I'm with the chickenman. When I looked at the two online, the nipple just seemed so much simpler. I ended up getting the 360 nipple from Farmtek supply (I think that was the name) and they were like $2 each. I mounted them on a 3/4" PVC pipe that is gravity fed from a 5 gallon bucket.
Now that this is operational, I doubt I would ever do anything different. My water supply lasts about 9 days before needed to be refilled and there is NO mess in the pen.
The watering system is inexpensive and VERY easy to set up.
The drip cups below the nipple in sytems available for industrial poultry ARE NOT for the birds to drink ffom. They are to provide a collection point for the waste water that the bird does not consume while getting water from the niipple. The real purpose of the drip cup is to prevent wet litter.
The only use for a drip cup in the industrial poultry industry is to collect the drippage from a poorly managed sytstem or to collect waste from high delivery nipples in broiler breeder houses in hot climates, Yeah - they may look like they will work as an altenative way for the bird to drink but let me assure you that a bird drinking from the leakage into q drip cup is spending a night on the town in e coli ciity.