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Waterers?

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Juan

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Can someone give the skinny on Mirafount waterers?How low can the temp. go before they freeze?Could the one they call the 150 head model water up to 300 if they just string in from feed?
 
I have used mirafount for a few years. If installed correctly they can take some pretty cold weather. Mine has been down around 0 with no troubles. I think for the north they make a model with an insulated inlet pipe. One note of caution , don't set the float were the balls seal the hole. There is suspose to be a 1/4 gap or so between the balls and the tank. Cows raise their head up and drip water on the ball. That needs to run into the tank not freeze on the ball.
 
We have 10-12 Mirafount waterers and the new ones work very well. We have had -20 degrees and not froze but you need to keep some cattle on there. Any of the 4 hole drinkers will do 300 head if you have enogh flow. We have a 2 hole that waters 250 fine.
When we first put calves on them we take half of the top of and that seems to help them get to drinking.
 
The temperature of the water coming into the waterer makes a big difference. I have an artesian well where the water is 70 degrees that waterer never freezes up if cattle are drinking out of it. I have a different waterer that gets WEB water. That one will freeze up quite often cuz that water is about 38 degrees in the winter time. I installed one mira-fount in the fall of 1986. The plastic is about shot on it now. I am hoping it will make it through another winter before I replace it.
 
Juan, We have about 7 Mirafounts (4 hole) and have never had one freeze. We are in Southwest Missouri. The waters have the plastic inslutube under them and the water line is about 32 inches underground. Red Robin is right, you need to adjust the float so that water can hit the top side of the balls and run back into the tank. In my opinion it is the best automatic waterer on the market if installed correctly.
 
Were in Southern Saskatchewan We got rid of our mirafounts.. Still don't know whats the best but we have a cheaper Canarm that hasn't given us any trouble.
 
BMR, i too have several Canarm waterers and I like them just fine except for one thing. The covers over the floats are not strong enough. When cows are thirsty and competeing for water they will sometimes destroy the covers. They are only held on by 4 small screws and when the covers come off the float and valve is destroyed by thirsty cows and before you find it you have a lake or skating rink. That really p----- me off!
 
I'll second that about the covers on the Canarms! Way too flimsy. But we have three, and they are pretty much trouble free. Bought an Edwards a few years back, haven't had any problems with it, either. Just bought another one to replace an old tired out Ritchie.
 
I have Ritchies, Canarms and Edwards here and I will tell you that I prefer the Canarm. They are trouble free but you have to make sure the cows dont mess around with the lids too much. I had a 2 year old Ritchie that is in the bush now. I HATED it. It was so flimsy that the cows just trashed it and it was destroyed. And Ritchie will NOT stand behind their product. I think it cost me $800 so that works out to $400 per year! I think they are made out of recycled pop tins!! :lol: :lol:
 
Thanks for all the info.
We have been useing Pride-of-The-Farm.They work fairly well but do take a lot of power,also parts are gettig hard to come by.
Tried a Google search for Canarm .Couldn't find it and got sick of looking.Any of you have a link?
 
Juan said:
Thanks for all the info.
We have been useing Pride-of-The-Farm.They work fairly well but do take a lot of power,also parts are gettig hard to come by.
Tried a Google search for Canarm .Couldn't find it and got sick of looking.Any of you have a link?

Juan try www.canarm.com and click on agricultural products....
 
So do you all use the metal waters that have electricity to them or the poly ones with balls like the mirafounts? What didn't you like about the Ritcheys? Has anyone (Pat) used Behlins? They look very similar to the mirafounts and they have a factory here in Baker City.
 
We have a Peterson concrete bowl... it's virtually indestructable. I cursed it for the first four years... it would freeze up underneath where the water supply line comes in. I had extra insulation, and a light bulb plugged in underneath, but, the light bulb would blow if a drip of water got on it, or just blow 'cause it was old. Then, it was a pain to get underneath to thaw out. :x

Last year, I put a flexible line filament heater (don't know if thats what it's called, but Ritchie gives them out with their bowls) around the supply line, and, knock on wood, no trouble last year.

Now that I dared to talk about it though, it'll probably freeze up tomorrow. :shock:
 
We have installed some of the new Ritchies that are plastic with a valve that will let you run a dribble of water at all times so nothing freezes. They do not need electricity, the water movement keeps them open and you can increase the flow during really cold weather. You just need to have an overflow that goes into the ground for the excess. They will have ice on them in the mornings of cold weather but it is easy to push out. We threw out the Mirafounts as they were always freezing up and you had to teach everybody to use them. These Ritchies with the water dribbling attracts animals to them as they hear the water.
 
sw said:
We have installed some of the new Ritchies that are plastic with a valve that will let you run a dribble of water at all times so nothing freezes. They do not need electricity, the water movement keeps them open and you can increase the flow during really cold weather. You just need to have an overflow that goes into the ground for the excess. They will have ice on them in the mornings of cold weather but it is easy to push out. We threw out the Mirafounts as they were always freezing up and you had to teach everybody to use them. These Ritchies with the water dribbling attracts animals to them as they hear the water.
I had the pollytron version of the leak in cold weather variety. I am throwing them out. Always having water pressure problems blowing out the continually leaking gaskets. They worked well for a few years , after that is was replace something all the time. Got sick of the water bill/electric bill . I am no where near as cold as you are but I have never had a mirafount freeze if the balls are loose in the holes.
 
Anyone use the earth moving tires for watering. We bought one but haven't seen it work in real cold weather/
 

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