Fitting Automatic Waterers

[misshubblebubble]

Hello

I want to install automatic water into my stables but I'm not sure how to go about it - do I just hire a plumber?

Also, would really appreciate it if anyone could recommend which type of bowl to use - I would prefer something big as I don't like the little ones where the horse has to sip out of them.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions. xx

 

[Booboos]

I don't know much about plumbing but OH and I did ours by ourselves. You need some piping which you can get from any DIY store and you need to run that ideally where horses can't reach it and fix it along the wall coming down. Then it's a matter of connecting the drinker, which usually comes with all the relevant bits and pieces and instructions on how to put them all together. We did use the standard small ones and I don't find any horse ever sucks them dry as such. One problem with troughs in the stable is that if the horse rolls it can catch itself on the trough and injure its legs (I had that happen to mine in a livery yard where they had put outside troughs in the stables), so I would go for the small, wall mounted ones.

 

[RobinHood]

We have these ones: http://www.estatesupplies.co.uk/agricult.../prod_2011.html

They are 9 litres so the horse can have a good long drink but they're easy to clean out because it's only one standard bucketful of water. To clean them you just put a bucket underneath, remove the drinker lid, hold up the ball and remove the plug. They're not difficult to install you just need lots of blue pipe

 

[flyingfeet]

My lovely father installed mine last week!

We went for the little ones, as had trouble with the small ball value type before constantly overflowing.

We now have relatively small bowls and float values they have to push to drink. Oddly the horse that liked playing with ball values took the longest to learn!!

We used galvinised pipe in the horse area with a tap for each drinker and then all connected up to blue pipe which is run up high in our barn.

So you either need a plumber or someone handy to install them, push fittings and blue pipe is definitely the way forward.

We put in Suevia's 12P's
http://www.suevia.com/sueviaweb/front/products.jsf

 

[Highstep]

I have the small galvanised ones and find them fine. look on requisites website they have all sorts - Sometimes find waterers leak at the point where the pipe joins and need tightening every so often but no major prob leak is a drip and easy to spot and just use a wrench.

My 3 year old had a larger one before only problem is if you have a horse that likes to play they will litterally bail out the drinker -all over your bed soaking it

-I found this behaviour is easier managed by using a smaller bowl . But you probably dont have one of theese "special" horses!

When you install, get taps put in the pipes above the drinker much easier to turn one off rather than tie up the ball. That way you can also turn off easier if you want to monitor say a sick horses water in take.

 

[misshubblebubble]

Thank you everyone for your advice.

I quite like the look of the estate supplies drinker and the seperate tap for each one is a great idea - would never have thought of that!

Sadly Highstep, I don't have a "special" horse - such a shame! LOL!