have mirafount ones as well. Up here in ND we defiantly need the heaters in them. The only time we have issues is when the actual temp is well below zero. Even then so long as you have several horses drinking on each waterer all is well. Normally the issue we have is where the pipe comes up from the ground to fill the tank can freeze if it's not used enough or the ball can get stuck by ice when it's pushed down but it's an easy fix either way. We check them twice a day and for the most part they do really well up here in the tundra. |
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Lived to tell about it and will never do it again
Posts: 5409
| The water in the mirafount can freeze but if it does it is very easy to break. We leave the balls down in the winter so they won't freeze shut. Here in SE Kansas the heat well under them keeps the water lines fro freezing so the only thing that might freeze is the top water its self
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | I just ordered two more JUGs here is where I get them.
http://www.weslynn.net/product/jug-303-ef-energy-free/ |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I have had the same mirafount for 17-18 years and it's been trouble free for me. I'm in Arkansas tho, so it gets cold at times, but not below zero cold. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 824
Location: Duvall, WA | Three 4 Luck - 2017-01-10 7:42 PM
I have had the same mirafount for 17-18 years and it's been trouble free for me. I'm in Arkansas tho, so it gets cold at times, but not below zero cold.
It never gets below zero cold here, either. But sometimes we will have 20s for a few days. |
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 Queen Bee Cat Owner
Posts: 3629
Location: Way up North |
Your order will be going out today as long as the truck driver can get here with the snow! I work in the office at the factory so I am biased but I also use them myself and love them. Best investment ever not having to deal with frozen hoses and tanks in the Minnesota weather! |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| NipntuckLR - 2017-01-10 12:19 PM
Thank you for your input. Wow, the Mirafounts look amazing. Can those of you who have them explain how it is they don't freeze? It looks like some of them do come with heaters. We typically don't have a lot of days below freezing, but this winter has been wicked and it was in the teens three or four days in a row. Would that kind of weather require a heater?
It's possible they have 2 models, a non electric heat sink model for regions that don't see hard freezes and an electric model for colder climates.
I would discuss with a dealer which is right for your area. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 889
| Question! Does anyone worry about not being able to regulate water intake with automatic waterers? Like, if the buckets not empty how do you tell if they are drinking enough? I know there are other symptoms to dehydration...and I am probably a worry wort.  Just looking for thoughts! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1100
Location: Southeastern Idaho | We have periods of below zero temps. In fact, just had a 4 day of 60 below windchill and only fought with 1 mirafount water trough. (The one that only 4 yearlings are on.) No electricity to any of these.
The secret to them is the way they are installed. They have a heat well, specialized tube of plastic, below the trough where the water line comes in. This uses the heat from the ground to insulate your inflowing water. Our water line is also buried below the frost line (6 feet in our area). We LOVE these troughs and plan on installing a couple more. As long as you have enough animals on them so they are in regular use they work great.
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| RedHead84 - 2017-01-11 2:05 PM
Question! Does anyone worry about not being able to regulate water intake with automatic waterers? Like, if the buckets not empty how do you tell if they are drinking enough? I know there are other symptoms to dehydration...and I am probably a worry wort. Just looking for thoughts!
It does concern me from time to time. We have a salt block available and throw a handful of mineral into their feed every other day or so to help encourage drinking. And keep an eye out for other signs.
I feel better know they always have fresh clean water available. We work away from home for 10-11hrs/day and buckets would freeze over well before then with some of the temps we've had. |
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