Anyone ever put a automatic dishwasher in their barn/coop?

[CarolJ]

I have electricity in my chicken house. It's wonderful! The brooder is out there - and as soon as new chicks are dry and fluffy - that's where they go. I don't have water out there, but I wish I did. I just want a big sink so I can rinse out and fill the waterers without going outside. However, it's no big deal to take them to the faucet next to the house. For me, having a dishwasher in the coop would be more trouble than it would be worth. I scrub my waterers with a brush every couple weeks. Otherwise, I rinse and fill. I'd rather use the space for storage or another pen.

 

[redhen]

Gooood idea!!!

 

[Yonaton]

Over the top. Sounds impractical as can be. It'll cost a pretty penny to get electricity to the coop. If they and you have been fine so far w/out it, why waste the money? The dishwasher is an electricity hog also. The work involved doing the electricity and then to drain the water far enough away from the coop and where the birds range (thought about any other animals where you feel like draining the water to? Like all the wild one?) is just work that doesn't seem necessary. If it was *you* who would have to do all that extra work, how do you think you'd feel then? Got the spare change to pay for all the new electrical use?

Seems to me the easiest thing to do is wash the water bowl when it needs it and be happy. All I have is 300 feet of hose running to the coop. In winter, I can't use it because being a gimp it's far too hard for me to run back and forth turning it on and off as I need to and then walking the hose to drain it so the water doesn't freeze inside it and burst my hose making me spend more money for new hose. I have to walk to the coop twice a day (the coop's 250' away) to let the chickens out and close up the coop at night. If they need water, I take the waterer to the house after I close them up at night and wash it out in the sink in the morning and fill it and carry it back to the coop when I let them out. It's a heated waterer that holds 3 and a half gallons IIRR. It hurts me terribly but I do it as it's simply the easiest and cheapest way to do things (torn tendons and muscles on the whole left half of my back that never healed and two crushed discs). Remember the KISS principle.

 

[AlienChick]

For me a dishwasher would be a bit over the top.
But having electricity, running water and possibly a sink would be AWESOME!

 

[wyoDreamer]

Since you have an old, used dishwasher, that doesn't have any other use - why not? You could build a cabinet around it to keep out the dust. Plus it would give you a work surface on top. You're problably going to only use it once a week or so, so what's the big deal with increased electric use. When it dies, you still have electricity and running water in the coop.

That being said, what do your building codes say?
In our area, you can build a garage without a permit, but the minute you run electricity to it - wammo, $200 permit required.