Auto water pressure regulator

[azmodane]

I am interested in possibly switching from the Gravity fed water system to a pressure regulated one. I have my rats in a detached garage. My main concern (past it now really) is in the winter time I have to carry buckets of water from inside the house to the garage. Making the trip a few times sucks even if it is only once a week. My thought was if I used a pressure regulated system and enough water was used I could keep my hose on and with a little flow would keep the line hose from freezing. Is this a possibility or am I just dreaming? If it is possible any clue how many tubs it would take to use enough water to keep the lines from freezing?

[VicShell]

I wouldn't recommend a pressure system if a h2o valve gets stuck you can drown them all not to mention a huge cleanup i use a hose to fill my buckets works great. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[azmodane]

Only problem with a hose is winter time when I have to fill I could use the hose, then after i'm done, all the water remaining in the hose would then freeze and I can't use again unless I drain the hose after every use.

[VicShell]

Mine stays in my rat room hooked up but i drain it into the buckets after i fill it to avoid any water leakage. For the extra hassle i would just empty the hose afterwards. It sure beats carrying a bucket full.

[azmodane]

It's just a pipe dream then... Well it looks like I'll be either lugging buckets next year or draining the hose after every use, lol.

[ClarkT]

You would have to maintain about 1-3 gallons per minute, depending on how cold the temp is, in order to not freeze the water. We get down to -30 deg. F. regularly (except this winter). Maybe if you're only getting down to +30 deg. F, it would be far less.

For rodents to drink that much, though, you're talking about LOTS of tubs. I don't know how many rats it takes to even get through 1 gallon per day, but with 2 gallons per minute, that's 2,880 gallons per day.

Quite a few tubs needed at that many gallons.