Water Buckets vs Auto waterer

[trubandloki]

I was just posting a list of stuff figuring the OP would like some thoughts.

If I had a horse that I was worried about not drinking enough I am not sure I would want to compound the problem by suddenly changing how their water is delivered to them. (Coming from someone who has a mare that does not drink when I hang a black bucket in her stall but will if I use a blue bucket. But the black water trough or rubber tub is OK.)

@Manni01 I live in an area that I think the style you have would not work, since it freezes for several months of the year here. I think it is great that they work for you and your barn. I also do all my own barn chores, along with a full time job, etc.

The poster who commented on saving money does not have the style you have Manni, but a style that has a reservoir. That is why I was asking them about their thought on the water savings.

[trubandloki]

@Simkie

@Beethoven if you’re still undecided when you’re running water into the barn, at least rough in for autos. You can decide later (I really wish the people who built my barn now had roughed in. I think it would be a huge chore to bring in autos now, SIGH :()

I agree with this. Though since the OP is in a warm state I am betting adding them later would not be that hard.

[walktrot]

My BO put Nelsons in outside, 7 of them many years ago, and they are incredibly reliable and easy to keep clean, to say nothing of the convenience. They run on a separate dug well and she has it wired for the generator so there is a source of water in case of power outage. We won’t get the indoor units because we’re in southern Maine and the cost of installation, meaning insulation, would be huge.

Do pay attention to the grounding issue. We did have a problem with stray current last spring, but Nelson has really great customer service and provided a lot of information on how to identify and fix the problem.

[Simkie]

@trubandloki

I agree with this. Though since the OP is in a warm state I am betting adding them later would not be that hard.

Yep, very good point. Where I’m thinking about the giant hole required to access thermal heat, Beethoven can just pipe along the wall. SO much easier

[LadyB]

Just my 2 cents, I don’t hate them but I am a little skeptic about them.

For one you don’t know if the horses are drinking from them, or how much they are drinking.
If you’re in a cold climate, keep in mind they can freeze, and horses will be without water.

My horse, he is scared of it and can’t figure it out. I’ve shown him, I’ve sat with him, filled it up, tried to press his head into it, he has no desire to drink from it. He goes all day without water at the barn I am seasonally boarding at because the water system scares him Barn staff has tried to help him as well as me sitting with him to show him its ok.

Can you clean it, I’ve seen plenty of disgusting water systems that need to be cleaned, but no one cleans them.

I personally would rather have a hose set up to each paddock with water troughs, as this way you know water is being drank and you can clean the troughs. Also for those special horses who can’t figure them out or are too scared to like mine.

[trubandloki]

@walktrot

We won’t get the indoor units because we’re in southern Maine and the cost of installation, meaning insulation, would be huge.

The high cost is probably more to do with the very deep hole that is required, as described by Simkie above. 6’ below the frost line is a really deep hole.

[IPEsq]

My barn has the JUG ones inside and out. I think they are the greatest thing ever in the paddocks. Very minimal muck around the waterer, they are easy to clean. So much better than big tanks that some horses like to climb into.

In the stall, my horse likes them better than the metal ones. However, he’s a hay dunker and makes a total mess when trying to dunk in the waterer. One part is location vs location of where the hay is fed (because of the stall door). He drags hay over to the waterer, tries to dump a big mouthful in it, winds up with a pile of damp hay on the floor that he then won’t eat. So, he gets buckets and 99% of the time drinks out of the buckets. If they get too full of hay, or icy, or he just happens to drink more one night, he will drink from the waterer.

I think they generally save water but may not save a ton of time in cleaning/scrubbing/maintaining vs stall buckets. Despite my horse rarely using his stall waterer, the staff and I have spent a decent amount of time fixing periodic leaks.

[Alpha_Mare]

I bought a farm that has auto waterers in some stalls and in the paddocks. They are old Nelsons, repair has been $$$ but I agree they are good for the pastures. In areas where it freezes in the winter you need to keep on top of the electric, even with heaters (basic design) they may freeze if it gets too cold. (pour in hot water to get ice melted).

The ones in the barn very few horses use. They are great bird baths and get messy daily. (we do clean them) So I have buckets in all the stalls. The horses generally enjoy the fresh water from the waterers in the pastures but are just as happy with the buckets in their stalls.

For a southern area that does not freeze maintenance is likely much easier.

[dotneko]

@trubandloki

So are you not cleaning them? I do not get how you come up with that number. If you are dumping 5 gallons per day per horse with hanging buckets how are you not doing that with your autofill buckets when you drain them?

We open the drain hole in the bottom and just drain out a few inches. Unless the horse is a dunker, then the whole thing gets drained. Much less water waste than with buckets especially since all horses would have two.

[saddleup]

I put Nelsons in my barn ten years ago and they’re still going strong. I have a 100 gallon trough in their field, and their runs are always open to the field, so that’s their backup plan. The trough is heated, too, so they can choose where they drink. My auto waterers have frozen a couple of times when we are at 0 degrees, which is really rare where I live, but will thaw out in a day or two, and they have the trough anyway. I admit that the first winter I was nervous and hung heated buckets as a backup, but haven’t done that since. I LOVE the Nelson waterers.

[Sparrowette]

@Beethoven

We are going to run pipe to each stall individually and are playing around with the idea of whether to do buckets or auto waterers in each stall. I see pros and cons to both.

What do you prefer and why?

You can see my place and it’s progress on my original thread: https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/f…th-gutted-barn

You’re in Florida, so I’ll guess that you have heat issues like we do. Where I board they installed metal auto waterers and had to stop. They were getting so hot in summer, even in shade, that the horses wouldn’t drink. The solution was to bring the waterers down lower and set them into larger resivoirs of plastic in the shade. They adapted feed tubs. They still get warm but not so dang hot like the metal ones.

Ano no. Never buckets. Auto waterers all the way.

[Heinz_57]

Honestly, having had both… I prefer muck tubs. Buckets are a close second. I have a serial hay dunker - everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, every mouthful of grain, every wisp of hay - goes through the water in that tub. As part of my daily feed/clean routines I keep an eye on water consumption so I know when something is off. When I’ve had auto waterers I have sorely missed that ability, and find it a bit tedious and messy to try to hand-scoop out all the grain sediment and floaties my pig leaves in the bowl on a daily basis. He’s also a bucket-smasher, so the muck tub circumvents that issue too.

For non-messy, non-hay-dunking horses, I’d be happy with auto waterers in stall. :lol: It really depends on what kind of horses you’re housing, in my opinion.

[csaper58]

@CFFarm

I never liked auto waters because I couldn’t really monitor intake. If they have improved them with some way of keeping track then I might consider them. Of course, there’s always the horse who likes to play with them and flood the stall.

I totally agree, I want to know how much water my horses are drinking.

And I want to be able to easily clean/fix the water source if …a horse poops in it or a mouse drowns in it, or an unexpected freeze cracks it without having to go to town for parts.

A bucket and a snap gets my vote

[ArabDiva]

@trubandloki

I think the comment about monitoring water intake falls more into play when there is a problem starting or happening and an owner does want to monitor the water intake. Dobbin is acting like he might be a little colicky, did he drink OK last night?

Conversely, I like to keep an eye on my horses’ water consumption as part of the overall picture of their health and wellbeing, i.e. “Dobbin didn’t drink much last night, I’m going to keep an eye on him today and wet down his next batch of feed.”

[Beethoven]

Thanks for all the opinions! I have a similar battle in my head. We will no matter what not have hoses but have the pipe directly empty into buckets if go that way.

I am leaning towards auto waterer. To be honest, I put one in their field that they are currently in. It has a drain hole to help clean it which I love. I would likely go with the same in their stalls. I saw the inline water monitors and will likely installs those as well. My husband will also have a shut off valve at each so we can shut them off if we need to hang buckets and monitor intake etc.

They both get their feed soaked anyways since one is old(26) and the other has had choking issues in the past. So I know they get water that way for sure, but I do prefer auto waterers for sure.

Thanks again for all the opinions.

[walkinthewalk]

We had waters for the milk cows when they were in their stanchions; I didn’t even like that.

After all these years, I still prefer to do things the old fashioned way ------ buckets ------ heated buckets in the winter. I want to exactly how much they drink every single day.

[Palm_Beach]

@Bluey

Me too, having been where they had those small automatic waterers, the lack of a larger supply is something I was never comfortable with.
Sure, larger waterers are way not as clean, but when you see horses come up to a very clean, fresh water trough and stop first to drink out of a muddy puddle, before drinking and dunking their faces in the trough, I wonder how much that super clean little water source is better for horses than the larger waterers.

I expect there is a place for everything, a different preference for each horse and manager, why there are so many choices out there.

IKR! Horse can handle way way way more dirt and bacteria than we give them credit for. I always wonder about the people who religiously scrub out water buckets daily, but keep the horse confined in the stall pooping and peeing and sleeping in dirty bedding…

[GrayMare]

After installing Nelsons in our paddocks and fields, I would love to make the transition to auto waterers in the barn also. If I were building new construction I would absolutely do the auto waterers in the stalls if the budget allowed. IME, auto waterers stay cleaner, there is fresh water every time a horse drinks, the horses drink more, and they are also help eliminate human error in terms of watering. Of course, there also is a huge savings in terms of labor. Carrying and dumping and scrubbing and refilling two buckets per stall is a big time expenditure and hard on the shoulders. Swiping out a bowl is quick and easy. Personally, I’m less concerned with dirt and bacteria, and more concerned about encouraging hard working horses or picky layups to drink. IME most horses prefer to drink from the auto waterers vs. buckets.

[Encourage]

Where I board in one of the barns they ran water lines to each stall so you could fill up buckets without dragging hoses, but they aren’t auto exactly.

Having been at a barn with auto waterers, if it were me I would not choose them. I’ve seen them freeze, and I would much rather monitor water intake when it’s cold then hope for the best.

[Fairview_Horse_Cente]

My favorite system was piping and faucet into each stall, just above the water bucket. We still had to manually water, but super easy. We did have it slightly angled to easily drain by opening them all up, if going below freezing. There was also a shut off valve at the top of each aisle, to turn off - to make sure they were not played with and left running.