Chicken bucket Water with Nipples ..Cheap!!!

[paneubert]

The vertical nipples have a metal rod the full length and that rod conducts heat. I haven't had one freeze up ever. Now, granted I use a de-icer and the bucket is indoors so not out in the wind. It also doesn't get colder than maybe -2F once every five years here. But, I'm not understanding how positioning the rod horizontally makes it less prone to freezing. It's still just a metal rod in a plastic housing, right?

Because the vertical usually has a drop of water hanging from it that freezes while the horizontal does not. The horizontal is usually "dry" when not in use.

 

[blackdog043]

But, I'm not understanding how positioning the rod horizontally makes it less prone to freezing. It's still just a metal rod in a plastic housing, right?

From reading on here, they are made differently and people have them freeze. I think the water sits inside the plastic housing on the verticals, but water doesn't enter the plastic on the horizontals until the rod is moved. I only use horizontal and never looked at verticals myself, so just reporting what quite a few people on here have said. Whats the ambient temperature where your waterer is kept?

 

[debid]

From reading on here, they are made differently and people have them freeze. I think the water sits inside the plastic housing on the verticals, but water doesn't enter the plastic on the horizontals until the rod is moved. I only use horizontal and never looked at verticals myself, so just reporting what quite a few people on here have said. Whats the ambient temperature where your waterer is kept?

Ah. I think it's a rumour started by someone selling horizontal nipples
I'm in middle TN, zone 6a. Happy to report that vertical poultry nipples don't "freeze up" here. I also don't have "leaky" nipples but that's nothing to do with my location

 

[paneubert]

Ah. I think it's a rumour started by someone selling horizontal nipples
I'm in middle TN, zone 6a. Happy to report that vertical poultry nipples don't "freeze up" here. I also don't have "leaky" nipples but that's nothing to do with my location

Your logic about the metal pin extending thru and being a good conductor of heat is sound logic. I think the problem is that for some people the metal pin is a double edged sword. It conducts heat well and can keep the nipple thawed if the water is being heated, but for people with frigid temps, the metal pin also can conduct the cold into the container from the outside air. Yeah, science tells us that heat flows from hot areas to cold areas (fast/excited atoms exciting the slower atoms next to them, warming them up), but I think the long metal pin still can be both good and bad depending on how extreme the temperatures you are dealing with are.

I wish I could find it......I swear I saw a photo that showed ice forming on the INSIDE of a water bucket, all around the vertical nipple where it extended on the inside of the bucket. Like a little submerged iceberg inside the bottom of the water filled bucket. Liquid water all around it, but frozen nipple.

I am on team horizontal, but I don't hate on the vertical people. Unless you have leaky verticals. Then I don't have any sympathy. Haha.

EDIT: I tried to Google for an image. I can tell you that "frozen vertical nipple" does not produce the correct image results. Hahaha.

 

[debid]

Your logic about the metal pin extending thru and being a good conductor of heat is sound logic. I think the problem is that for some people the metal pin is a double edged sword. It conducts heat well and can keep the nipple thawed if the water is being heated, but for people with frigid temps, the metal pin also can conduct the cold into the container from the outside air. Yeah, science tells us that heat flows from hot areas to cold areas (fast/excited atoms exciting the slower atoms next to them, warming them up), but I think the long metal pin still can be both good and bad depending on how extreme the temperatures you are dealing with are.

I wish I could find it......I swear I saw a photo that showed ice forming on the INSIDE of a water bucket, all around the vertical nipple where it extended on the inside of the bucket. Like a little submerged iceberg inside the bottom of the water filled bucket. Liquid water all around it, but frozen nipple.

I am on team horizontal, but I don't hate on the vertical people. Unless you have leaky verticals. Then I don't have any sympathy. Haha.

The de-icer sits on the bottom of the container inches from those metal rods. I really don't see how they could freeze with a heated bucket. And the horizontal ones are identical in design except for adding a spring to fight gravity, are they not?

 

[paneubert]

The de-icer sits on the bottom of the container inches from those metal rods. I really don't see how they could freeze with a heated bucket. And the horizontal ones are identical in design except for adding a spring to fight gravity, are they not?

The horizontal actually have a lot less metal in the water. Just a little flat metal "nail head" surface with an O-Ring around it. All the rest of the metal is encased in plastic on the inside.

Best examples I could find.

 

[debid]

Your logic about the metal pin extending thru and being a good conductor of heat is sound logic. I think the problem is that for some people the metal pin is a double edged sword. It conducts heat well and can keep the nipple thawed if the water is being heated, but for people with frigid temps, the metal pin also can conduct the cold into the container from the outside air. Yeah, science tells us that heat flows from hot areas to cold areas (fast/excited atoms exciting the slower atoms next to them, warming them up), but I think the long metal pin still can be both good and bad depending on how extreme the temperatures you are dealing with are.

I wish I could find it......I swear I saw a photo that showed ice forming on the INSIDE of a water bucket, all around the vertical nipple where it extended on the inside of the bucket. Like a little submerged iceberg inside the bottom of the water filled bucket. Liquid water all around it, but frozen nipple.

I am on team horizontal, but I don't hate on the vertical people. Unless you have leaky verticals. Then I don't have any sympathy. Haha.

EDIT: I tried to Google for an image. I can tell you that "frozen vertical nipple" does not produce the correct image results. Hahaha.

I bet that was a fun Google!

It makes sense that water would freeze around the metal pin just as it freezes at the surface before the middle. I just doubt it's a significant enough difference to be able to use one style but not the other in sub-freezing temperatures without a de-icer. If I didn't have electricity to rely on, I wouldn't use either nipple style in winter. I'd use black rubber pans and be grumpy that I couldn't go on vacation...

 

[rosemarythyme]

I don't doubt there's different types of pins in nipples but I've had vertical ones freeze in the past (the water inside the unit was still 100% liquid, so it was just the part of the pin hanging down that froze) and this year switched to horizontal, which didn't freeze despite many more days of freezing temps.

My chickens definitely preferred the vertical ones but for the fact I don't have to sit out in the snow with a cup of hot water, thawing nipples, I'll happily stick with horizontal for now.