deadLOCC3D
In the Brooder
- Mar 27, 2018
- 6
- 25
- 41
For anybody trying to set up a 55 gallon barrel waterer for your chickens, there are some things that I learned along the way while building mine.
Briefing of my situation:
I have a coop that is 30'x16' split half way along the 16' and each half has 6 runs for a total of 12 runs with a dimension of 8'x5'. 6 of the runs contains a single hen and her chicks ranging from 6-10 chicks each and the rest have a mix of a single rooster and 2-3 hens. They are all game fowls and require their own space or else they would try to fight to the death to protect their babies. maintaining clean water in a shallow plate proved to be too time consuming
Maintaining a clean water supply for all of them proved to be difficult. Every day, their water plate got cloudy. The solution - Get a 55 gallong barrle for $20 bucks.
Materials that I used:
10x 10' pvc pipes (3/4")
A bunch of pvc elbows, T's and caps
48 watering nipples (bought 50 from amazon for $15)
Bulk head fitting (for tapping into the barrel)
Ball valve.
PVC glue
Gorilla silicone caulk
The build and the problems and finally the solution:
Each run has 4 nipples. 2 situated 19" off the ground and 4 situated 4 and 6 inches off the ground for the chicks.
At first, I attached the nipples directly to the PVC pipes that ran along the whole structure. After turning on the water, they all leaked where the nipple connected to the pvc pipe. I used a GE silicone caulk to try to resolve this issue, but the leak persisted. The issue here is that the pipes are too rounded fo the o-ring on the nipples to create a water tight seal. The silicone caulk I used was the worst I've ever dealt with. Even after a day the seal was broken. I opened the valve and it was still leaking. I decided to keep it on to check the rate of water loss. The next day, the barrel was empty. I was so frustrated so, I took a different approach as outlined below.
I took off each nipple and cut the pipe everywhere nipples used to be. Each of these cuts will later be reconnected with the modified nipple attachment that I created. Each nipple is built by connecting a PVC T to a cap. The cap is drilled and threaded using a 1/8 - 27 N.P.T. thread tap. After threading, I filed the caps to create a flat surface for the nipples to be attached. After reattaching the nipples, I was very happy that none of the nipples leaked where they were attached. No silicone was required to create a water tight seal.
However, I did face another problem. The nipples themselves were now leaking. I thought that I had received faulty nipples and was ready to return them. I decided to leave the valve open again and again, all the water leaked out of it the next day. To be honest, this wasn't all that bad. The chicks and hens learned how to use their nipples from seeing the water drip out of them
.
To diagnose the problem, each nipple can be opened. When you open a nipple, there are two shafts and a ball bearing that prevents water from leaking. Opening each nipple, I noticed that some of them had very little water pressure. I stuck a nail into the hole that taps into the pipe and noticed a rush of pvc shavings come out of them. I looked into the bottom half of the nipple and also noticed a pvc shaving stuck between the ball bearing and the shaft of the lower half of the nipple. Now, I had a clear idea of how to fix the issue, but it would take several nights before the issue would be resolved. For a week, I opened up each nippled to flush out the pvc shavings. After all said and done, no more leakage! Now they can all have clean vitamin water without much effort from me.
The Moral of the Story:
Take time to clean out the pvc shavings before attaching everything. Doing so will prevent a lot of the later frustrations of a leaky system.
Briefing of my situation:
I have a coop that is 30'x16' split half way along the 16' and each half has 6 runs for a total of 12 runs with a dimension of 8'x5'. 6 of the runs contains a single hen and her chicks ranging from 6-10 chicks each and the rest have a mix of a single rooster and 2-3 hens. They are all game fowls and require their own space or else they would try to fight to the death to protect their babies. maintaining clean water in a shallow plate proved to be too time consuming
Maintaining a clean water supply for all of them proved to be difficult. Every day, their water plate got cloudy. The solution - Get a 55 gallong barrle for $20 bucks.
Materials that I used:
10x 10' pvc pipes (3/4")
A bunch of pvc elbows, T's and caps
48 watering nipples (bought 50 from amazon for $15)
Bulk head fitting (for tapping into the barrel)
Ball valve.
PVC glue
Gorilla silicone caulk
The build and the problems and finally the solution:
Each run has 4 nipples. 2 situated 19" off the ground and 4 situated 4 and 6 inches off the ground for the chicks.
At first, I attached the nipples directly to the PVC pipes that ran along the whole structure. After turning on the water, they all leaked where the nipple connected to the pvc pipe. I used a GE silicone caulk to try to resolve this issue, but the leak persisted. The issue here is that the pipes are too rounded fo the o-ring on the nipples to create a water tight seal. The silicone caulk I used was the worst I've ever dealt with. Even after a day the seal was broken. I opened the valve and it was still leaking. I decided to keep it on to check the rate of water loss. The next day, the barrel was empty. I was so frustrated so, I took a different approach as outlined below.
I took off each nipple and cut the pipe everywhere nipples used to be. Each of these cuts will later be reconnected with the modified nipple attachment that I created. Each nipple is built by connecting a PVC T to a cap. The cap is drilled and threaded using a 1/8 - 27 N.P.T. thread tap. After threading, I filed the caps to create a flat surface for the nipples to be attached. After reattaching the nipples, I was very happy that none of the nipples leaked where they were attached. No silicone was required to create a water tight seal.
However, I did face another problem. The nipples themselves were now leaking. I thought that I had received faulty nipples and was ready to return them. I decided to leave the valve open again and again, all the water leaked out of it the next day. To be honest, this wasn't all that bad. The chicks and hens learned how to use their nipples from seeing the water drip out of them
.To diagnose the problem, each nipple can be opened. When you open a nipple, there are two shafts and a ball bearing that prevents water from leaking. Opening each nipple, I noticed that some of them had very little water pressure. I stuck a nail into the hole that taps into the pipe and noticed a rush of pvc shavings come out of them. I looked into the bottom half of the nipple and also noticed a pvc shaving stuck between the ball bearing and the shaft of the lower half of the nipple. Now, I had a clear idea of how to fix the issue, but it would take several nights before the issue would be resolved. For a week, I opened up each nippled to flush out the pvc shavings. After all said and done, no more leakage! Now they can all have clean vitamin water without much effort from me.
The Moral of the Story:
Take time to clean out the pvc shavings before attaching everything. Doing so will prevent a lot of the later frustrations of a leaky system.
