Springing a Leak

This is the scene that greeted me Saturday morning as I walked out to the barn to milk Rosie and Clarabelle.  All this water was not due to rain.  Not good.

I milked as fast as I could so I could go assess what the problem was.  I began thinking, "Maybe a pipe burst?" or "Maybe the cows hit the valve with their heads, causing the water to continuously flow?"  The water covered the south pasture, flowing south then west, saturating the grass.  From the looks of things, it must have been flowing wide-open all night long.

I turned off the water valve to stop the flow.  As I walked up to the water trough, it became evident what the problem was.  The water valve was firmly in place.  As you can see, the level of the water in the trough was beneath the valve.  This told me all I needed to know.  I know what my problem is.

And there you have it.  Look at the bottom of the water trough.  The trough has sprung leaks, and this has flooded the pasture and made a huge muddy mess.


I'm drawing my line in the sand.  No more Rubbermaid water troughs for us.  This is the second one I've purchased and both of them sprang leaks in roughly the same place.  Rubbermaid is a fine company, and we've used other consumer products that they've manufactured with no issue.  But I will definitely stay away from their water troughs.  I've thrown $89 twice at an inferior product and won't do it again.

For the time being, I'll go back to using some mineral tubs as water troughs.  I will try to rig it up so that it has the water valve attached.  What I've learned in the past is that when the cows drink it down, they'll push the empty tub with their heads and break it.

If I get tired of using these temporary tubs as water troughs and want a more permanent solution, I'll opt for the oval galvanized water troughs.

New Water Trough for the Animals

"Watch the little things.  A small leak will sink a great ship." - Benjamin Franklin

This is my 51st summer.  Although I still feel relatively young, increasingly I'm feeling my limitations.  Things that used to be easy to do, require more effort.  The other day I looked at a photo of a strange guy with gray hair posing for a picture with my wife and kids.  Then I realized it was me!  I'm witnessing the Second Law of Thermodynamics at work.  Things move from a state of order to disorder.  Everything is deteriorating.  Sad!

Our old water trough is not exempt.  We have a 150 gallon water trough that was given to us by a dear friend.  It is quite old, but has served us admirably over the past years.  Oh, it sprang a leak or three, but I patched the cracks with JB Water Weld and the leak sealed up nicely.  You can see the numerous places I've patched it over the years.

We had a hard freeze this winter.  Then as it got warmer, I noticed one day a constant drip, drip drip from the water trough.  It kept the ground muddy around the trough.  As the cows came daily to drink, they would carry off mud in their hooves.  Soon, there was a hole around the trough that collected water and the cycle repeated itself.  This is not good.  Muddy conditions are good spots for bacteria to grow.  I emptied the trough and dried it up and patched it and then refilled with water.  Still leaking!  I drained it again and found two new cracks right at the bottom.

Time for a new trough.  With a water valve on the trough, I figured that I could reduce trough capacity from 150 gallons to 100 gallons and still provide more than enough water for my cows, goats and chickens.  The birds like to fly to the edge and drink.  Sometimes they'll fall in and need rescuing.

I got the new trough at Tractor Supply. It was priced $84.99, but I had a 10% Neighbor's coupon.  Pleased with my savings, I promptly spent a fraction of the savings on an Old Fashioned Coconut Slice Candy bar to enjoy on the way home.  You know the one?  It is pink (strawberry), brown (chocolate), and white (vanilla).

I got the new trough leveled, piped and installed.  I'm hoping to get many years out of it. 

A Casualty to the Freeze

During the latest cold weather that we've been talking about, we've heard about many people that had broken pipes.  We just aren't prepared for that kind of stuff down here.  Fortunately, we didn't have any broken pipes of dead fruit trees.  But we did have problems with our main water trough.  After the freeze, I noticed that the trough was leaking from a place that had previously been patched with an epoxy resin fiberglass repair kit.  But after the freeze, drip, drip, drip...  I assume that the thick ice perhaps stretched the sides of the trough and ruptured the seal of the epoxy resin that had previously held for years.  Suddenly, I had a muddy mess and an empty water trough!

But I think it can be fixed!  I bucketed out the sludge and leaves from the bottom of the trough and moved it into a blue tub and scattered it in the garden.  I cleaned all the algae off of the sides of the trough and let the sides dry.  Here is a close-up of the two places on the outside where the trough was leaking.  I'll  leave that in place.  I'll concentrate on removing the epoxy resin fiberglass patches from the inside of the tank, cleaning the area and then roughing it up with some sandpaper.

Then I'll apply some JB Weld Water Weld.  It costs about $6.50 for a 2 ounce tube.  I have used this before and am sold on the product.  It works!  It is a putty that you simply roll into a ball.  A chemical reaction occurs when the putty on the inside mixes with the outside and then you press the putty over the cracked area that is causing the water leak.  It sets up in 15-20 minutes and then has a 1 hour curing time.  You can see the two areas where I affixed the JB Weld Water Weld.

In about an hour and a half, I began to fill the trough with water.  Time to see if we did any good.

As the water began to fill and cover the places where the trough was leaking, it was time to start checking the exterior for leaks.

When it got completely full, I inspected the area that was previously continuously dripping water.  Not a smidgeon of water!  It was as dry as the Sahara Desert.

I highly recommend JB Weld Water Weld. 

Fixing A Leak in the Water Trough With a New Product (For Us)

The water trough for the cows sits in a corner of the pasture.  A curious thing happens around water troughs.  When it rains or water overflows from the trough, it creates mud around the circumference of the tank.  Over time as cows gather around the tank to drink, mud gets between their hooves and they carry it off where it gets displaced in other areas of the pasture.  As that process repeats itself over the years, a hole or sunken depression is formed around the trough.

Low lying, muddy areas are not good for livestock.  They provide a great environment for bacteria to grow that can weaken or sicken your livestock.  Then, it is just unsightly to have a mud hole in the pasture.  I decided to do something about the eyesore, so I drained out the water trough, cleaned it and moved it out of the way.  Then we pulled in a load of dirt and built up the area, packed the dirt, and moved the water trough back in place and filled it with water.

Upon re-filling the trough, I noticed an issue that requires fixing - several leaks in the bottom.  The drip, drip, dripping over the course of the day was threatening to create another mud hole in the very place I had just fixed.  If you look closely, below you can see the fiberglass patching I used to fix this leak a while back and it lasted for quite a while.  Well, the leak has returned, and I'm assuming that when I emptied the trough and it dried out, the patching on the inside of the tank separated from the cracks it once covered.

Leaking water trough

I drained the water (again) and let the sun dry out the inside.  A quick tug released the fiberglass patching that was on the the inside.

Previous patch

I cleaned up the area where the stress fractures exist in the bottom of the trough. You can see the crack running horizontally where the bottom meets the sides.  I was going to use some more fiberglass patching, but then I remembered an advertisement of a spray on product I saw on TV for patching leaky boats.  It cost $19.99 a can, but after researching, I couldn't get any assurance that it was safe for drinking water.

In looking around, I found a product called WaterWeld, by J-B Weld that seemed perfectly suited for this situation.  In fact, it says on the label below: "Great for Potable Water Tanks."  I've used J-B Weld before (but not WaterWeld) and always thought it was a great product.  I think I paid $5.87 for the 2 ounce package below. 

WaterWeld

Application is simple.  You simply break off the amount that you need and knead it around in your fingers until the color is consistent, mixing the white color with the grey color product that is in the middle of the tube.  It has the consistency of a putty, but it begins to harden after a short while, so once you mix it, you need to be ready to apply it.

Kneading the 'dough'

Then, you just press in the putty, covering the crack, ensuring that the entire area has been coated.  

Applying WaterWeld over the cracks in the trough

The package said the set time is 20 minutes and it cures in an hour.  I performed the fix at around 8 pm at night and I wanted to be doubly sure that it hardened, so I let it cure overnight.  The first thing in the morning, at around 5:45 am, I turned on the hose and refilled the tank.  You can see the white WaterWeld patch at the bottom.

Filling the trough with water

And now for the test to see if the patching stopped the leaks.  I waited for a full day after filling the trough with water.  Annndddd....  No leaks!! Where the water was dripping from the bottom onto the wood prior to patching, now there are no more leaks.

The patching held

So far patching the leaking water trough with J-B Weld WaterWeld seems like a great success.  Only time will tell if it will hold for the duration, but the application was easy, quick, and put an end to the leaky trough.