For those with 3 gallon waterer- Help!

[shakecc]

We just put our 5 week old chicks in their newly constructed coop. I bought one of the 3 gallon waterer that uses the vaccuum to self water. It does not appear to be working and continues to run over. I tightened the lid and it appeared to stop flowing, but within a minutes it slowly began to overflow again. There is a rubber ring on the threads...could be this be in the wrong place? Should it be at the bottom the treads? I am trying to figure out if this is operator error or problem with the waterer.

thanks!

 

[Buster]

Let me run out and look at my waterer.

 

[Buster]

The rubber seal should be at the lip of the waterer, above the threads. Make sure it's tight and make sure that the lip and the ring aren't damaged.

 

[MaransGuy]

Be sure that the cap is threaded on properly. If it is cross threaded it may feel ok but it will not seal and you will get that leak. I had someone do that to my 5 gallon waterer while watching my birds and it flooded the floor of my coop!

Richard

 

[LynneP]

I had the same problem and one of the men at the hardware store said to grease the o-ring liberally with vaseline. Worked like a charm! I keep a tube in the barn now.

These waterers are not very good in cold weather, though, even with the vaseline. I switched to 1-gallon fountains without 0-rings and I let the feral cats use the original one.

 

[Frogdogtimestwo]

.

 

[MissPrissy]

Make sure you are sitting it level too.

 

[pips&peeps]

Little rubber thingy on the lip

level

little cap on tight

don't over tighten the top

listen for a sucking noise as this indicates too much air and there is going to be a problem......

After I place the water for the chickens I either wait til the bottom fills or fill it up with a cup and see if it continues to flow or if it levels out before assuming I have done everything correctly as I have flooded my pen too many times.

 

[Curlita]

Is it a Little Giant? I am having the same trouble! I will have to inspect it, because I don't think mine has an o-ring. It was behaving for the first couple weeks I had it. I'm hoping it was operator error and using the info in this thread I can overcome the problem. It seems to be a slow leak in the case of mine.

 

[lovemychicks9]

I made it much simpler on myself and threw mine across the barnyard and went to TSC and got a plain old 3 gallon screw on bottom one just like the 1 gallon only bigger and it is sooo much simpler and no rubber o ring to mess up and no leaking either.