We installed three last year and love them. And more importantly, the horses do too. They will leave thier Ritchie type bowl waterer to drink from the nice cool water in the bar bar A. I have heard cleaning the filter yearly is a must, so I need to do a little research on that for this spring as this will be our first time cleaning them.
We have them installed and have had them for well over 5 years. For the person asking about them being shared between 2 pastures, that is how our are installed. They are not perfectly centered in the fence but the horses figure it out real quick. I would not do the electric near the waterer as I wouldn’t want a horse shocked when they go to drink. The best part about the water draining away - that I can’t believe that no one has mentioned, is West Nile. No worries about standing water with the Bar A. Bar A waterers are worth every penny. I don’t like the waterers that require electricity as I have seen them malfunction and shock the horses and then the horses don’t want to drink from them.
I’ve had mine for something like 10 yrs…only had 3 issues. Once some stupid horse crapped in the bowl (which really took some aim, because it’s installed on a fence line in a 3 acre pasture) and it froze.
Then the cable that works the paddle system broke; if you are going to get a unit, I’d advise buying an extra cable right then. They are really cheap to buy, but the shipping was more than the item itself. The “company” (who is basically one family) was really great about walking me through the repair.
The last problem was just this winter, when apparently it froze again. Not sure why…our weather wasn’t that cold that long this year…certainly not as bad as many other years. Perhaps the water isn’t draining completely.
Anyway, it thawed out by itself, but once it’s not pouring freezing rain I’ll go out and check it completely.
99% of my horses drink readily from it…I had one old spooky type mare who never would…I just finally put her in a pasture with a regular tank.
I love the unit…we have some pretty cold weather here and it’s really stood up well. I’d like to get one more for my stallion’s pasture.
Obviously they don’t hold up as well as just a regular water tank with a heater at the bottom, but they use far less energy and are great if you are going o/o town.
GREAT choice if you have a pasture with no electricity nearby.
We built a new barn last year and struggled with which waterers to use. In gets fairly cold here (Montana) and the Bar-Bar-A waterers seemed like a great concept and the reviews were generally pretty good. We purchased five (5) waterers from them and last fall our contractor installed them in our high-end barn. These were not inexpensive waterers and at $500 each, plus another $150 in installation materials and then labor costs to install them, each waterer cost about $800. Everything went fairly well until old man winter came along. They were constantly plugging up and about every other day I had to pull them apart and thaw them out. One morning I went into the barn to find that one of the waterers had frozen in the “on” position, flooding the paddock and a good portion of the breezeway, making an ice skating rink throughout. This no doubt happened because to get water into the bowl, the horses learn to push a paddle down with their mouths and the water fills the bowl for them to drink. As soon as they release the paddle the bowl begins to drain out down below the freeze level in the ground. It takes 30 seconds or so to drain the bowl. Each time they use it (in cold wealthier) a little ice starts to build up during the drain process. It is difficult to see the ice but it didn’t take long for it to build up enough to freeze the valve in the “on” position. We finally got a rep (Dave) from Bar-Bar-A out to look at the installation and help figure out the problem. All he could say was that we can’t have shavings in the stalls as the horses will rinse out their mouths and plug the drain. He gave use bolts to drop into the drain hole that were supposed to make it easy to keep the drain open, but they were of no use. Dave left and told us that they would be working on a solution and would get back to us. Well, he finally came back through two days ago and after inspecting all the waterers again he said this was not their problem. He did mention that they were on their way to Livingston, MT to look at another barn that was having the same problem! When I asked him what they (Bar-Bar-A) would do to help us fix this problem he said they would help me sell the ‘used’ waterers. That’s so kind of them…not! If it’s cold in your area I would seriously consider some other waterer. We will not go into another winter with them and are looking now for more reliable waterers to install. We have some friends who use the JUG waterers and they seem very pleased with them. If anyone has experience ( cold weather) with them I would appreciate any comments you may have. Thanks, Fern Creek Ranch.
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I had one installed at my farmette in September 2015. Best money I’ve spent!
I didn’t need the super-duper cold version since I’m in Georgia but even on the frostiest days and thru the 2 snowstorms of 2018, not a single glitch. Water is the same temp 365.
This is very helpful. I’m in South Central PA and have been vacillating between the Bar-Bar-A and a heated Nelson. Who installed the Bar-Bar-A for you? My “house” plumber wasn’t helpful and the dealer around here who installs Nelson’s only installs Nelson’s (and swears the Bar-Bar-A won’t work this far North).
The very good plumber a friend recommended. I gave him the Installation DVD that comes in the box. He came back 3 days later and in his best Southern accent said "Welp, me and the kid here watched that there DVD about 15 times. We can do it."
2 hours later they were done!
Great to know. Now to find an adventurous plumber for a small job.
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