Just thought of winter water after reading the heated hose thread. What happens to your autowater system when it gets below freezing–assuming that your input pipe trench is at the proper depth and your above ground pipes are wrapped. Do pvc pipes crack in the freezing cold?
We’re moving to a place that has actual seasons from a place of triple digits or nasty dirty fog–rarely freezes, and then just barely.
Thx.
I have real winters here and Nelson waterers. When it gets down to single digits they have frozen two times. Both times they thawed out the next day. On their own. I consider that a small price to pay for the wonderful convenience of auto waterers. I have a big water trough that’s heated that my horses have access to as a backup.
I have a Bar Bar A waterer. It never freezes and needs no electric or heat. It works like a frost free hydrant. Water drains out after horses drink. They press paddle to bring water up from deep underground. In winter the water is not ice cold. In summer, it’s cool. I also have a back up smaller heated trough just in case near the barn overhang area, but the Bar Bar A rocked last winter even in sub zero temps. I’d say my piping is 4-5 feet underground which is well below our freeze line.
[QUOTE=Hermein;8368477]
Just thought of winter water after reading the heated hose thread. What happens to your autowater system when it gets below freezing–assuming that your input pipe trench is at the proper depth and your above ground pipes are wrapped. Do pvc pipes crack in the freezing cold?
We’re moving to a place that has actual seasons from a place of triple digits or nasty dirty fog–rarely freezes, and then just barely.
Thx.[/QUOTE]
They’re heated, to prevent freezing.
Although DAMN does it SUCK if they do freeze. Standing out there in -30 with windchill with the heat gun is no fun. We have Franklin fountain outside that just gave me fits last year.
We’ve had Nelson waterers here in Maine. We’ve had a couple freeze…when the heating element went bad. Every year we have a problem with 1 or 2 during winter. But we’ve had them for almost 9 years now. And we have 15 total, though only 13 are in use. Don’t need the other two. Barring minor leaks, element failure and electrical issues…they work smoothly even when it’s -30f before wind chill.
We had to build our barns, so we made sure to install the waterers properly. We opted for the wall mount option for most of them. That way we could supply 2 waterers on either side of a wall from a single insulated pipe.
Another one with Bar Bar A, can’t say enough good about them. Last winter with sub zero temps, water flowed freely!
We also have Nelsons in Maine, and there haven’t been any problems with freezing, despite nasty cold last year. And the rest of the system has worked great also–very few mechanical problems. The b/o had a proper hookup for a generator installed, which keeps the water running even if there is a power outage.
We have a large water trough in the horse field and keep a water heater in it. We have electric outside the fenceline so it can be plugged in. The barn has large tubs in each stall that also have cords with plugs. We drill a hole in the wall of each stall, place the water tub against the wall and run the cord through a hole in that wall. We have plugs outside each stall. Yes there was a year when we had an amazingly low cold snap and of course, we were out of town. We lost power to the whole property. Our farm sitter called (very irritated) and said that all the outside water was frozen as were all the pipes…and some had broken. Why does this seem to happen when we are not around? So my husband drove the 4 hours back to the house, hauled hot water down to the barn so the horses could drink and worked on the problem. Since then, we have a hot water circulating pump that keeps the water moving through the pipes and (knock on wood) it has worked.
Bar A Horse Waterer Fan Here. I now have a total of 7. Horses Love them not only in the winter when the water flows warm, or what seams as warm as it flows in at ground temperature and in the summer flows cooler -ie ground temperature. No worries about Mosquito’s or standing water.
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