Chicken Nipple watering system - what size pipe to use?

[206ChickenGuy]

Hi all, I am building a coop feeder and watering system for my baby chicks and am curious to see if anyone has any input on the size of pipe that work best. I just got a bunch of free 2" schedule 40 PVC pipe and bunch of fittings but looking at it, it just seems big for the application. I am guessing it would work fine just seeing if anyone has good or bad experiences with various dimensions of pipe. Seems like most are made of 1 1/2 inch pipe but I cant find any diameters on these threads (really surprised). I know it will hold more water and be heavier because of that, any other issues?

I'll be using 4 threaded style nipples that comes with little rubber O-ring, they look to be good quality, 1 nipple will be inside the coop and the other 3 will be underneath the coop.

Black Austrolorps and 2 Red Star, just turned 1 week old today!!!

 

[Desert Brooder]

This is my chicks drinking from the waterer my husband made. This one is made frome 1 1/4 pvc pipe but our next one will be made from 2 inch as it will hold more water also we are going to make it in a U shape with the nipples running along the bottom of the U. My husband said to sand the pipe to make a flat spot for the nipple to rest tightly and he used a 10 mm fine thread tap to make the hole for the nipples to go into and he used plumbers tape on the nipples. They only drip when the chicks are drinking. My sister said her day old chicks were too small to move the nipples to make the water come out but my older chicks have no proublem.

 

[sonjaohull]

I am trying to to put together a chicken nipple watering system. I bought 2" schedule 40 pipe so that I could put a drain on it. But @#€¥•! I can't get the the nipples to thread! Worked all morning and finally decided to quit drilling holes look for help. He threads on these nipples are so tiny, I don't know if they could've thread into anything? Is there one with larger threads?

 

[Mac in Wisco]

I finally got mine done using 2" schedule 40 PVC pipe. Hooked it up, turned it on and it did fine for a little while! Just went to check and I blew out a nipple! Lol No, really, one of the nipples blew completely out of the pipe! In the morning I'll be back out there. I have it plumbed to my water at the barn so the pressure is a little too high and I'm hoping to be able to adjust it with the cut off valve I plumbed in. Wish me luck!
It's only taken a year to get this far!

They aren't made to run at high pressure. A standard valve won't reduce the pressure either. When there is no flow the pressure will equalize to same pressure on both sides of the valve. You have to have a pressure regulator. Desert Brooder's photo above shows a system gravity fed from a bucket that refills via a float valve. That is an effective pressure regulator, the pressure being governed by the height of the water in the bucket... We have commercial watering lines with built in regulators. The pressure is usually adjusted to 6" - 8" of water column pressure, the equivalent of about about one quarter psi (.25 PSI).

 

[ShockValue]

I'm curious about this question too. I doubt it matters, but would like input from people who have them in use..

 

[ladycat]

The standard size is 1/2" (1/2" being the inner diameter).

 

[randerson846]

Show pics when done

 

[Desert Brooder]

We just bought Pvc to make feeder-and waterer I will post photos and pipe dementions when we are done

 

[randerson846]

Ok, thanks

 

[randerson846]

Ok thanks