Richie ball water tanks

[kenny thomas]

Installed two Richie ball tanks in the barn and catch lot yesterday and the guy installing them said to pour vegetable oil around the inside of the lid in the grove the lid sets in. He said it would help keep any air out and help keep it from freezing. Anybody do this or have any tips to help keep them working?

 

[dun]

Installed two Richie ball tanks in the barn and catch lot yesterday and the guy installing them said to pour vegetable oil around the inside of the lid in the grove the lid sets in. He said it would help keep any air out and help keep it from freezing. Anybody do this or have any tips to help keep them working?

Set the water height so that the ball jsut misses seating by about 1/8-1/4 inch

 

[cowsrus]

I put some of those Richie water tanks in last year and i poured some cheap vegetable oil in the grooves per the instructions and i have not had any freeze up problems yet. One of the reasons listed was to make it easier to remove if you needed to, but i also think it helps the seal.

 

[novaman]

I never heard of the oil thing. Sounds like a good idea. I just put the cover on with nothing and don't have a problem as long as the heater doesn't burn out.

 

[msscamp]

Installed two Richie ball tanks in the barn and catch lot yesterday and the guy installing them said to pour vegetable oil around the inside of the lid in the grove the lid sets in. He said it would help keep any air out and help keep it from freezing. Anybody do this or have any tips to help keep them working?

Hope it doesn't get below about -15 degrees. It got down to -25 the other day and the waterer froze up solid, but that is the first time this winter that it did that. I have to knock the balls loose on a pretty regular basis, but I can deal with that. It's the whole damn thing freezing up that drives me nuts.

 

[novaman]

Hope it doesn't get below about -15 degrees. It got down to -25 the other day and the waterer froze up solid, but that is the first time this winter that it did that. I have to knock the balls loose on a pretty regular basis, but I can deal with that. It's the whole be nice thing freezing up that drives me nuts.

Don't you have a heater in your tank?

 

[msscamp]

Hope it doesn't get below about -15 degrees. It got down to -25 the other day and the waterer froze up solid, but that is the first time this winter that it did that. I have to knock the balls loose on a pretty regular basis, but I can deal with that. It's the whole be nice thing freezing up that drives me nuts.

Don't you have a heater in your tank?

No, there is no electricity available where that waterer is installed.

 

[kenny thomas]

Hope it doesn't get below about -15 degrees. It got down to -25 the other day and the waterer froze up solid, but that is the first time this winter that it did that. I have to knock the balls loose on a pretty regular basis, but I can deal with that. It's the whole be nice thing freezing up that drives me nuts.

Don't you have a heater in your tank?

What type of heater do you use? It very rarely gets below 10F here. Will I need one?

 

[novaman]

What type of heater do you use? It very rarely gets below 10F here. Will I need one?

I would think at 10 above you would be alright without one. The worst that could probably happen is the balls freeze up a little, especially if you have a stiff wind. Usually the cows will break them loose in such a case. The other variable is how many head you have drinking out of the tank. We have a 4 holer that waters 150 cows and that thing will never freeze up because of the constant filling with warmer water. I have 3 other 4 holers but they only have small numbers drinking from them. I use a 500 watt heater in those and as long as the heater is working they never freeze up with -25 temps. Problem I have is I can't find a good heater that will last for more than a year or two and you never know when one is going to fail.

Msscamp, I realize it is too late now but I would recommend anybody in a northern climate installing these "energy free tanks" should strongly consider burying a wire along with the water line. You don't have to use it but if you find your waterers are freezing it is much easier to put one in with the line already to the tank.

 

[pdfangus]

I live in central virginia and have three Richies and a Mirafount and the coldest we have ever been is a few degrees below zero and have never had one freeze when we were using it.

the wafer disc can freeze if ther is falling and freezing weather . Normally the cows will free them themselves. for calves you might have to break them loose for them.

We just put water in the groove for sealing and have never opened two of them since they went in eight years ago.

 

[novaman]

We just put water in the groove for sealing and have never opened two of them since they went in eight years ago.

How do you clean them without opening them up?

 

[pdfangus]

They are totally enclosed. no sunlight. no problems. several hundred gallons of water per day throught them. I guarantee you they are cleaner now than the pond we fenced the cows out of was.
I learneda long time ago that if it ain't broke , don't try to fix it. I got enough stuff that is broke to keep me busy.

 

[larryshoat]

I got 1 mirafount and I go out every morning and break the balls loose. It's never frozen, but I don't like the balls for smaller cattle.

Larry

 

[pdfangus]

I have never measured them but I would bet that you could buy some wafer discs from richie and replace the balls in the mirafount.

I don't know that I am ambitious enough to exchange them in two of my water troughs to try it but I might measure the two holes this weekend to see if it would work.

 

[cowsrus]

Went out last to check my "freeze proof" waterer and the balls were at the bottom of the tank. Got down to -31 the nite before and apparently, something froze. Too cold last nite so i'm going out pretty soon and just hope nothing is busted.
BTW- no heater because it never gets that cold around here. That was the coldest temp ever recorded in Oklahoma. I'm not blaming the waterer, just telling what happened. Never had any problems before with it.

 

[cowsrus]

Ckecked my waterer today and nothing was busted. I think what happened was due to a power outage earlier in the day at subzero temperatures and with the cattle still drinking, the water plant (city water) shut down and we lost all our water pressure and the water level dropped and let cold air down into the waterer tank and froze everything up. Seems to be ok after i got it thawed out used a propane torch and hot water. I'm speculating thats what happened and i think we would have been ok if the water level hadn't dropped. Thats assuming the temperatures wouldn't have stayed sub zero for long

 

[msscamp]

What type of heater do you use? It very rarely gets below 10F here. Will I need one?

I would think at 10 above you would be alright without one. The worst that could probably happen is the balls freeze up a little, especially if you have a stiff wind. Usually the cows will break them loose in such a case. The other variable is how many head you have drinking out of the tank. We have a 4 holer that waters 150 cows and that thing will never freeze up because of the constant filling with warmer water. I have 3 other 4 holers but they only have small numbers drinking from them. I use a 500 watt heater in those and as long as the heater is working they never freeze up with -25 temps. Problem I have is I can't find a good heater that will last for more than a year or two and you never know when one is going to fail.

Msscamp, I realize it is too late now but I would recommend anybody in a northern climate installing these "energy free tanks" should strongly consider burying a wire along with the water line. You don't have to use it but if you find your waterers are freezing it is much easier to put one in with the line already to the tank.

Yeah, I think they misrepresented the waterer's capabilities just a bit, but it would have required a whole lot of trenching to tap into a readily available electricity source. Actually it's not that big of a deal as the waterer has only frozen up 2 to 3 times this winter. Take the top off, pour a gallon or 2 of hot water down the water line, and life is good. As a bonus, thawing it out keeps me off the streets and out of trouble. :lol: I wouldn't count on the cows being able to knock the balls loose at 10 degrees above zero. Those little suckers can freeze right tight and hard. I've actually spent more time carrying hot water out there to free up the balls than I have thawing out the waterer itself. One also has to be careful because it isn't all that hard to break the balls if you get carried away with banging on them trying to knock them loose - especially in cold weather. I use the handle end of the pitchfork a couple of times and, if they don't break loose, go get some hot water. Pain in the ass, but it beats the alternative.