Automatic Poultry Nipples

CBDean

In the Brooder
Jul 1, 2022
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Rebuilding coop for this winter and will be installing automatic waters. Due to the freezing weather, we get in Missouri I plan to install them in the house and will need the best type "leak-proof" ones I can find. Any suggestion on which has the best? I do know all will leak at times.
 
I have had both vertical and horizontal nipples. I live in an area where winters are below freezing. The vertical nipples can be a bit harder to protect from freezing, but they almost never got stuck and leaked.

Then I switched to horizontal nipples when the vertical nipples wore out. While being a bit easier to protect against freezing, these new nipples leak like crazy as the chickens' dirty beaks leave material on the nipples that get lodged in the seals, requiring frequent manipulation to clean them to stop the leaks.

Don't get me wrong. I adore nipple water systems due to having clean water for the chickens without needing to clean and refill them daily. Nipples are really the best way to go when deciding what water system you are going to have. But choose which kind will be kindest to you.
 
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I have had both vertical and horizontal nipples. I live in an area where winters are below freezing. The horizontal nipples can be a bit harder to protect from freezing, but they almost never got stuck and leaked.

Then I switched to horizontal nipples when the vertical nipples wore out. While being a bit easier to protect against freezing, these new nipples leak like crazy as the chickens' dirty beaks leave material on the nipples that get lodged in the seals, requiring frequent manipulation to clean them to stop the leaks.

Don't get me wrong. I adore nipple water systems due to having clean water for the chickens without needing to clean and refill them daily. Nipples are really the best way to go when deciding what water system you are going to have. But choose which kind will be kindest to you.
I think you may have transposed which leaked the most in the 2nd paragraph. Please let me know which is what. Thanks for the reply
 
I think I fixed it on edit. My brain seems to have developed a sort of oppositional dyslexia where I end up doing the opposite of what my brain tells me to do.

To confirm, it was vertical nipples that were more reliably leak free. Horizonal nipples have a tendency to leak when dirt from the beaks gets worked into the inner seal. It requires manipulation to flush out the dirt particle from the seal. I also found that putting a little castor oil on the seals before you install them can help them seal better.
 
Rebuilding coop for this winter and will be installing automatic waters. Due to the freezing weather, we get in Missouri I plan to install them in the house and will need the best type "leak-proof" ones I can find. Any suggestion on which has the best? I do know all will leak at times.

Horizontal chicken nipples have worked well for me. I have a post HERE about what I did and links for what I used. Birdbath deicers work well to keep the water from freezing, and we got down to -20F wind chill here last winter. I did need to push the stainless pins in once or twice to loosen them up on really cold mornings.

As for leaking, I've not had any problems with the nipples themselves leaking, but the buckets can crack where the nipples screw in. Easily fixed - remove the nipple, dry the area inside and out, and put a small square of duct or Gorilla tape inside and outside where the crack is. Replace the nipple and you're good to go! I have a post about that HERE.
 
Horizontal nipples are far less likely to leak than vertical nipples under normal operation,
unless there is an installation issue.
They are also far more functional to keep thawed, with proper water heating.
 
I used horizontal nipples on my pvc closed loop, heated system I have in coop. I love them. Leaked at first ( cause surface has a small curve to it) but hubby sealed with JB Weld at pvc union at that was 2 years ago.
I do have them on a trash can waterer outside and that gets a plastic safe stock tank heater in it and it worked great last winter. ( the year before the ice split the trash can in half!!) The cup waterer freeze up in winter.
 

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