Auto Filling Water Bowls to Replace Automatic Waterers

[TMTex]

(Added wordy stuff - The author has placed this work in the Public Domain, thereby relinquishing all copyrights. Everyone is free to use, modify, republish, sell or give away this work without prior consent from anybody.

This documentation is provided on an “as is” basis, without warranty of any kind. Under no circumstances shall the author(s) or contributor(s) be liable for damages resulting directly or indirectly from the use or non-use of this documentation.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have some automatic waterers that my rabbits don't seem to understand. They're similar to this...

They're attached to a 5 gallon bucket on a shelf via 5/16" hose.

They don't appear to be using the auto waterers. I still have the water bottles in their cages to make sure they get water in this heat.


So, I modified part of the auto waterer to fill bowls instead of supply water to the nipples.


I got a float valve from Tractor Supply...

Put it into a small Igloo cooler from Walmart...

I drilled holes on the sides toward the top and bottom and put small PVC tubes in them. The top one fills the cooler from the existing 5 gallon bucket via the float valve and the bottom one supplies water to bowls I bought from Dollar Tree.

I drilled holes in the bowls and glued cut pieces of the original Tees from the auto waterer to them. The original 5/16" hose is attached to them.

The bowls are attached to the cages with hose clamps.


Everything is glued together with Water Weld.

It took some time to get the levels right. The bowls needed to be at the same height as each other and the top of the water line in the cooler (with the float valve satisfied) had to match the top of the water line in the bowls.

I only did this to two of the hutches as a test, but my Cali doe was drinking from hers before I had the thing set up. I'll check the levels and such when I get back home. I'm hopeful that it'll be a success.

 

[Frecs]

Okay, once you have this worked out with yours...can you come and do the same for mine?

 

[zee]

Please show us the pics of your setup!! Sounds great.

 

[Mountain Spice]

You are a modern day MacGyver!! Please post pics for us to envy!!

 

[skysthelimit]

Water weld, hmm, my buckets drip continuously, I need to find that stuff.

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

Yes, pictures and details of how this is set up would be great, auto-filling bowls would be EPIC for me because some of my rabbits cannot seem to learn bottles or auto-water systems. One rabbit flips a crock and spills their water on a hot day when I'm not on hand to set things right could spell disaster!!!

 

[TMTex]

Here's some pics of the auto filling bowls thingy...


The Float Valve mounted in the cooler.




The Cooler mounted on the fencing. The pipe on the top left supplies the Float Valve and the pipe on the bottom right supplies the bowls.




One of the bowls mounted on a hutch.




This is the Bowl from above and inside the hutch. I don't know if you can tell, but it's full of water.




This is the basic setup.




The overall view. The bucket is insulated with foam insulation and HVAC tape. I also used HVAC tape on the roofs of the hutches to reflect heat away and waterproof the wood. It works better than shingles.

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

.......I have to confess I'm not sure how it works. :shock:

 

[zee]

LOOKS GREAT!

 

[TMTex]

.......I have to confess I'm not sure how it works. :shock:

Water always seeks equilibrium, so when you have a tube of water shaped in a U, the level will equalize on both sides. The same happens with two or more connected vessels, as long as the connection is below the water line.



The cooler is fed by the 5 gallon bucket, which is raised above everything else. That gives a little pressure so the cooler fills from the bucket and not the bowls. The cooler, in turn, fills the bowls.





When a rabbit drinks from a bowl, the water level in that bowl drops and water from the cooler and other bowls will feed toward it. Again, since the cooler has water being fed to it, the water should flow faster and keep the rest of the bowls from emptying.





When the float valve is satisfied and the bowls are full, everything levels off.

 

[Marinea]

You have a feed line feeding the bucket. How does that work? And would it work if I just manually filled the bucket?

*thanks TMTex for another great idea...hubby is grumbling, so it must be a good one *

 

[TMTex]

I manually fill the bucket for now, so sure, it would work fine if you did it too. I bought a second float valve to automatically fill it, but that hasn't been put in yet.

The second line on the left side of the bucket is a 5/16 hose that feeds the other hutches. They still have the auto watering nipples that only one rabbit uses. They'll be replaced with the water bowls.

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

Ah, thank you so much for explaining, I think I've "got" it!!! Alas I realize it might not work for me, all my cages are stacked.

 

[TMTex]

Ah, thank you so much for explaining, I think I've "got" it!!! Alas I realize it might not work for me, all my cages are stacked.

It would work for stacked cages, but you'd need one cooler with the float valve for each level. Two or more coolers can be fed from the same bucket though.

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

Ah, thank you so much for explaining, I think I've "got" it!!! Alas I realize it might not work for me, all my cages are stacked.

It would work for stacked cages, but you'd need one cooler with the float valve for each level. Two or more coolers can be fed from the same bucket though.

Really? Cool!!! Could I use a small cooler or something similar? Does it HAVE to be big?

 

[Miss M]

This is very neat! Love it!

 

[TMTex]

Thanks, Miss M!

Could I use a small cooler or something similar? Does it HAVE to be big?

You can use small coolers, in fact, I used the small Igloo Island Breeze 9 Quart cooler from Walmart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Igloo-Island- ... r/16437959

It's a typical lunchbox size. If you find something smaller, it'll work as long as the float valve fits. There are tiny float valves out there that would fit in something about half a shoebox in size. I did this setup because it was cheaper.

 

[Frecs]

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!

 

[PrairieBelle]

"When a rabbit drinks from a bowl, the water level in that bowl drops and water from the cooler and other bowls will feed toward it. Again, since the cooler has water being fed to it, the water should flow faster and keep the rest of the bowls from emptying. "
I have a question about this.
Are you saying that the water from all the rabbits bowls up line from a certain bowl can send some of their water to that next bowl?
Have you had any disease spreading problems from that? (Not saying your rabbits are not healthy, just wondering if one should get sick, could they spread the germs through the water bowls? Or is it the same risk as using a standard tubing watering system?

 

[TMTex]

I have a question about this.
Are you saying that the water from all the rabbits bowls up line from a certain bowl can send some of their water to that next bowl?
Have you had any disease spreading problems from that? (Not saying your rabbits are not healthy, just wondering if one should get sick, could they spread the germs through the water bowls? Or is it the same risk as using a standard tubing watering system?

I suppose there could be some risk of disease spread since the water can exchange. I haven't had that problem, but none of my rabbits are showing any signs of disease. The risk would probably be greater than a standard water tubing system.

A problem that has crept up for me has been ground shifting. The ground here is a kind of black clay that shifts during wet and dry periods. The height and angle of the fence that holds the float valve changes and the height of the rabbit hutches changes too. I now have one bowl that fills ok, but the others are dry. Luckily, the one that still works is the growout hutch.

I've gone back to water bottles for now, but have come up with another plan. I'm only doing this because my rabbits refuse to learn to use the auto water nipples. If you have good luck with them, I'd strongly suggest sticking with what works.

I'll start another thread if the new idea works and will include drawings and pics. Fingers crossed.