Nelson Waterer Installation

[SugarCubes]

I lucked out and was given two 700 series Nelson heated waterers by non-horsey friends who bought an equestrian property. Score! Now the hard part, the installation…

My barn has been built and we are getting ready to do plumbing and electric, does Nelson have installers of their own or do I need my contractor to work with the plumber and electrician to get these put in?

The waterers I have are the ones that must be mounted in a concrete sewer pipe buried 4’ in the ground, not the wall mount ones.

[2foals]

Yes, you will need your plumber to install them along with help from the electrician. The big cost with automatic waterers is not the cost of the waterer itself, it is the cost of installation. You have to run water and electric lines, and then you have to dig down something like 2-3 feet below the frost line so that you will have geothermal heat to keep the line from freezing. Whatever plumber you use, I would definitely print off the installation directions from the website, give them to the plumber and then supervise that the plumber does it correctly. IME, some plumbers do not understand the concept of digging that deep hole to access the geothermal heat.

[Simkie]

You’re also probably going to need a well guy, since the Nelsons require a pretty deep hole for geothermal heat (as 2foals mentions.)

You CAN call Nelson and ask them to check for people in your area who have purchased waterers from them…which might be a good place to start.

[fordtraktor]

um, I think a well guy is overkill. What you need is a guy with or who can rent a backhoe, who can do plumbing, electrician’s work (mine was licensed in both for decades before he retired) and who can read and follow a manual. I call mine “dad” but you can hire them too.

Also, call Nelson and talk to them. They will tell you how deep to bury the lines in your area. here in northern Indiana it is 4 feet. Back home in WV 3 feet is fine. You just have to be below the deepest frost line.

The installation is not that difficult, it’s just time consuming and expensive. We have three and just love them, they require so little maintenance. They are one of the best improvements we made to the farm. No more breaking ice in the field troughs or hauling 75 gallons of water through 3 feet of snow! Glorious!

Do put each one on its own plug or breaker switch so you can easily plug and unplug it or flip a switch, so that when you go to work on it, you can safely do so in moments while all the other ones stay on. This becomes really important when it is 40 below zero and only one has a problem. If they are all on the same breaker switch, by the time you fix the first one they’ve all got problems

Nelson is a great company, they are VERY helpful and can walk you through what you need. it’s really nice when a company understands customer service like they do! I also needed to have particular parts quickly to make my installation happen when my dad was here, and they scrounged around and found enough for me to get the job done even though they were out of stock when I called. Five stars for going the extra mile.

[Simkie]

Shrug. Around here, the well guy is the one who does the hole and generally installs auto waterers. Perhaps it’s regional due to the cold winters and deep frost lines.

[fordtraktor]

I am sure they are capable, they are just expensive. It’s of course fine to use a well guy if you are willing to fork over the dough for one. And Nelsons are expensive all around so why not. I just found the whole enterprise to be pretty shockingly pricey so tried to keep the costs as reasonable as I could, where I could.

[SugarCubes]

Thanks for all the info, guys! I’m really happy to have them, they are going to be worth every penny! Great tip to put them on separate breakers, I’ll have to remember that. I know where we live, the hole needs to be 3’6" to be below the frost line so I’ll have my contractor dig that hole for me and get with my plumber and electrician to install them

[walktrot]

The B/O’s DH did 7 of them himself, outside, and they have been there for years. Extremely reliable and probably the best improvement on the farm, with the possible exception of the heated bathroom. They run off the original well on the farm, which is dug, not drilled. She did have an electician install a proper hook-up for a generator, so we know that if there is a major power outage, we will still have plenty of water for the horses. We are in southern Maine and have not had a problem with freezing and it was quite cold last winter.

[2foals]

[QUOTE=SugarCubes;8346580]
Thanks for all the info, guys! I’m really happy to have them, they are going to be worth every penny! Great tip to put them on separate breakers, I’ll have to remember that. I know where we live, the hole needs to be 3’6" to be below the frost line so I’ll have my contractor dig that hole for me and get with my plumber and electrician to install them :)[/QUOTE]

Ok, just to clarify, you need to run your water line to the waterer at a normal depth for your area, a certain distance below the frost line. But then, the hole under the waterer needs to be much deeper than that to access the geothermal heat. For example, here in KY the water lines need to be 2-3 feet below the ground. But the holes under the actual waterers are 6 feet deep. (There is a hole drilled into the side of the concrete pipe for the water line to enter.) If you dig the hole for the waterer only the same depth as you run your water lines, your waterer will freeze. The heater that comes with the waterer heats the bowl only. The water line going from the ground up to the bowl is heated by geothermal heat from the deep hole below. Nelson has excellent diagrams online to describe this.

Here in KY, because we only required a 5-6 foot depth, we were able to dig our holes with a backhoe. If you live an an extremely cold climate, you might very well need to dig a MUCH deeper hole for each waterer. I don’t think it is an unreasonable thought that for some areas you might need some other type of contractor (such as a well guy) to dig the holes. Nelson could advise you more closely as to the requirements for your area.

[Leather]

[QUOTE=2foals;8347660]
Ok, just to clarify, you need to run your water line to the waterer at a normal depth for your area, a certain distance below the frost line. But then, the hole under the waterer needs to be much deeper than that to access the geothermal heat. .[/QUOTE]

Yup, Nelson recommends the hole depth to be 4-6 feet below the frost line.

So if the OP’s frost line is 3’6" the hole will need to be at least 7’6" deep.

See diagram on page 15: http://www.nelsonmfg.com/files/pdf/700installation.pdf

[SugarCubes]

[QUOTE=Leather;8348180]
Yup, Nelson recommends the hole depth to be 4-6 feet below the frost line.

So if the OP’s frost line is 3’6" the hole will need to be at least 7’6" deep.

See diagram on page 15: http://www.nelsonmfg.com/files/pdf/700installation.pdf[/QUOTE]

:eek: Holy moly! I’ll drop that bombshell on my contractor today…that’s a deep hole! I missed that part when skimming over the installation instructions.

[SugarCubes]

Also, where did you guys find the concrete pipe? Does the pipe need to be long enough to go all the way to the bottom of the hole?

[2foals]

Yes, see, that’s why although it’s great that your friend generously gave you the waterers, they are a tiny portion of the total cost and effort that goes into having a functioning, non-freezing automatic waterer. In Alaska I think the holes need to be something like 25 feet deep! (I hope you don’t live in Alaska.)

Yes, the pipe does need to go all the way to the bottom of the hole, otherwise the hole would collapse underneath the waterer and you would lose the geothermal effect. Your plumber, if they have any experience with installing waterers, should know where to get the pipe.

The good news is that you will never regret having those functioning waterers. They save a ton of time, energy and stress, especially during the winter months. Horses stay well hydrated which I’m sure has saved me some vet bills. Horses love warm water in the winter. In the summer, they love the freshness. I have horses that the first thing they do when they are turned out is head for the waterer, despite two clean buckets of water in their stalls.