The Best Water Heaters?

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote: Many "fountain" types fill from the top and never have to be flipped at all
I fill mine with a hose, and almost never need to lift it when it's full

Only the water in the very bottom pan can get dirty, and cleaning it out only takes a few seconds because you just dump it out and set it back down so it can refill

If it's set up properly, very little dirt and litter get inside

 

[keeskrazy]

I feel the same way. I only have a small flock of 9 so not much work, but the work I do have to do I like to do at a minimum. Since the water is up off the floor of the coop, it really doesn't get too dirt with litter. If there is some overnight I just take it outside the coop and tip it over till it empties out the junk and put it right back in the coop. I will take the water out every three days at the least and give it a scrub anyway so doing what I do suits me just fine.
The waterer is at a good height for drinking since its up off the floor and pretty much stays clean unless they are really throwing the litter around.

The coop we have is a 5x6 so just enough room for the girls to roost in since there isn't much floor space. Not much floor space but we have it enclosed in a 10x32 panel fencing with the top closed. I am hoping things will be better this winter and not much picking at each other as last winter as we covered 10x20 of the enclosure with the clear fiberglass panels. Most of that area should stay pretty dry so they have a choice to either stay inside with their door open our roam around outside in the enclosure. They do have a gate to pasture outside and into my garden every day but once the snow comes that will most likely stop.

 

[yyz0yyz0]

Yes, these are the plans I used to make mine. I went even further with the insulation idea. I have two layers of the foil bubble warp around it, secured with wire. I took an extra 5gal pail lid and cut and drilled it to fit on the bottom of the bucket with the nipples sticking out. I then put an additional layer of Styrofoam on the bottom of the bucket and used this cut up lid to protect the styrofoam from the chickens so they can't get to it. I also took a leftover piece of 1" foil backed foam and cut it into a circle that fits about halfway down into the main water bucket. The heat tape is only on the bottom 2-3" inches of the pail and I only put 3-4" of water in it at a time so I am able to lower this insulation circle down into the bucket without it touching the water. It add another layer of insulation.

Well it got down into the low 20's last night and my heated waterer was working fine. My rain barrels had about 1/2" of ice on the top of them, but when I went into the run and tested the nipples the water was flowing and it felt slightly warm. So the heat tape with the insulated bucket appears that it's gonna be working fine for me. I will still be checking the water flow every morning when I go out but I"m feeling pretty confident about it working through the winter.

 

[Melinda48]

We bought one like this for our first winter here in mid-MO. It only worked for half the season and we returned it. Does brand matter here?