Ritchie Waterer

[bullred]

Anybody using a Ritchie automatic waterer, or any other brand of automatice waterer for livestock? Any thoughts are experiences on this subject would be appreciated.

CJ

 

[endebt]

i have tried hudson, little giant, and gilbert(sp). they all seem to seep at one time or another. they allow the tanks to run over when you dont need them to. i think i am going to build my own. i am thinking of using a tolit float set up . i just hope i can plumb it to my water supply.

 

[Tennessee Cattleman]

I have 2 of the Richie Thrifty King waterers & really like them. Mine don't seep or freeze & are about 5 years old.

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,

I have 1 2-hole Behlen Country Freedom Fountain. Installed it in 1994. It has been fantastic here. Even on the coldest here (Northern Virginia) I do not have to worry about access to water. I am thinking about putting in another soon. They state the 2-hole model is good up to 160 beef cattle.

http://www.behlencountry.com/asp/catalog.asp?Product=Freedom Fountains&Family=Freedom Fountains

There are lots out there. Go with one which you can gets parts for, service for, and sales location nearby.

 

[dun]

We have one Ritchie, it has a horizontal feed and needs to be cleaned out every couople of days because of the sand in the water that keeps the seal from working. I've tried Hudson, overpriced and genrally a piece of crap. Never have been able to get them to work reliabaly. Have several conrete freezeproofs that use a toilet type of flaot mechanism and shut off valve, never had a problem with them. A neighbor had problems with his becaue a large frog took up residence and would crawl on top of the vloat ball and let it trickle all the time. We have half a dozen Little Giant valves, inexpensive and haven't had a problem with them in 6 years. They only catch is that we had to install a pressure reducer just before the valve. We run around 75 psi from the well head but after it drops a couple of hundred feet, even with the resistence of the water line, the pressure is too high for them to work reliably.

dun

 

[Farmhand]

We use Ritchie waterers for the cattle. Like them real well. Also have the concrete waterers with the toilet float for the hogs. Easy to work on. The problems we have with them are mainly caused by the hogs. They like to fill them with their cornstalk bedding causing them to either not allow water flow or to not shut off. The rods can get bent seems fairly easy. They tend to rust off too after a while. The rubber tips seem to need replacing almost yearly. The fixes are quick and easy just have to keep up on maintance.

 

[bullred]

Thanks for the replies. I'm settng up my new place, which is about 25 minutes from the house. I travel a lot and there will be stretches (2-3 days at a time) when I'm not available to check the herd. So I'm a little leary about having a watering system with a small reservoir, in case it stops working. Having 400-500 gallons of water sitting there gives me a little more piece of mind. So that's probably the way I'll go with a good float system on it.

Thanks,

CJ

 

[bigbull338]

we have used the floatvalve waters for yrs and the tolit float on our water troughs for almost 30yrs and they work good just have to have them protected so the cattle cant tear them up an keep emm working right or you will flood the pasture scott

 

[eric]

On my Little Giant valves, I put a gate valve on the pipe going up to the valve, and I just barely crack it open, just enough to let water trickle out. If for some reason it does stick (hasnt yet), then at least it wont flood the place before I can get to it. I have about 6 waterers in different areas set up this way, and they are usually always full, as they mostly fill up at night. Before that, I was constantly bursting hose fittings / and hoses until I permanently ran PVC pipe to each trough.

I bought some kind of pressure reducer at Home Depot a couple yrs ago, but it didnt reduce the pressure enough to keep from exploding the hoses, thus the underground pvc pipe route was taken. I also put quick realease connectors between the valve and the pipe. Makes for easier removal when I need to clean out the water troughs.

 

[dun]

On my Little Giant valves, I put a gate valve on the pipe going up to the valve, and I just barely crack it open, just enough to let water trickle out. If for some reason it does stick (hasnt yet), then at least it wont flood the place before I can get to it. I have about 6 waterers in different areas set up this way, and they are usually always full, as they mostly fill up at night. Before that, I was constantly bursting hose fittings / and hoses until I permanently ran PVC pipe to each trough.

I bought some kind of pressure reducer at Home Depot a couple yrs ago, but it didnt reduce the pressure enough to keep from exploding the hoses, thus the underground pvc pipe route was taken. I also put quick realease connectors between the valve and the pipe. Makes for easier removal when I need to clean out the water troughs.

I run 4 of the little giant ones off of an 1 1/2 poly pipe above ground with a pressure reducer in the main line at each tank take off. In theory they reduce the pressure to 35 lbs but the valves still leak a little. The one I use to feed the tank is a pretty large sized brass deal with a valve to adjust water pressure. They're pricey, but at the cost of pumping water on the ground from a leaking valve has sure been money well spent. I also use the high pressure hoses used for washing machines rather then the regular garden hose types, seems like those were alwasy either splitting or the fittings would come out.

dun

 

[eric]

I also use the high pressure hoses used for washing machines rather then the regular garden hose types, seems like those were alwasy either splitting or the fittings would come out.

dun


Gee Dun, that piece of information sure would of been helpful, say, about 2 yrs and a dozen waterhoses ago!!

Thats one of my biggest flaws, lack of imagination and the engineering ability to design stuff. I can make almost anything you can draw up or design, I just lack the gene that takes you off the beaten path and forces you to become creative. Heck, I was buying thick rubber air hoses and putting new garden hose fittings on them in order to try and keep the hoses from bursting. Only way I could keep them from bursting when pressure built up was to turn the water flow down so low that the cows would drink the trough dry before it would fill up again. Thats why I have so many troughs on my place.

 

[rapeterson1]

Ritchie also has some valves that can accomodate high or low pressure and if that isn't enough you can get a brass pressure reducer that is used for campers for about $10 at a store that have a bunch of RV supplies and for less than $10 at Wal-Mart. We have one of the newer poly ones. We do have to clean them every couple of days but its so easy and only takes a couple of minutes. We have only had it a couple of months so I haven't had much experience with how it handles during the winter.

 

[rapeterson1]

Another little note, I just looked on the Ritchie website and saw that they are having a photo contest. You can try to win one

 

[Bret]

I have a one hole Ritchie that I mounted on a small two level wedding cake type concrete platform. I also cemented in a simple steel suround that sets just above the Ritchie Waterer so the cattle can't actually rub on the waterer.

I chose the one holer for my small herd to keep things simple and in action through the winter. It is heated.

I keep a replacement part for everything. In three years I have replaced a float once, a plastic valve once and short heat tape that drops down the riser once. Only one freeze up due to the heat tape burning out. I thawed it out with a 1200 watt hair drier in a minute. Replaced the heat tape in a half hour.

I could have replaced the heat tape faster in the summer but they rarely burn out when the weather is in the hight 90's.

On the other hand(no pun intended), I don't get frost bite in the summer either.